Father Pitt

Tag: Gothic Architecture

  • Galliot Center for Newman Studies

    Clock tower

    David J. Vater designed this distinctive Gothic building, built in 2007 from modern materials in a style we might call “postmodern Gothic.” It’s the home of the National Institute for Newman Studies, one of those fascinating cultural treasures few Pittsburghers even know about. The Institute is devoted to the study of the works and teachings of John Henry Newman (1801–1890), an English convert to Roman Catholicism who rose to become a cardinal in the Catholic Church. In 2019, Newman was canonized as a Catholic saint, and just three months ago (on November 1, 2025) he was declared a Doctor of the Church, one of only 38 people so far whose teachings are regarded as so extraordinarily important that they merit that title.

    Galliot Center for Newman Studies
    Entrance
    Arms of Cardinal Newman

    The arms of Cardinal Newman, with his motto: Cor ad cor loquitur—“Heart speaks to heart.”

    Porch
    Kodak EasyShare Max Z990; Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
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  • Mount Lebanon Presbyterian Church

    Kodak EasyShare Max Z990.

    A view with a long lens from about three-quarters of a mile away.

  • First Baptist Church, Oakland

    First Baptist Church
    Kodak EasyShare Max Z990.

    We also have a picture from the same angle in the summer, and pictures of the interior at night.

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  • Knoxville Christian Church

    Knoxville Christian Church

    Knoxville’s own Edwin V. Denick was the architect of this half-shingled corner-tower church,1 currently abandoned. Since it sits right next to the Knoxville Presbyterian Church that burned last month, and since it has been boarded up by the city, we have to assume that it could vanish at any time, so here are a few pictures to document it before it goes. We’ll put it it the Endangered category on our scale of Least Concern, Near Threatened, Vulnerable, Endangered, Critically Endangered, and Demolished.

    Tower
    Side entrances
    Side entrance
    Knoxville Christian Church
    Kodak EasyShare Max Z990.

    In the gables that face the street, the shingles have been replaced with artificial siding; but we can still see them on this gable in the back of the building.

    1. Source: Pittsburg Press, May 26, 1904, p. 2. “Foundations have been started on the buff brick stone and terra cotta church being built on Charles and Knox avenues, Knoxville, for the Knoxville Christian congregation from plans drawn by Architect E. V. Denick.” ↩︎

  • First English Evangelical Lutheran Church

    First English Evangelical Lutheran Church, Pittsburgh
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.

    Andrew Peebles, who also designed St. Peter’s on the North Side, designed this church, which was quite large when it was built but looks like a toy next to the skyscrapers of Grant Street. Built in 1887, it is now the oldest building on the street.

    More pictures of First Lutheran.

  • St. Walburga’s Church, Lincoln–Lemington–Belmar

    St. Walburga’s Church, now Cornerstone Baptist Church

    You never know what you might find when you go trawling in the depths of the archives. These pictures were taken in September of 2014, but old Pa Pitt never published them. Why not? His memory is vague, but he suspects it was because he was planning to publish them when he worked out the history of the building, and he never did work it out. Finding the pictures by random luck the other day stimulated him to finish the job, and here they are.

    The tower with dome

    St. Walburga’s was a German parish founded in 1903—the last ethnic German parish founded in the city of Pittsburgh. The cornerstone of this building was laid in April of 1927; the building was dedicated a year later in April of 1928. The architects were the Cleveland firm of Potter & Gabele & Co., and if Father Pitt told you how much time he spent trying to find that information before finally locating it in the Pittsburgh Catholic for April 19, 1928, you would wonder a little about whether he should be regarded as competent to manage his own life.

    St. Walburga’s in 1928
    The church at its dedication, from the Pittsburgh Catholic, April 19, 1928, p. 3. Almost nothing has changed externally.

    J. Ellsworth Potter was a successful architect who designed churches in traditional styles until his death in 1958. Henry Charles Gabele was associated with Potter until 1932, but after that seems to have fizzled out as an architect (see a brief notice in this PDF Cleveland Architects Database).

