Tag: Houses

  • A House by Elise Mercur on Fifth Avenue

    Dr. William H. Mercur house

    Once again our frequent correspondent David Schwing has spotted something important and delightful: a previously unidentified work by Elise Mercur, Pittsburgh’s first female architect. It’s been sitting right there in the open, but nothing on the Internet has pointed out its significance.

    Elise Mercur in 1896
    From Demorest’s Family Magazine, June, 1896, p 454.

    Mercur was a fascinating character. At a time when women as architects were almost unheard of, she was getting big commissions and supervising crews of men who knew they had better not cross her. (See the picture above: would you want to get that look from your boss?)

    She first came to national attention when she beat twelve other competitors with her design for the Woman’s Building at the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta in 1895. The decision of the committee was unanimous: she blew the other competitors away.

    Mercur’s rendering of the Woman’s Building
    Reception hall
    From The Inland Architect and News Record, February, 1895.

    These renderings were printed in a big architectural magazine, which picked them up from another big architectural magazine. They were also front-page news in Atlanta, and of course in Pittsburgh. The Inland Architect and News Record accompanied them with this brief introduction to the architect:

    Miss Elise Mercur, architect, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Of thirteen designs submitted, hers was considered of the highest merit and was accepted. As a preparation for her professional life Miss Mercur studied four years at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts and subsequently continued her artistic studies in Germany. The lady has been a resident of Pittsburgh for four years and has been engaged upon practical architectural work in the office of Architect Thomas Boyd, whose foreman she now is. Miss Mercur assisted in the preparation of the plans for the new city Poor Buildings at Marshalsea and superintended their erection.

    Thomas Boyd was a very prosperous architect in those days, and we must give him credit for recognizing ability when he saw it. It took courage to make a woman his construction foreman, but Mercur was up to the task.

    Soon she had a prospering practice of her own, and she insisted on being in every way equal to a male architect.

    For doing men’s work I always insist upon getting men’s prices. I never accept an assignment for less than 5 per cent. I never have any trouble. Contractors who have worked under me know that I won’t stand any ‘monkeying’ and do not try to fool me with poor material, careless work, &c. While I am willing to do what is right, I generally make them live up to the specifications, and any work done improperly has to be gone over again. (Mercur quoted in “Pittsburg’s Woman Architect,” New York World, January 9, 1898.)

    Much of her work was academic—dormitories and classroom buildings for colleges. And that explains why most of it is gone. College presidents hate old buildings, because they stand in the way of big donors’ vanity projects, and college presidents are generally hired for their ability to round up big donors, not for their sensitivity to the architectural heritage of the campus. As far as we know, all of Mercur’s academic buildings have been demolished, some fairly recently. In fact, until a little while ago the only remaining building by Mercur known to exist was St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in the Hill District. But now we have a fine house whose identification rests on solid ground.

    Oriels and sun room

    Dr. William H. Mercur has purchased a choice plot on Fifth avenue, opposite Lilac street, as a site for a new home. The lot measures 50×200 feet, and it belonged to Charles D. Callery. The price paid was $10,000 cash, or $200 a foot. Mrs. Elsie Mercur-Wagner is making plans for a $15,000 brick dwelling which is to be erected on the property within the next few months. (“Real Estate Transactions,” Pittsburg Press, April 27, 1900, p. 14.)

    By this time Mercur was married and using the name Wagner along with her own. We may point out in passing that the name “Elise” was unusual enough that almost half the construction listings misspell it as “Elsie.” Dr. William H. Mercur was her brother, and we imagine he was quite pleased with the house his sister built for him.

    “Lilac Street” in the listing is now St. James, and the location “opposite Lilac street” makes the house easy to find. Plat maps shortly after the house was built show it as belonging to M. S. Mercur (probably William’s wife; property was often put in the name of the wife). In 1923, it still belonged to M. S. Mercur. It is on the side of Fifth Avenue that is counted as Squirrel Hill by city planning maps, but traditionally both sides of the street were “Shadyside,” and the Mercurs were rubbing elbows with some very rich people in the Shadyside millionaires’ row.

    Oriel and dormer
    Front door
    Dr. William H. Mercur house
    Sony Alpha 3000; Nikon COOLPIX P100.

    By comparing this lot with the one next to it, we can see that the lot level was originally above the garage doors. The front yard has been dug away to make space for driveway and garages. Much of the distinctive detail of the house has been preserved, however, and we hope the owners realize that they possess a rare treasure.


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  • Brick Queen Anne in Shadyside

    401 South Highland Avenue

    A house in a dignified version of the Queen Anne style, but still with plenty of picturesque details, which take on added picturesqueness in sunset light.

    Gable

    The elaborate woodwork and shingles in the gables have been preserved.

    Gable
    Terra-cotta tiles

    A pattern of stock terra-cotta tiles set in the wall may have taken the place of a filled-in window.


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  • A Few Houses on Fifth Avenue in Shadyside

    5501 Fifth Avenue

    Fifth Avenue in Shadyside was the most famous of the millionaires’ rows in Pittsburgh. But there were some more modest houses as well—“modest” being a comparative term here. Some predated the arrival of the millionaires, and some were beyond the main stretch of mansions. Many have been replaced by postwar apartment buildings, but a number of these houses survive. A while ago, Father Pitt took an evening stroll on Fifth Avenue to have a look at some of them. Above, a wood-frame Queen Anne mansion with picturesque protrusions in all directions.

