Father Pitt

Tag: Florida Avenue (Mount Lebanon)

  • Some Houses on Florida Avenue, Mount Lebanon

    941 Florida Avenue

    Florida Avenue runs parallel to Washington Road, the main spine street of Mount Lebanon. The part behind the Uptown business district has a mixture of apartment building from small to large, double houses, and single-family homes, all assorted randomly. The next block to the south is mostly single-family homes in the wide range of styles typical of the Mount Lebanon Historic District. We have already seen some of the apartment buildings; here are some of the single and double houses.

    931
    929
    929

    This eclectic house in the fairy-tale style sits on a corner and presents quite different faces to the two streets. Above, a lavishly asymmetrical Tudor face on one side; below, the very symmetrical French-country-house face around the corner.

    929
    903
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.
    690 and 692 Florida Avenue

    A twin house, with two houses side by side that are identical except for being mirror images.

    694 and 696 Florida Avenue
    Kodak EasyShare Z1285,

    A double house where the two units are deliberately made different, so that at first glance it appears to be a single larger house.

  • Washington Square Condominiums, Mount Lebanon

    Florida Avenue side of the Washington Square Condominiums
    Composite of six photographs from a Kodak EasyShare Z1285.

    Only because no one else would do it, here is a composite picture of the entire Florida Avenue face of this high-rise apartment block. In the fifteen minutes he devoted to the search, old Pa Pitt was not able to find evidence of the architect; but it has Tasso Katselas written all over it. (Update: Father Pitt confirmed this attribution by asking the architect himself, which is almost like cheating. Mr. Katselas tells us that it was a difficult project because the budget was very tight.)

    We also have pictures of the Washington Road side of Washington Square.

  • Two Moderne Apartment Buildings in Mount Lebanon

    666 Florida Avenue

    On Florida Avenue, a street that runs behind the Uptown business district in Mount Lebanon, two apartment buildings in a toned-down version of Moderne streamlining face each other. The most striking feature of number 666 is the stairwell set into a tall groove with a two-floor window of glass blocks.

    666 Florida Avenue

    The decorative brickwork at the corners suggests quoins, but in a modernistic manner.

    Entrance to 666
    667 Florida Avenue

    Across the street is a pair of identical buildings with less streamlining and no abstract quoins.

    Entrance to 667

    Both buildings would probably have had windows with more character when they were new.

    667

    Cameras: Fujifilm FinePix HS10; Kodak EasyShare Z1285.

  • Shirley and Neighbor, Mount Lebanon

    Shirley and Her Neighbor

    Here we have two apartment buildings on more or less the same plan, but differing in their details.

    Shirley inscription
    Shirley apartments

    The Shirley has two immediately striking features. First, the broad round arch at the entrance:

    Entrance to the Shirley

    Second, the two-storey window (interrupted by inscription) in the stairwell, which also terminates with an arch.

    Windows of the stairwell

    Its neighbor (originally named Harmon: see below) uses contrasts in color to create a striking appearance.

    680 Florida Avenue
    680 Florida Avenue

    The entrance is more classical, and instead of one tall window, the stairwell has two arched windows filled with colorful art glass.

    Window with art glass

    Addendum: A 1934 plat map shows that the building on the left was originally called “Harmon.”