Father Pitt

Tag: Industrial Architecture

  • Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Freight House

    Freight House
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.

    The preservation of the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie station complex as “Station Square” showed Pittsburgh that historic preservation could be good business. As “the Freight House Shops,” the freight house was a successful shopping arcade for many years. But all the shopping arcades, and many of the indoor shopping malls, have collapsed in the past decade or two as shopping habits changed. Now shoppers demand stores and restaurants with individual external entrances. But the shopping arcade saved the building; and now, though other uses have been found for most of the space (a large part of it has been turned into a rock-climbing gym, because where would you find rocks in the wild in Pittsburgh?), the building itself is in no danger of demolition.

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  • P&LE Central Warehouse, Station Square

    Central Warehouse
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.

    The central warehouse for the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad’s freight depot, now converted to offices and other uses and known as Commerce Court. These two pictures were taken just about a year apart, but nothing significant changed during that time. While he was donating the newer one to Wikimedia Commons, old Pa Pitt ran across the older one and realized he had never published it here.

    Central warehouse
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.
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  • Rees Manufacturing Company, North Point Breeze

    7511 Thomas Boulevard

    For most of its history, this pleasing façade with its ornamental brickwork was blocked off by taller additions in front. Now that those have been removed, we can enjoy the front of the building the way it was meant to be seen. Indovina Associates designed the renovation and adaptation for an Asian supermarket.

    Ornamental brick blind arch
    Enson Market
    Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR.
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  • Demmler Brothers Annex

    Demmler Brothers Annex

    This annex to the Demmler Brothers warehouse was put up at some time in the 1920s. In every way it is different from its neighbor, but the two have to make do with one address between them—100 Ross Street.

    Demmler Brothers Annex

    The main structure is reinforced concrete, with brick filling in the walls.

  • Bold Baking Corp., Allentown

    Ghost sign: “Bold Baking Corp.”

    While looking at old plat maps for information about some of the buildings he had photographed in Allentown, Father Pitt noticed a commercial bakery in the narrow back streets. In the satellite view, it was still there, so naturally old Pa Pitt had to see it the next time he was in Allentown. It is now inhabited by a real-estate company and a maker of hand-crafted candles.

    Bold Baking Corp. building
    Bold Baking Corp.
    Bold Baking Corp.
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.
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  • A Handsome Warehouse in the Strip

    1649 Penn Avenue

    A century ago, if we read our old maps right, this building was a garage—and probably warehouse—for the Pennsylvania Motor Sales Corp. (Addendum: It was built in 1919, probably finished in 1920; the architect was Thomas Hannah.1) The ground floor now houses a large Asian market full of delicious things; the upper floors still seem to be used for storage. The original windows are still in the upper floors, making this an unusually well-preserved example of commercial architecture of the First World War period.

    Decorative tile

    The utilitarian square front (whose proportions are already dignified) is livened up by brightly colored tile decorations.

    1649 Penn Avenue
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.
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  • Pittsburgh Electrical & Manufacturing Co., North Point Breeze

    Pittsburgh Electric & Manufacturing Co.

    A splendid industrial building on Penn Avenue. The offices and showrooms were placed in a single row in the front, making an impressive and ornamental face for what would otherwise be a drab factory building.

    Pittsburgh Electric & Manufacturing Co.
    Pittsburgh Electric & Manufacturing Co.
    Sony Alpha 3000.
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  • East End Electric Light Company, East Liberty

    1899 in the gable of the building

    Here is a relic of the genesis of the Electric Age. In the early days of electric light, the East End Electric Light Company supplied the rich East Enders with current to light their mansions. In 1899 it built this large substation, which is still in use by Duquesne Light today. Although it is clearly industrial, the building was put up at a time when an industrial building had to be ornamental as well as useful. It was therefore built in the style the ancient Romans might have used it they had built electric substations in their cities.

    Power substation
    Power substation
    Window
    End of the building
    Sony Alpha 3000 with 7Artisans 35mm f/1.4 lens; Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.

  • International Harvester Building, North Side

    International Harvester Building

    International Harvester was a big maker of farm equipment, but also of trucks and sport utility vehicles before anyone knew that they were sport utility vehicles. This was the company’s facility in Pittsburgh, built right on the railroad near the North Side yards.

    Fortunately the building was never abandoned—it later became the headquarters of the Harry Guckert Company—so that it was in good structural shape when it was converted to loft apartments about two years ago, as we read in this article at Next Pittsburgh. The building is now on the National Register of Historic Places. According to a draft of the nomination, the architect was August C. Wildmanns.

    Logo of the International Harvester Corporation
    International Harvester building
    International Harvester building
    Kodak EasyShare Z981.

    Map.

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  • United Baking Company, South Side

    United Baking Company, South Side
    Sony Alpha 3000.

    A former bakery, now called “Birmingham Place,” between 23rd and 24th Streets on Carson Street. The adaptation was handled with good taste, preserving the attractive proportions of the building, including the huge windows that flood the place with natural light. According to the date at the top of the building, the main section was built in 1919; the section to the left was added after 1924, to judge by a Sanborn Fire Insurance map from that year on which the left wing does not appear.

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