Father Pitt

Tag: Houses

  • A Whole Street of Scheibler Rowhouses in Brushton

    Inglenook Place rowhouses

    Inglenook Place is something unique: a whole street where all the houses were designed by our noted early modernist Frederick Scheibler. There are two qualifications to be made here: first, one house on the corner of Oakmont Street, addressed to Inglenook Place, is not a Scheibler house; and second, there are two more blocks of Inglenook Place on the map, but they are a stairway with no houses addressed to it.

    Inglenook Place rowhouses

    Here we see, at the end of the row, the one oddball house on the street.

    Inglenook Place rowhouses

    These houses are two of Scheibler’s simplest designs, obviously meant to be built as cheaply as possible; but his modernist instinct is on full display in them. The larger group was built in 1907, all in this straightforward design; a second, smaller group was built in 1909 in a different though also simple design.

    Later houses

    This is slightly less straightforward in that Scheibler has played with the rhythm of four houses in a row by putting the upstairs windows in three groups of 1, 4, 1.

    Pair of houses, one abandoned

    Unfortunately, the neighborhood fell on hard times, and about a third of the houses are abandoned and will probably vanish eventually. When that happens, we’ll lose one more unique streetscape, in spite of the valiant efforts of neighborhood advocates.

    Keep “Our” Block Clean

    This sign is so ancient that it dates from a time when it was normal to do lettering by hand on public signs. A designer of today would be baffled if you said you didn’t want every occurrence of the letter E to look the same: how would you even do that?

    Abandoned house being reclaimed by jungle
    Kodak EasyShare Max Z990.
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  • Old Houses with New Hats in Dutchtown

    Row of houses in Dutchtown

    This row of houses on Middle Street has a complicated history, and old Pa Pitt is not sure of all the details. A row of four brick houses stood here at least as early as the 1880s. At some point in the 1930s or thereabouts, they appear to have been refaced with yellow and white face brick, and given metal-framed casement windows typical of modernist buildings of the era. It is possible that they were rebuilt, but Father Pitt leans toward saying they were the same houses with new faces, because he recalls noticing what appeared to be older chimneys in plain red brick.

    In 2019, the houses were thoroughly renovated again, with the main parts of the houses restored to the way they would have looked in the 1800s, but a new postpostmodern third floor that gives each house a delightful balcony and a bright upper room.

    Middle Street row
    End of the row
    Sony Alpha 3000 with 7Artisans f/1.4 35mm lens; Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
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  • Row of Houses on East End Avenue, Park Place

    Row of houses on East End Avenue

    Here is a row of houses obviously all put up at the same time and designed by the same hand. In typical Pittsburgh fashion, they are all made of brick, but no two are the same color.

    310 East End Avenue
    Sony Alpha 3000.

    This house, which looks as though it is about to get some restoration work, has lost half its porch, but otherwise preserves most of its features in original condition.

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  • A Typical Spring Hill House

    House clinging to the side of a hill
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.

    A hillside house on Spring Hill. Note that the street entrance is on the second floor; the lot plummets downward from the street.

  • Houses on Liverpool Street, Manchester

    Houses on Liverpool Street

    Father Pitt would not hesitate to affirm that this is one of the finest blocks of Second Empire houses in North America. Manchester has had its difficulties, but it has some outstanding streetscapes to show us.

    Houses on Liverpool Street
    Pair of Second Empire houses
    Porches along the sidewalk
    Kodak EasyShare Max Z990; Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR.
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  • Italianate House in Larimer

    Old house in Larimer

    This double house, probably built in the 1880s, has had multiple renovations, and some of the vinyl siding has flaked off to reveal the much worse siding that preceded it. Siding has swallowed details of the window and door frames, but the carved roof brackets were grandfathered in with cutouts.

    Old house in Larimer
    Old house in Larimer
    Sony Alpha 3000.
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  • Concrete-Block Mansion in Regent Square

    Concrete-block mansion

    Concrete block was never a very popular material for houses in Pittsburgh, but we find a fair number of concrete-block houses scattered here and there. Few of them reach these imposing dimensions. This house was built for members of the same Kountz family that also owned the Second Empire mansion next door. Today it is divided into apartments, but except for the fire escape and the third-floor window, few significant changes have been made to the exterior.

    Mansion and garage

    A matching concrete-block garage with rooms above, perhaps a chauffeur’s apartment, was built later.

    Garage
    Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR.

