Father Pitt

Tag: Doric

  • Larimer School

    Larimer School

    For forty years this school stood abandoned and rotting. The main building, put up in 1896, was designed by Ulysses J. Lincoln Peoples, who also designed an addition in 1904 for the rapidly growing neighborhood. An auditorium-gymnasium addition was designed by George M. Rowland in 1931. The school closed in 1980, and then it just sat while the neighborhood crumbled around it.

    Photo by Lee Paxton, 2011
    Photo by Leepaxton at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

    This is how the school looked in 2011, when the indefatigable Lee Paxton, who photographed nearly every Pittsburgh landmark for Wikipedia, stopped to snap its picture. But look at that same Larimer Avenue façade today:

    Larimer Avenue façade

    Doesn’t that make you happy?

    Sign for Ora Lee Carroll House at Cornerstone Village

    The restoration was done as part of the huge Cornerstone Village housing development, a mixed-housing community that has brought attractive new housing to long-neglected Larimer. All the beautiful details that Mr. Peoples, Mr. Rowland, and dozens of nameless craftsmen left for us have been scrupulously preserved, cleaned, and made to look almost new.

    Larimer Avenue end

    This is the Larimer Avenue end of the building, which has a grand entrance—but not the grandest entrance.

    Larimer Avenue entrance
    Larimer Avenue entrance
    Larimer Avenue façade

    Around the corner on Winslow Street is the original main entrance to the 1896 building.

    Winslow Street entrance
    Winslow Street entrance

    But even this is not the grandest entrance.

    1904 addition

    In 1904, an addition was built to the southeast of the main building. A new entrance was built linking the main building to the addition, and this is the grandest entrance.

    Entrance
    Entrance
    Balcony above the entrance

    When he was heading for Larimer, old Pa Pitt somehow walked out of the house without any long lenses. He will have to return soon to pick out those very amusing bracket heads, which he suspects were done by the same sculptor who did the whimsical decorations for the Western Theological Seminary. But the picture above is 20 megapixels, so if you enlarge it you will see a fair amount of detail. You will also see raindrops, because it was raining by the time Father Pitt got to the school, but he was not going to let mere weather deter him.

    Tympanum

    The child on the right is regrettably not the first or last to have lost his head when he went to school.

    Auditorium

    In 1931, an auditorium and gymnasium addition was designed by George M. Rowland. By that time styles had changed considerably. Rowland stuck to the classical idiom, but chose the simpler Doric order rather than the more florid Ionic and Corinthian of the original school and addition, and flavored the front with a dash of Art Deco.

    Front of the auditorium
    Sony Alpha 3000, Sony Cyber-shot DSC-S9.
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  • SS. Peter and Paul Greek Catholic Church, Braddock

    SS. Peter and Paul Church

    This grand Byzantine church, built in 1923, is set on a steep slope on an implausibly tiny street. Its congregation is still going: for cultural and administrative reasons, Eastern churches tend to continue long after their Western neighbors have thrown in the towel. The church itself was modeled after the Cathedral of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Uzhhorod, Ukraine, which also served as the model for St. John the Baptist in Munhall; but the architect of this one, W. Ward Williams,1 took his model more literally than Titus de Bobula did. Curiously enough the church in Ukraine has the same kind of slope to deal with, as we see in this picture by Raimond Spekking:

    Cathedral of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, by Raimond Spekking
    © Raimond Spekking / CC BY-SA 4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)
    Cornerstone with dates of 1896 and 1923
    Pediment

    The pediment is strictly classical, Doric rather than the Corinthian of its model, with the inscription “Russian Greek Catholic Church of SS. Peter and Paul.”

    Tower
    SS. Peter and Paul Church
    1. Source: Proposals, Pittsburg Press, May 26, 1922, p. 38. “Proposals are invited from building contractors for the erection of a fireproof church building to be erected for SS. Peter and Paul Greek Catholic church. George st., Braddock, Pa. Bids are to be made on forms as furnished by the Architect, W. Ward Williams…” In the original version of the article, we did not know the architect, but a lucky item buried in a correspondence from David Schwing sent us on a long chase, and we finally cornered Mr. Williams. ↩︎

  • Beaux-Arts Terrace in Sheraden

    3118–3112 Bergman Street

    Thomas Scott designed this terrace of four houses, built in 1912,1 and they are kept in remarkably fine shape. The updates have been handled with taste and an understanding of the original style, so that today there is hardly a finer Beaux-Arts terrace of cheap little rowhouses in the city. We have talked before about the challenge of making inexpensive housing seem attractive; it was a challenge that Scott met and conquered.

