Construction of the new addition was still finishing up when old Pa Pitt last visited. Here is a pile of stones.
More pictures of the Church of the Ascension, and some pictures of the church in 2013, when it still wore a coat of black.
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Some Details of the Church of the Ascension, Shadyside
Canon PowerShot SX150 IS; Kodak Retinette with Kentmere Pan 100 film. -
Victorian Gothic in Lawrenceville
Hidden behind bushes and later additions is an exceptional example of Victorian Gothic domestic architecture. It seems to have been built in the 1870s to face Sherman Street, a street that vanished by 1890, or possibly existed only on paper; today the original front faces a nameless private alley behind the midcentury-modern Arsenal Place townhouses. The corner has been filled in with a later addition, and then another even later frame-and-stucco addition has been added; but the gables and dormers survive with their Gothic-arch windows and original ornamental woodwork.
For many years, this house is marked on plat maps as belonging to the Rev. J. G Brown, D. D., who already owned the property (possibly with a smaller house on it) in 1872.
Fujifilm FinePix HS10. -
Valley Presbyterian Church, Imperial
This charming Arts-and-Crafts Gothic church is the most distinguished building in the little hamlet of Imperial. It was built, according to the date stone, in 1911 for a congregation that had been founded in 1840, and the large cemetery behind the church has tombstones going back to that foundation.
The outstanding feature of the church is its belfry, with simple and massive woodwork that echoes the Gothic arches below, but also flares out into bell shapes, like a Sunday-school-supplement illustration of the bells within.
Kodak EasyShare Z981; Kodak EasyShare Z1285. A postwar Sunday-school wing in the rear is built from nearly matching brick.
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First Baptist Church, Coraopolis
Though the renovations with modern materials—understandable for a congregation on a tight budget—have not always been sympathetic, this is still a valuable relic of the era of Victorian frame Gothic churches. As Pittsburgh and its suburbs prospered in the twentieth century, most of those churches were replaces with bigger and brickier structures, so although these churches were once all over western Pennsylvania, remnants like this are fairly rare. This one no longer serves the Baptist congregation (or the Anglican congregation that inhabited it more recently), but some maintenance work seems to be going on.
The distinctive wooden belfry is still in good shape, though missing a few pieces of trim and wanting a bit of paint. The trim is simple and could be replicated in somebody’s garage woodshop.
Canon PowerShot SX150 IS. -
St. Stephen’s Church, Sewickley
A very stony Anglican church that has kept its rich black coat of soot.
Gargoyles guard the building from the top of the tower.
Fujifilm FinePix HS10. -
Second Presbyterian Church, Coraopolis
Now the Church of God, this is a modest church in an abstract version of Perpendicular Gothic, with castle-like battlemented towers fore and aft. The stained glass has been removed, possibly because it was too decrepit to restore, or possibly to satisfy the iconoclastic tendencies of American Evangelicalism.
Canon PowerShot SX150 IS. -
Mother of Sorrows Church, Norwood
Mother of Sorrows Church was sold to a nondenominational congregation some time ago, and when Father Pitt took these pictures some maintenance work was being done, so we hope the building will stand for a long time to come. But old Pa Pitt misses the original parish for one very selfish reason: every year it had a festival, and every year it advertised the festival with banners stretched across Island Avenue at the bottom of the hill proclaiming in big, cheery letters, “MOTHER OF SORROWS FESTIVAL!” If Father Pitt had known the parish was closing, he would have bought those banners and donated them to the History Center.
Note the round apse in the rear.
The rectory was built from matching Kittanning brick; a later extension just about doubled the size of it.
The rectory was connected to the church by this little infill decorated with patterned brickwork.
The tower terminates in a cross-topped dome teetering on the brink of Art Deco.
Fujifilm FinePix HS10. -
McKees Rocks Presbyterian Church
Now Christ Community Church, this is a typical smaller Gothic church with a corner tower. The stone has not been cleaned of its decades of soot, making this one of our dwindling number of remaining black-stone churches.
Addendum: The architect was O. M. Topp; the church was built in about 1907.1
Canon PowerShot SX150 IS; Sony Alpha 3000 with 7Artisans f/1.4 35mm lens. A matching Sunday-school wing includes a round-backed auditorium.
- Source: “Building Operations,” Pittsburg Press, October 24, 1906, p. 20. “The contract has been awarded by Architect O. M. Topp to Charles S. Smith for the erection of the Presbyterian church building at McKees Rocks, which is to cost $25,000.” ↩︎
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Entrance to Phipps Conservatory
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Steeple of Third Presbyterian Church, Shadyside
Canon PowerShot SX150 IS. Seen from Ewers Way.
