Something like a Pittsburgh foursquare stretched into a Renaissance palace, this house prefers simple dignity to ostentatious ornament.
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House on Northumberland Street, Squirrel Hill
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Another Renaissance Palace in Squirrel Hill
Gilding the capitals of your Ionic porch columns is a subtle way to tell the world, “I have more money than I know what to do with.” Note the half-round extrusion in the shadows on the right-hand side.
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Newly Restored Victorian House on Mount Washington
The finishing touches were still being finished up when old Pa Pitt strolled past this splendid house on Bertha Street. Old maps suggest that it was built between 1872 and 1882, and thanks to a thorough restoration it almost looks as if it was built yesterday.
Father Pitt hopes the owners will resist the temptation to leave the picket fence unpainted. Treated lumber may not have to be painted, but it will never be attractive in its unpainted state.
The cornice brackets are fine examples of folk-art woodwork.
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Johnston House, Squirrel Hill
Probably built in the 1890s, this grand house on Wightman Street has its very Victorian trim picked out in cheerful colors. Note the thoroughness of the decoration: even the dormers are given little pilasters with Ionic capitals.
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More Civil-War-Era Houses on Jane Street
These houses date from before 1872, to judge by both old maps and the general shape of the houses. Some have been more drastically altered than others. Old Pa Pitt is particularly interested in the one that has had a new “used-brick” façade added, but whose sides—as you can just make out in this picture—are still sheathed in asphalt sheets with a cartoon stone pattern.
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Victorian Duplex on Mount Washington
Built in the 1880s, this matched pair of houses is beautifully restored and maintained, with the details of the trim picked out in tasteful colors.
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Second Empire Houses on the South Side
A matched pair of Second Empire houses in nearly perfect shape except for the modern dormer windows. The folk-art etching in the lintels is charming.
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Renaissance Palace in Squirrel Hill
Pittsburgh has many Millionaires’ Rows, and one of them is along Aylesboro Avenue in Squirrel Hill. This house is typical of the rectangular Renaissance-palace style that was popular for large houses in the early 1900s.
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Civil-War-Era Frame Houses on Jane Street
Each one of them has had its individual adventures, but it seems fairly certain that this row of half a dozen frame houses with narrow dormers dates from before 1872. Together they form something of a manual or catalogue of things that can happen to a frame house in Pittsburgh over the course of a century and a half.
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Queen Anne House in Carnegie
This splendid house sits on the hill overlooking the part of Carnegie that was formerly the borough of Chartiers.