    3116 and 3114
    Front door

    The doors of the two end units are framed in scrupulously proper Doric fashion.

    Sawed-off Moravian arch

    The two inner units have these unique sawed-off arches over their front doors.

    3118–3112
    Kodak EasyShare Z981.
    1. Source: The Construction Record, December 2, 1911: “Architect T. M. Scott, Machesney building, has completed plans for four 2-story brick residences, to be erected on Bergman street, Sheraden, for W. McCausland, 3022 Zephyr avenue, Sheridan. Cost $15,000.” McCausland still owned them in 1923, according to plat maps. ↩︎
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  • Wilkinsburg Bank

    Wilkinsburg Bank

    One of the most imposing-looking banks in the whole Pittsburgh area, this expensive—we had almost said egregiously expensive—Doric pile seems not to be occupied at the moment, but it is in beautiful shape externally. It was still in use as a bank until about six years ago, so it is fully accessible and waiting for the next tenant who needs a building that will knock people’s socks off.

    Wilkinsburg Bank

    Addendum: The architects were Mowbray & Uffinger of New York, specialists in banks, who also designed the Peoples Building in McKeesport.1

    Fluted pilasters
    Nikon COOLPIX P100; Olympus E-20N.
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  • Irene Kaufmann Settlement Auditorium, Hill District

    Irene Kaufmann Settlement

    Edward Stotz was the architect of this auditorium, built in 1928. It was the centerpiece of the Irene Kaufmann Settlement, which was founded by the Kaufmanns of Kaufmann’s department store to memorialize a daughter who died young; its purpose was to serve the poor immigrants of the Hill.

    Irene Kaufmann Settlement
    Inscription: “Irene Kaufmann Settlement”
    Entrance
    Irene Kaufmann Settlement
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  • Old Coraopolis Municipal Building

    Inscription: Municipal Building

    Shoved against the hillside in Coraopolis, the old borough municipal building gains a floor’s worth of height from back to front. It had all the borough government services under one roof, including the police and fire departments. It now belongs to “Fabricator’s Forge,” a hobby and gaming emporium.

    Old Coraopolis Municipal Building
    Entrance
    Scallop frieze
    Roof ornament
    Entrance decorations from the side
    Perspective view
    Ghost sign: “Police Dept.”
    Fire-department end
    Coraopolis Fire Department
    Fire lantern
    Coraopolis Fire Department
    Fire tower on the old Coraopolis Municipal Building

    The Art Deco tiles on the fire tower make us suspect it was built or rebuilt later than the rest of the building.

    Fire tower

    Cameras: Kodak EasyShare Z981; Kodak EasyShare Z1285; Fujifilm PinePix HS10.

  • Back Corner of Soldiers and Sailors Hall

    Soldiers and Sailors Hall from O’Hara Street and University Place

    Seen from the corner of O’Hara Street and University Place.

  • The Peoples Building, McKeesport

    Peoples Building

    The richly detailed Peoples Building deserves owners and tenants who will love it, and we hope it can find them. It has at least been stabilized by its current owner, and it looks like an attractive place to have an office.

    Walnut Street entrance

    These entrances want clocks, but the elegance of the gleaming white stone is unimpaired.

    Roof ornament

    This classical roof ornament was clearly meant to be right in the middle of the Fifth Avenue side, but it appears that the building was expanded by two more bays not long after it was built.

    The McKeesport Community Newsroom site gives us A Peek Inside the Peoples Building, showing us a wonderful time capsule that it would almost be a shame to disturb. If old Pa Pitt were a billionaire, he would buy the building, preserve all the contents as they are, and call it a museum, and then not care whether anyone actually paid the 50¢ admission fee, because he would be a billionaire.

    Addendum: The architects were Mowbray & Uffinger, New York specialists in bank buildings.

  • Soldiers and Sailors Hall, Oakland

    Corner view of Soldiers and Sailors Hall
    Long vista
    Closer view of the front
    Entrance to Soldiers and Sailors Hall

  • The Colonnade, Oakland

    The Colonnade

    This small apartment building on Centre Avenue is named for its most obvious and distinctive feature: a two-storey Doric colonnade that has just been freshly painted.

    Addendum: According to the city architectural inventory (PDF), the Colonnade was built in 1907.

    Corner view