Tag: Gothic Architecture

  • St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Brookline

    St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church

    In honor of Reformation Day, here is a Lutheran church. O. M. Topp, for a generation the favorite choice of Lutherans, designed this neat Gothic church, which was built in 1929, as we see from the cornerstone.1 But, oddly, the cornerstone says that the church is the Sunday school.

    Cornerstone with date of 1929

    That’s because things didn’t go exactly as planned. This was meant to become the Sunday-school wing, temporarily serving as the sanctuary until the much larger church was built. But then the Depression came, and then the war, and the big church was never built. Instead, when the congregation was finally ready to expand in 1960, it was decided to keep this building as the sanctuary, and a large modern Sunday-school wing was built beside it.

    St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church

    The architect’s drawing shows us that nothing on the outside has changed except for the encrustation of newer building to the left.

    “New Church Planned in Brookline,” Pittsburgh Press, April 6, 1929, p. 28.
    St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church
    Entrance
    Ornament
    Cross
    Lantern
    Sunday-school wing and main sanctuary

    The Sunday-school wing is in a very different style, but tall Gothic arches are meant to tie it to the earlier building.

    Sunday-school wing
    St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church
    Kodak EasyShare Max Z990; Fujifilm FinePix HS20 EXR.

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  • South Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, Wilkinsburg

    South Avenue United Methodist Church

    Wilkinsburg’s own Milligan & Miller designed this rambling Gothic church, which is still in use by its original congregation, now South Avenue United Methodist. “One of the most important additions to the structural beauty of the place,” said a 1907 Pittsburg Press feature on Wilkinsburg,1 “will be the new South Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, which is to replace the old burned down last February. It is to cost $125,000 and will be one of the finest church buildings in the community. The construction is under the charge of Architects Milligan & Miller, who designed the plans.”

    South Avenue United Methodist Church
    Entrance
    Lantern

    Impressive stone lanterns flank the front steps.

    Cloister
    Olympus E-20N; Nikon COOLPIX P100.

    An arcaded porch after the manner of a medieval cloister runs along the side.

    1. “Old Town of Aspect All Modern,” Press, July 14, 1907. ↩︎

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  • At the Top of the Union Trust Building

    Top of the Union Trust Building
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

    Urban legend says that these structures are chapels where the privileged can repent of their sins, but in fact they house the elevator mechanics and other rooftop necessities.


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  • Second Presbyterian Church, Wilkinsburg

    Second Presbyterian Church

    This fine corner-tower church, whose cornerstone was laid in 1911, was designed by O. M. Topp and Charles M. Hutchison.1 The plan was probably made in 1906, when a small chapel was put up with the intention of building the larger church when there was enough money. This is one of the very rare cases, incidentally, where the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation is wrong. The PHLF plaque has the church designed by F. Hoffman & Co.; but F. Hoffman & Co., was a Wilkinsburg contractor (probably the one that got the contract for the building), not an architectural firm.

    The congregation is gone, but some attempt is being made to restore the building as a Center for Civic Arts. Old Pa Pitt wishes the Center good fortune, because this fine building deserves to have a future, and Wilkinsburg deserves art. As we can see from this old postcard from the Presbyterian Historical Society collection, the building has hardly been altered at all:

    Old postcard of the church

    The congregation prospered, and in 1928 a large educational wing was built—now abandoned and in bad shape. The architect was Lawrence Wolfe, with O. M. Topp—by then one of the grand old men of Pittsburgh architecture—listed as “associate architect.”2

    Educational wing
    Shield with open book
    Crossed keys
    Educational wing
    Olympus E-20N; Nikon COOLPIX P100.

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  • Oakdale United Presbyterian Church

    Oakdale United Presbyterian Church

    A church in a typical Pittsburgh interpretation of Perpendicular Gothic. The stubby battlemented towers make it look like a chapel built into the wall of a castle; we would guess that the larger one was meant to hold up a spire. The white Kittanning brick gives some of the effect of stone without the expense of stone.

