Father Pitt

Tag: Gothic Architecture

  • Second United Presbyterian Church, Wilkinsburg

    Second United Presbyterian Church

    Ingham & Boyd designed this beautiful church for a congregation that is still hanging on, now yoked with Swissvale Presbyterian Church. When they were built, though, the churches served different denominations: this one was a congregation of the United Presbyterians, a Pittsburgh-based splinter group that broke off from the main body of Presbyterians in the United States in 1858 and would later merge with them again in 1958, one century and two days after the split.

    Inscription: The Second United Presbyterian Church

    Every detail of this church is chosen both for its own exquisite beauty and for its contribution to the composition as a whole. Nothing is out of place.

    Main entrance
    Vine ornament
    Lantern
    Cornerstone with date 1915

    As the cornerstone tells us, the church was built in 1915. Ingham & Boyd usually worked in a classical style for public buildings, such as their dozens of schools; but their relatively few churches are Gothic, and buildings like this one make us wish they had given us more churches.

    From Biddle Avenue

    Siting a building is an art in itself, and one to which Ingham & Boyd paid particular attention. This church looms in the distance as we come eastward on Biddle Avenue like a heavenly vision.

    Side of the church and education wing

    The view is different coming northward on Hay Street: here we are confronted by what looks like an English village.

    Dormer from the side

    With a long lens, we can appreciate the woodwork in these dormers.

    Dormer from the front
    Side entrance
    Second United Presbyterian Church
    Sony Alpha 3000; Kodak EasyShare Max Z990.
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  • First Methodist Episcopal Church, Wilmerding

    First Methodist Episcopal Church

    It seems to old Pa Pitt that Charles W. Bier was a true original among our architects. He was not our greatest artist, but he developed a distinct style that was altogether his own. We may enroll him in our little club of early modernists, but he came at modernism in his own unique way. He combined regional Victorian variants of Gothic ornament with his own angular interpretation of the Art Nouveau that was wafting over from Germany and Austria. This church, whose cornerstone was laid in 1914, is one of his most characteristic works—and you could buy it right now, in good shape, with a fresh Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation plaque on the front.

    Cornerstone with date 1914
    Gable

    Whenever you see a very broad and shallow arch with strong vertical lines above it, you should suspect Charles Bier.

    First M. E. Church
    Entrance
    Doors
    Side entrance
    First Methodist Episcopal Church
    Sony Alpha 3000; Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
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  • St. Colman’s School, Turtle Creek

    St. Colman’s School

    Link, Weber & Bowers were the architects of this gorgeous school, and it is very cheering to see it getting a thorough renovation for a new life.

    Inscription: St. Colman’s School, 1928, For God and Country
    Entrance

    St. Colman was ripped off the face of his school, where he once stood over the entrance to greet students as they came in. Catholics often try to preserve the religious art from buildings they abandon, but as the number of buildings abandoned rises, the number of places to keep all that art dwindles. Father Pitt would suggest setting aside one vacant church—perhaps St. Anselm’s in Swissvale, which has plenty of room—as a museum of religious art, which could become a pilgrimage site and perhaps even bring about some conversions.

    St. Colman’s School
    St. Colman’s School
    Sony Alpha 3000; Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
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  • Swissvale Presbyterian Church

    Swissvale Presbyterian Church

    Kiehnel & Elliott were the architects of this church, whose cornerstone was laid in 1909. It certainly isn’t typical of the modernistic Art Nouveau designs we associate with Kiehnel & Elliott; but their few churches tended to be more conservative, and here they were probably commissioned by a congregation with conservative tastes. They came through with a typical Pittsburgh corner-tower auditorium church, and the fact that almost nothing has changed since the church was built tells us that the congregation had no reason to regret its choice of architects.

    Cornerstone
    Postcard of First Presbyterian, Swissvale

    A postcard of unknown date from the Presbyterian Historical Society. Father Pitt is grateful for the volunteer work that made nearly a thousand old postcards of churches freely available, so that we can compare them to the standing buildings, and remember the buildings that have vanished. In this case, the comparison shows us that almost nothing has changed.

    Swissvale Presbyterian Church

    You think we have utility cables now, but imagine what it was like when the streetcars ran on Monongahela Avenue.

    Entrance
    Tower
    Side porch

    This side porch feels mysterious and ancient, which is probably a good thing for a church. Wouldn’t you like to come in and discover the ancient mysteries?

    Side porch
    Cupola
    Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR; Sony Alpha 3000.

    It’s easy to miss this small cupola or big finial at the peak of the roof, so old Pa Pitt went after it with a long lens so you can admire it up close.

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  • 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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