    5529

    A center-hall house in the turn-of-the-twentieth-century interpretation of Georgian style.

    5537

    Another center-hall house of the sort old Pa Pitt would call a center-hall foursquare. Walking around to the side reveals a fat turret that must add to the interest of the interior.

    5537 with turret
    5321

    Another Georgian house, though the Georgian era was lamentably ignorant of buff Kittanning brick.

    5321
    5317
    Sony Alpha 3000.

    From the old days, before the millionaires, here is a wide I-house whose main part seems to have been built before 1872.


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  • French Cottage in North Point Breeze

    7001 Penn Avenue

    Alternating bands of brick and stone make this fantasy French cottage more than usually picturesque.

    7001 Penn Avenue
    7001 Penn Avenue
    Sony Alpha 3000.

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  • Rafferty Rows, Squirrel Hill

    Rafferty row on Beeler Street

    We saw these houses last fall on a dim and rainy evening, and at that time we explained what little we knew about their history. Here are the ones on Beeler Street in bright sunshine.

    Rowhouses on Beeler Street
    Rowhouses
    Rafferty row on Beeler Street
    Olympus E-20N.

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  • A Few Houses in Oakdale

    115 Hastings Avenue

    Oakdale was a prosperous little town, as we can see by these houses in a variety of styles, all on the same street. It is still a fairly prosperous town today, and most of these houses have been kept up and altered in various ways that suited their inhabitants over the years. We present them without further comment, except to say that, if you come away with the impression that the back streets of Oakdale are very pleasant, your impression is correct.

    24 Hastings Avenue
    38
    39
    54
    54
    54
    61
    61
    69
    69
    Olympus E-20N; Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

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  • Three Houses with Turrets in Shadyside

    5810 Howe Street, Shadyside, Pittsburgh

    Here’s a house in an eclectic style made up of bits of other eclectic styles, but they all fit together well. The heavy arches picked out in darker brick remind us of the Rundbogenstil, a word we like to say as often as possible; but the irregular picturesque arrangement of parts takes inspiration from the style that, in defiance of history, was called Queen Anne.

    5810 Howe Street, Shadyside, Pittsburgh
    5810 Howe Street, Shadyside, Pittsburgh

    The turret has a well-preserved witch’s cap and a rim of foliage scrollwork.

    5810 Howe Street, Shadyside, Pittsburgh

    The oriel and the porch pediment are both decorated with grotesque foliage ornaments.

    Pediment with grotesque ornament, 5810 Howe Street
    5812 Howe Street

    The house next door is a duplicate, but reversed.

    5814

    Finally, a house that shares the same general shape, but is distinguished by its shingly top with curved surfaces and ornamental swags and foliage picked out in contrasting paint.

    5814 front elevation
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

    Like many Shadyside houses, this one has automobiles burrowing under the porch.


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  • Terrace of Three Houses on Friendship Park, Bloomfield

    4911–4915 Friendship Avenue

    Old Pa Pitt enjoys pointing out how architects and builders have approached the problem of making cheap housing attractive. These three houses face Friendship Park, where they sit among elaborate apartment buildings and much grander houses. They are very small and quite cheap. Yet because someone put effort into the design, they do not bring down the tone of the neighborhood. Instead, they contribute to a delightful sense of variety.

    Terrace of three houses
    Olympus E-20N.

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  • Three Houses on Aiken Avenue, Shadyside

    525 Aiken Avenue

    Parking garages sometimes give us good views of the surrounding buildings, and no one questions your right to be there as long as you look respectable enough. (The powdered wig helps.) Here are three interesting houses on Aiken Avenue seen from the Shadyside Hospital garage. First, an unusually well-preserved Shingle-style house with a lush crop of shingles.

    527 and 533

    This Queen Anne house has been turned into seven apartments, to judge by counting mailboxes and doorbells.

    Gable and dormer
    535 Aiken Avenue

    Finally, this mansion in the turn-of-the-twentieth-century interpretation of Colonial style has grown an apartment building in its back yard, a disease to which some old houses are subject in urban neighborhoods. It appears on Google Maps as a “community correction center,” so if you make a mistake in typing you can probably come here to have it corrected professionally. Old Pa Pitt prefers to make his own corrections, but he is glad there is a service for people who need it.

    535 Aiken Avenue
    Canon PowerShot A540.

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  • A Few Houses in Ingram

    25 Vancouver Avenue

    Ingram, a pleasant little borough in the Chartiers Valley, has a typically Pittsburgh assortment of house styles, from working-class frame houses to grand mansions. Here are just a few houses snapped at random while old Pa Pitt was taking a short stroll near the Ingram station. Above and below, a stately foursquare whose large lot makes room for a curved wraparound porch and sunroom.

    25 Vancouver Avenue
    83 Ingram Avenue

    A Dutch Colonial that preserves its wooden shingles.

    83 Ingram Avenue
    16 and 18 Vancouver Avenue

    What appears at first glance to be another foursquare is actually a duplex, although it might have been built as a single-family house.

    16 and 18 Vancouver Avenue
    91 Ingram Avenue

    A tidy cottage that probably dates from the 1920s. Note the fat tapered Craftsman-style columns in front.

    1 Wheeler Avenue
    Olympus E-20N; Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.

    A huge, rambling center-hall house. Father Pitt suspects that the corner projection, which now has a flat roof, originally supported a square turret.


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