Heinz Chapel, built over five years from 1933 to 1938, is one of the complex of three great Charles Z. Klauder buildings at the center of the University of Pittsburgh, along with the Cathedral of Learning and the Stephen Foster Memorial. A while ago old Pa Pitt picked out some of the details with a long lens.
The decorations include the arms of various colleges and universities.
A church crammed into a tiny lot, so that it is as tall as it is long. This is one of the many city churches with the main worship space upstairs, the ground floor being devoted to Sunday-school rooms and offices.
The architect was Edward M. Butz, most famous today for the colossal Western Penitentiary.1 The construction was begun in 1894, but the church was built in two stages: at first only the ground floor was put up, with a temporary roof.
This was designed as a large open space that, when the main sanctuary was built above it, could be converted to Sunday-school rooms divided by folding doors.
The congregation grew rapidly, and less than five years later the church was completed.2
A Pittsburg Press article published when the church was dedicated in February of 1899 describes the building:
The new church is one of the handsomest church buildings in that section of Allegheny. Its dimensions are 60×75, and it is built of red brick with stone trimmings. The style is purely Gothic, and it has beautiful large glass painted windows. The building contains two stories, the lower floor being used for Sunday school purposes. It is divided in seven separate class rooms, which are connected by sliding doors. On this floor also is the pastor’s study. About 450 children are enrolled at present as Sunday school pupils.
The auditorium is situated in the second story. It has a seating capacity of 500, the seats being arranged in amphitheater style. A bell, which is said to have a more beautiful tone than any other church bell in Allegheny, has been given by William Eberhardt, of the Eberhardt & Ober Brewing company, and it is hoped that Andrew Carnegie will provide a pipe organ for the church. The members recently applied to the generous iron king and hope that their petition will receive favorable consideration.
In 1915 the city of Pittsburgh was on a school-building binge and could hardly find architects to keep up with the demand. Thus there are schools from that era in widely different styles. Here we have a fine example of Collegiate Gothic with just a touch of Art Nouveau. The architects were Vrydaugh & Wolfe, otherwise best known for churches and millionaires’ mansions.
In 1916, when the school was a year old, the architects showed their design and this photograph at the Pittsburgh Architectural Club’s annual exhibition, so we can see that very little has changed about the exterior of the school. The most obvious change is to the windows, which have been replaced with modern windows, the same size as the originals but without the multiple small panes. (The very dark shade of the brick is the result of the film stock of the era, which was not very sensitive to red light.)
George Nattress & Sons of Philadelphia were the architects of this church, one of the dwindling number of black stone churches in Pittsburgh. The Nattresses were favorites among Episcopalians. Old Pa Pitt can think of any number of Pittsburgh architects of the era who could have done just as well or better from at least an external point of view, but perhaps the Philadelphians had an innate sense of the rhythm of Episcopalian worship.
Impressive wooden doors form the main entrance.
The inscription “My house shall be called the house of prayer for all people” is from Isaiah 56:7, which was later quoted by Jesus on the one occasion in his earthly career when he got really angry: the Cleansing of the Temple.
The rough-cut black stones of the front arcade. Old Pa Pitt still thinks the sooty blackness adds dignity to many an otherwise prosaic church, and he encourages congregations that still possess black stone churches to keep their historical soot.
The parish house is built of matching stone (or at least the stones matched after a few years of exposure to Pittsburgh’s blackening atmosphere), but the neat frames for the windows and doors give it a more urbane and less rustic appearance.
This charming little Gothic library was designed by Andrew Isles and built in about 1916. Back in February, old Pa Pitt caught it in the middle of a thorough restoration and renovation—and then for some reason forgot about the pictures until now. As he was taking pictures, Swissvale residents walking by stopped to point out how beautiful the library was going to be when the restoration was finished: it was obvious that they love their library, and a borough that loves libraries deserves one like this.
The school was built first, in 1926, so we begin with the school. The architect was William P. Hutchins, who chose the “collegiate Gothic” style to send the twin messages that this was a school and it was Catholic.1
The congregation, meanwhile, worshiped in a small frame church for more than twenty years. After the Second World War, Leo McMullen was hired to design a new church and school expansion.2 Both the era and McMullen’s taste dictated a simpler style, but the new building fits well with the school to which it is attached.
The pictures of the church are from back in March; the pictures of the school are from last week. Yes, it does sometimes take old Pa Pitt that long—or longer—just to complete a set of pictures.
The Venerable Bede was the great light of the Dark Ages, the author of the Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, which is the best source for very early English history. Here he is depicted pausing to think while writing one of his books. Bede was exceptionally good at thinking, which set him apart in the early 700s.
Lake & Davidson were the architects of this rich building for the rich borough of Edgewood. In 1932, when it was dedicated, it was the subject of a photo feature in the Sun-Telegraph.
The recently completed structure, which resembles a large, handsome residence, will be dedicated informally today and tomorrow. The committee desired a building for a community of self-governing citizens who regard the law as a positive civic expression rather than an agent of punitive repression.
Consequently, Lake and Davidson, the architects, selected the domestic architecture of the law-abiding English. The Tudor style fulfills the conditions governing the design which required that many individual activities be housed. This style consistently permits the incorporation of happily rambling units into a decorative sequence.1
When this building was put up in 1932, the Depression was hitting its stride, and prices for construction had fallen. A borough full of rich people could afford quite a luxurious municipal hall. “The building, moreover, was constructed at a time when prices were low enough to give this community double the value in materials.”
These elaborate lanterns at the entrance are a good example of the materials the borough could afford.
“A unique triumph of the building,” says that same Sun-Telly article, “is the concealment of the great, gaping doors necessary for the fire department, in the north wing at the rear.”
Edwin V. Denick was the architect of this neat little corner-tower church, which was built in 1905.1 The current congregation, the Baptist Temple Church, keeps it scrupulously tidy. “We do what we can,” one member modestly told old Pa Pitt—modestly because the man had just spent hours cleaning inside.
Old maps show that the attached parsonage was built later than the church, but it was matched very well to the style and material of the main building.
John Lewis Beatty, who gave us many fine churches throughout the city and suburbs, was a grand old man of Pittsburgh church architecture by the time he designed this church, built in 1928. Today the building belongs to Nabhi Christian Ministries, and it seems to be in very good hands.
We have seen this church before, but on a recent stroll up the Boulevard old Pa Pitt thought it looked beautiful in the sun, so here it is again. It now belongs to the Brookline Assembly of God, a vigorous congregation that keeps it up very well.
