Father Pitt

Tag: Howe Street

  • The St. Regis, Shadyside

    Face on the St. Regis

    Here is another of those apartment buildings that stare back at you when you stare at them.

    The St. Regis

    The St. Regis was built in 1908; the architects were the Chicago firm of Perry & Thomas, who designed several other apartment buildings in Shadyside and Squirrel Hill.

    Entrance
    Entrance
    Entrance in perspective

    Perry & Thomas seem to have absorbed an eclectic assortment of styles from Beaux Arts through Art Nouveau to Prairie Style. These entrances have the graceful and almost decadent curves we associate with Art Nouveau. They are very similar to the entrance to the Emerson, an apartment building put up two years earlier. That building is attributed to Samuel Crowen, another Chicagoan; but Crowen was associated with Perry & Thomas, and there is certainly a more-than-coincidental resemblance—not only in the entrances, but also in the balconies, which in both buildings are framed by supports ending in decorative faces. The ones on the Emerson are much more abstract, but the idea is the same.

    Face on the Emerson

    Face on the Emerson.

    Faces on the St. Regis

    Faces on the St. Regis.

    While taking these pictures, Father Pitt had a short conversation with the maintenance man, who tells us that the apartments were originally big and luxurious, but have been cut down to one and two bedrooms by the present owners. Expensive materials like marble abound inside the building.

    The St. Regis
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.
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  • Nora McMullen Mellon House, Shadyside

    Nora McMullen Mellon house

    Something interesting must lurk behind this wall along Howe Street.

    Gateway

    As we step closer we notice the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation plaque, and we begin to get a view of the cottage beyond the wall.

    Nora McMullen Mellon house
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

    The sheltering wall seems to be there less to conceal the house than to delight us with the revelation. This is the Nora McMullen Mellon house, built in 1911 from a design by Thomas Scott. The unusual (for Pittsburgh) choice of stucco with brick trim makes this English cottage stand out on the street, and the current owners keep it as pretty as an architect’s rendering.

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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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  • A Flemish Row in Shadyside

    A Flemish row in Shadyside

    This row of houses on Howe Street has a distinctly Dutch or Flemish look. The Flemish style is not unknown in Pittsburgh, but it is rare to see a row of five houses in that style at once. (For another example of multiple Flemish houses, see the Osterling row in Brighton Heights.)

    5524 Howe Street

    This house, like many in Shadyside, has had part of its basement turned into a garage, with a steep driveway dug out of the front yard.

    Porch

    It is delightful to see that the intricate woodwork on the front porch has been preserved.

    5524
    Gable with iron decorations

    The angles and curves that make the gable look so Antverpian are made of iron or steel, as we can tell by one rusted section:

    Rusted metalwork

    This makes us suspect that perhaps three of the other houses in the row might have had similar decorations, removed when they rusted too much to repair.

    5529 and 5526 Howe Street
    5530
    5532
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10; Samsung Galaxy A15 5G.

    This house, however, was clearly meant to show off its stones without additional adornment, except for the usual decorative utility-cable swags.

  • The Lionhead, Shadyside

    Lion’s head

    Originally the Kent and the Howe, this pair of attached buildings was renamed for its most prominent decorative feature—the lion’s heads that preside over each entrance. The architects were the Chicago firm of Perry & Thomas, who were responsible for a number of apartment buildings in Shadyside and Oakland; they were especial favorites of the developer John McSorley.

    The Lionhead
    Entrance
    Balconies
    Nikon COOLPIX P100.

  • The Chesapeake and the Chamberlin, Shadyside

    The Chesapeake and the Chamberlin

    A pair of identical apartment buildings, now known by their addresses (5758 Howe and 5754 Howe). They were built in 1908; the architect was C. J. Rieger. Though they have lost their cornices (which, to judge by the size of the scars, must have been elaborate), the rest of the details are well preserved, showing a Renaissance or Baroque style flavored with Art Nouveau.

    Entrance
    Entrance, closer
    Ornament
    Lion’s head
    Female cameo
    Male cameo
    Chesapeake and Chamberlin
    Nikon COOLPIX P100.