    Old Pa Pitt will admit to finding these rusticated concrete blocks unattractive, perhaps even aesthetically disturbing. Individually, each block is cast to resemble rough-hewn stone, which is all very well; but when you have a whole wall of the things, the fact that they are all identical instantly destroys the illusion, and instead rubs our noses in the fakery. Smooth-faced concrete blocks, on the other hand, can be very attractive.

  • Rowhouses by Frederick Scheibler, Homewood

    One of the houses

    These houses were built in 1910, and nothing like their brisk modernity had been seen in Pittsburgh. Frederick Scheibler was our most adventurous modernist in those days, and these would have been approved by the Bauhaus ten or twenty years later.

    Two houses in near-original condition

    The two houses on the upper end of the upper row have been kept in near-original condition, though they are in less than perfect shape.

    The same two houses
    Row of houses

    In the rest of the row, different ownerships have sent the houses careening off in various directions.

    Looking up the hill
    7908 and 7906 Hamilton Avenue
    7908–7902
    Four houses
    Four houses
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.

    Like many architects of terraces like these, Scheibler repeated this design in multiple locations. Apparently both Scheibler and his clients considered the design a success. We’ll be seeing more of these little houses.

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  • Row of Houses by L. A. Raisig, Wilkinsburg

    1100 block of Center Street

    If Wilkinsburg were a trendier neighborhood, it would be profitable to restore this row of fine houses. They are not only distinguished works individually, but as a unit they also form a unique streetscape that was carefully thought out. They were all built at once, all designed by Louis A. Raisig,1 the Wilkinsburg architect who is now most famous for briefly taking on the young Frederick Scheibler as a partner before Raisig suddenly died in 1901. Raisig’s taste was much more traditional than Scheibler’s, but within the conventions of the time he was an artist.

    Looking down the street from the top of the block

    The whole row is capped off by a corner turret at the upper end. That corner house is still in good shape, though the turret has been wrapped in fake siding.

    1116 Center Street

    The houses all fit together, but each one is different. We are sorry to say it is not likely that the row will remain intact for many more years; houses will probably start disappearing one by one.

    1114
    1112
    1110
    1108
    1106
    1104

    The second floor of this house burned out; it will probably be the first of the row to go.

    1102
    Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR.
    1. Philadelphia Real Estate Record & Builders’ Guide, July 20, 1898, p. 466. “L. A. Raisig, First National Bank Building, has prepared plans for eight brick dwellings, to be erected for A. T. Stoner, on Centre street, Wilkinsburg. They will each contain ten rooms, will be well finished throughout, cabinet mantels, hot air heating, fine bathroom fixtures, and all modern conveniences The owner is A. T. Stoner.” A Hopkins plat map for 1903 shows the eight houses on the east side of Center between Wallace and North owned by “Stoner.” ↩︎
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  • House by Benno Janssen, Squirrel Hill

    Front of the house

    This beautiful and slightly fantastical house is tucked back in the woods in Squirrel Hill. Not long ago, a small group of Benno Janssen’s fans, among whom old Pa Pitt certainly counts himself, were given a tour of the house by the current residents, whose memorable hospitality made the occasion a delight. The details of the house are beautifully preserved, and with the owners’ permission we present a few of them here, beginning with one of the distinctive copper dormers.

    Dormer
    Lantern
    Main stairway
    Closet at the top of the stairs

    Ascending the main stairway leads to a surprising revelation: all the doorways upstairs are Gothic arches, including the large closet at the head of the stairs.

    Upstairs hall
    Bedroom
    Outer wall of bedroom
    Chandelier

    The metalwork in the house is by Samuel Yellin, a Ukrainian artist in Philadelphia who ornamented many Janssen buildings.

    Upstairs hall
    Sconce
    Original stove

    Downstairs in the kitchen is the original range, which has had some spiffing up but needed no thorough reconstruction. It is still the main cooking apparatus for the house.

    Rear of the house

    The rear of the house opens on a beautiful shaded slope that terminates abruptly in a forested cliff, because this is Pittsburgh. The current owners added a new dining room in the rear, carefully matched to the original house in its details.

    Rear of the house
    Rear of the house
    French doors

    You may have noticed that windows are few in this house: French doors take the place of most windows. They can be flung open for generous air circulation, and the louvered shutters still shut over the openings.

    Looking up at the roof
    Rear wall with dormers
    Dormers and roof slates
    Sony Alpha 3000; Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR.

    Like most Janssen designs, the house uses simple lines, exactly the right number of them, and relies on carefully chosen materials—like these irregular roof slates and copper dormers—to add satisfying texture.

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