Father Pitt

Tag: Houses

  • Newly Restored Victorian House on Mount Washington

    Victorian house on Bertha Street

    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.

    From the south
    Cornice brackets

    The cornice brackets are fine examples of folk-art woodwork.

    From the north

  • Johnston House, Squirrel Hill

    Johnston house

    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.

    Dormer
    Left dormer
    Oblique view

  • More Civil-War-Era Houses on Jane Street

    Frame houses from before 1872

    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.

  • Victorian Duplex on Mount Washington

    Victorian duplex on Bertha Street

    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.

    Decorated lintel

  • Second Empire Houses on the South Side

    Pair of Second Empire houses

    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.

    Lintel

  • Renaissance Palace in Squirrel Hill

    House on Aylesboro Avenue

    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.

    Renaissance palace

  • Civil-War-Era Frame Houses on Jane Street

    1800 block of 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.

  • Queen Anne House in Carnegie

    Queen Anne house on Doolittle Avenue

    This splendid house sits on the hill overlooking the part of Carnegie that was formerly the borough of Chartiers.

    From the right-hand side
    Across a grassy meadow

  • Doolittle House, Carnegie

    Doolittle house from the front

    A splendid country house overlooking the town of Chartiers (now the western half of Carnegie). Several real-estate sites on line list this house as built in 1900 or 1901, but clearly it is decades older, and very well preserved. According to our old maps, it appears to be the Doolittle house (but old Pa Pitt would be happy to be corrected). This section of Carnegie northwest of the railroad, the “Doolittle Place Plan,” was built on the former Jacob Doolittle estate, and Doolittle Avenue runs along the northeast side of the house.

    From the side
    From the rear

  • House on Charles Street, Knoxville

    House on Charles Street, Knoxville

    Knoxville was a fairly rich neighborhood at one time, especially in the area around the old Knox mansion (where the abandoned Knoxville Junior High School is now). This is a good sample of some of the fine houses that still stand in the neighborhood; it needs some work, but it is in good shape overall, and it has not lost most of its distinctive character.