    Tower

    St. Walburga’s parish was suppressed in 1966, a victim of postwar demographic change. Today the building belongs to the Cornerstone Baptist Church, whose congregation obviously treasures it and keeps it in beautiful shape.

    West front
    St. Walburga’s Church
    Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3; Kodak EasyShare Z1485.
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  • Fire at Knoxville Presbyterian Church

    Knoxville Presbyterian Church

    Three and a half years ago, old Pa Pitt visited this church to take pictures of the exterior. It was not in use then, although the grounds were maintained. Neighbors reported hearing a smoke detector’s low-battery signal for quite a while. Two days ago, a commenter alerted Father Pitt that a fire had seriously damaged the building.

    We’ll put the rest of the large number of pictures we took today behind a link, so that the sad evidence of the conflagration will not be the dominant impression in visitors’ minds for the next week and a half. Furthermore, we promise to balance this article soon with some very cheerful news from the Hilltop neighborhoods.

    More pictures of the church after the fire.

  • Union Trust Building

    Corner of the Union Trust Building

    A few details of the Union Trust Building, designed by Pierre A. Liesch when he was working for Frederick Osterling—at least according to Liesch; the building is usually just credited to Osterling.

    Windows of the Union Trust Building
    Roof of the Union Trust Building
    Union Trust Building
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
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  • Spencer Methodist Episcopal Church, Carrick

    Spencer Methodist Episcopal Church (now Spencer United Methodist Church)

    Now Spencer United Methodist. Charles W. Bier was the architect of this church,1 which opened in 1925. It sits on a steeply sloping lot at the southern end of Carrick, so that—like many Pittsburgh churches—it has ground-level entrances on two ground levels.

    Spencer Methodist Episcopal Church (now Spencer United Methodist Church)
    Tower

    An open belfry becomes a nuisance to maintain, and when the bells are silenced—as they have been in most of our churches—the belfry is often filled in.

    Basement entrance
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
    1. The American Contractor, April 14, 1923: “Carrick, Pa.—Church:$100,000. 1 sty. 100×72. Church st. & Spencer av., Carrick. Archt. Chas. W. Bier, Pittsburgh Life bldg., Pittsburgh, Pa. Owner The Spencer M. E. Congr., Spv. Gilbert G. Gallagher, 117 Spencer av., Carrick. Solid brk. Drawing prelim. plans.” The church as built does not seem like a $100,000 church. But the dimensions and estimate went up: November 3, 1923: “Church: $140,000. 1 sty. & bas. 75×143. Church st. & Spencer av., Garrick [sic]. Archt. Chas. W. Bier, Pittsburgh Life bldg., Pittsburgh, Pa. Owner The Spencer M. E. Congr., Rev. Gilbert G. Gallagher, 117 Spencer av., Garrick. Revising plans.” The current church looks like Bier’s work; we can only guess that the ambitious plans were scaled back a bit before construction began. ↩︎
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  • First Hungarian Lutheran Church of Pittsburgh, Hazelwood

    First Hungarian Lutheran Church of Pittsburgh

    Hazelwood was a famously Hungarian neighborhood, and several kinds of Hungarian churches sprouted there. The cornerstone of this church was laid one hundred years ago today on December 20, 1925, but it’s not much different in front from the vernacular Gothic churches of half a century earlier.

    Cornerstone with date of 1925 and the name of Rev. S. Ruzsa

    If we walk around the side of this church, though, we see what is really unusual about it: it grows out of a big old Italianate house built in the 1870s.

    First Hungarian Lutheran Church

    The new building was dedicated on May 16, 1926.

    Church and house
    Entrance

    The congregation is long gone, but the church now belongs to an organization called “Center of Life.”

    Cornice brackets

    The old house has some very fine woodwork, which we hope can be preserved.

    Former door
    Collapsed stained glass
    Kodak EasyShare Max Z990.

    Some of the stained glass has fallen to pieces. It is expensive to restore stained glass, but the Union Project in Highland Park made restoring stained glass a community-education project, with spectacular results.

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