    Entrance
    Oakdale United Presbyterian Church
    Oakdale United Presbyterian Church

    Addendum: The architect was John A. Long; the church was built in about 1911.1

    Oakdale United Presbyterian Church
    Olympus E-20N; Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

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  • Grant Street Entrance to the Union Trust Building

  • Apartment Entrances on Bayard Street, Oakland

    Entrance to the Adrian

    Designers of apartment buildings often put a lot of effort into the entrances, because the entrance is what sells the idea of the building. You are, after all, trying to make prospective tenants think this is where they want to live. You will walk through these doors, a good entrance says, and you will feel like a duke walking into his palace. In one short stretch of Bayard Street this morning, we collected several artistic entrances, beginning with the Adrian above, at which no duke would turn up his nose.

    Entrance to the Aberdeen

    The Aberdeen is almost as splendid, an effect slightly diminished by installing stock doors at the entrance and balcony.

    Entrance to the old King Edward

    There are two King Edward Apartments (plus an annex around the corner); this is the older of the two.

    Entrance to the second King Edward

    The later King Edward is covered with terra cotta, and its bronze doors are themselves works of art.

    Entrance to the second King Edward
    Entrance to Bayard Manor

    Bayard Manor has the kind of late-Gothic entrance that would make you feel you had done your best if you were expecting a visit from Queen Elizabeth I.

    Entrance to Bayard Manor
    Entrance to the D’Arlington

    The D’Arlington is an interesting combination of classical and Prairie Style, with both baroque and abstractly geometric ornaments coexisting comfortably at the entrance.

    Entrance to the D’Arlington
    Entrance to the D’Arlington
    Decorations at the entrance to the D’Arlington
    Entrance to Bayard Mansions
    Kodak EasyShare Z981.

    Finally, a later building that does not quite succeed in competing with its neighbors, but still provides a respectable-looking entry.


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  • Spire of Calvary Episcopal Church, Shadyside

  • Mount Lebanon Baptist Church, Dormont

    Tower and spire

    Mount Lebanon Baptist Church has been without a congregation since 2013, but it is kept up, and we hope it has or finds a sympathetic owner. In spite of the name, the church is in Dormont, which was in the “Mount Lebanon district” until it became a separate borough.

    Mount Lebanon Baptist Church
    Cornerstone with dates 1911 and 1930

    The church was put up in 1930; the architects were Lawrence Wolfe (the middle term in a dynasty of Wolfes who were in the architecture business for more than a century) in association with Smith & Reif.

    Mount Lebanon Baptist Church
    Entrance and tower
    Entrance and window
    False pulpit

    This decoration seems to be meant to represent an outdoor pulpit of the sort that was popular in medieval times. It is not functional, or at least not easily used, but it does send the message that the minister could step out here and denounce the whole borough if it became necessary.

    Entrance
    Door pulls and locks

    For hardware connoisseurs, here are some very elegant door pulls and locks.

    Door pulls
    Lantern
    Shield
    Vine decoration

    Grape vines in Gothic style make up most of the carved decoration.

    Vine ornament
    Address and office plaque
    Office sign
    Gable with quatrefoil window
    Tower decorations
    Olympus E-20N; Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

    Some of the decorations verge on an Art Deco interpretation of Gothic.

    We have more pictures of Mount Lebanon Baptist Church in different lighting at a different season.


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  • St. Patrick’s Church and Cemetery, Noblestown

    West front of St. Patrick’s Church

    According to the parish history at the diocesan site, this church was built in 1900, after previous buildings had been destroyed by fire twice in the 1890s. In old Pa Pitt’s opinion, the black tinted window coverings do the church no favors, but no one asked him.

    St. Patrick’s Church
    St. Patrick’s Church
    St. Patrick’s Church
    St. Patrick’s Cemetery gate

    Behind the church is a cemetery remarkable for its precipitous slope, which makes it necessary for some plots to be terraced.

    Cemetery slope
    Cemetery with terraced plots
    Olympus E-20N; Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

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