Built in 1907, this small skyscraper (originally the Jones & Laughlin Building) was just barely spared by the Boulevard of the Allies a decade and a half later. It was designed by the always-tasteful MacClure & Spahr in the restrained Gothic style popular in the early twentieth century.
This picture was taken in 1999 with a Smena 8M, a plastic Russian all-manual 35-millimeter camera that was cheaply made but surprisingly capable.
A winter view of St. Bernard’s from Mt. Lebanon Cemetery, featuring a fine silhouette of a tree. Below, more church and less tree.
The west front of this church, with its outsized towers, was inspired by York Minster; it makes the church look a good bit bigger than it actually is. The hilltop location makes it a landmark visible from miles away. The congregation, a descendant of the early-settler congregation that established the St. Clair Cemetery across Scott Road, now belongs to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, a young denomination founded in 1980.
Addendum: According to the September, 1931, issue of the Charette, the magazine of the Pittsburgh Architectural Club, the architects were “O. M. Topp and T. L. Beatty associated.”
Begun in 1942, this church is more elaborate than many cathedrals. The architect, William Perry, grew up in Dormont, and he seems to have realized that this was a chance to leave a magnificent legacy in his own back yard.
First Presbyterian was designed by the Philadelphia architect Theophilus P. Chandler, whose name makes him sound like the obstructive villain in a Marx Brothers farce. Above we see it from across Trinity Churchyard, with the last leaves of autumn still clinging to an oak tree in front of Trinity Cathedral. Below, details of the Gothic decoration.
Not many churches are confident enough of the permanence of their service times to have them literally set in stone.
