Father Pitt

Tag: Interiors

  • The Lobbies of the William Penn Hotel

    William Penn Place entrance

    We come in this door and enter the magical world of a great city hotel, a place designed to make us feel as though we are guests of royalty.

    Main lobby

    The main lobby is a monarch’s reception room. If you are a guest of the hotel, you can arrange to meet your local contacts here and feel as though you have done your business right.

    Main lobby
    Main lobby
    Main lobby
    Main lobby

    The William Penn was built in two stages, both designed by Benno Janssen, and competent authorities agree that he did a pretty good job of it. “The William Penn Hotel merits classification with the best in hotel buildings,” wrote Alfred Branch Harlow of Alden & Harlow, Janssen’s biggest competitor in the large-public-buildings business. “One’s attention is arrested as the carefully studied mass and detail of this structure presents itself.”

    The side that faces William Penn Place was the first half to go up, opening in 1916, and that is where the main lobby is. In 1929, Janssen was brought back for an annex that doubled the size of the hotel, giving it a Grant Street face as well, so that it now covers a whole city block. If we enter from Grant Street, we find ourselves in a smaller but still rich lobby.

    Grant Street lobby
    Grant Street lobby
    Stairs up from the Grant Street lobby
    Sony Alpha 3000; Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
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  • First National Bank, Indiana

    First National Bank

    A fine classical bank adapted as the headquarters of the Indiana County Tourist Bureau. The interior is well preserved, except for a partition behind the teller counters that obscures some of the intended symmetry of the design.

    Interior of the bank, looking toward the rear
    Interior looking toward the front
    Former teller window
    Decorative grotesque panel over a door
    Fountain
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  • St. Colman Church, Turtle Creek

    St. Colman Church

    This was the last of the five (out of seven) churches old Pa Pitt managed to visit during the open house for St. Joseph the Worker Parish, seven of whose eight churches are closing this month. Because he got there just as the open house was winding up, Father Pitt didn’t get as many pictures as of the other churches, but the ones he did get give a good impression of what the church is like. They also show that it needs some maintenance work, which would probably be expensive.

    Belfry

    Addendum: The architect was Pittsburgh-born, Philadelphia-based Harold Wagoner, with Angel Chorne as associate.

    Nave
    Nave
    Interior
    Stained glass
    Sony Alpha 3000; Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.

    It’s always sad to see a church close. However, there is very good news for St. Colman’s School, a 1920s masterpiece by Link, Weber & Bowers. It is undergoing a thorough and expensive restoration for a second life. We took a few pictures of the school on the same visit.

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  • Good Shepherd Church, Braddock

    Good Shepherd Church

    Another of the seven closing churches in the inner eastern suburbs. The dominant feature of this one, built as St. Michael’s in 1929–1930, is the huge octagonal lantern.

    Addendum: The architect was Carlton Strong, according to Van Trump & Ziegler’s Landmark Architecture of Allegheny County (1967), p. 163.

    Good Shepherd Church
    Good Shepherd Church
    Good Shepherd Church
    Belfry
    Side entrance
    Windows
    The same windows from the inside
    Window
    Window
    Window
    Entrance
    Interior

    The interior of the church is much more auditorium-like than most Catholic churches of its era, probably because a square lot forced it to make that adaptation.

    Interior looking toward altar
    Chancel
    Chancel
    Chancel
    Interior
    Interior
    Choir loft
    Baptistery
    Stained-glass windows
    Stained-glass windows
    Sony Alpha 3000; Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
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  • St. Jude the Apostle Church, Wilmerding

    St. Jude the Apostle Church

    Another one of the seven closing churches in the near eastern suburbs. The exterior has the kind of “noble simplicity” American bishops love to praise, while at the same time maintaining a traditional look.

    St. Jude the Apostle
    Nave, looking toward altar

    The best description old Pa Pitt can come up with for the interior is “straightforward.” It is not spectacular, but it works for Christian liturgy, with everything in the right place and room for devotional art of the right sorts.

    Nave
    Nave
    Chancel

    A dramatic Last Supper painting behind the altar shows all the disciples in characteristic poses, including tortured Judas clutching his bag of money and stewing over what he’s about to do. (Click or tap on the picture to enlarge it.)

    Rear entrance and choir loft
    Nave, looking toward the rear
    Stained glass: John the Baptist and Annunciation

    The stained glass is also straightforward. To Father Pitt’s nose it has a strong scent of illustrated Sunday-school supplement about it, but it tells the Bible stories in a way that we can immediately recognize. Above, John the Baptist and the Annunciation.

    Jpseph and Jesus; Jesus praying in the wilderness

    Joseph and the child Jesus (who has made himself a model cross); Jesus praying in the wilderness.

    Jesus calling disciples; the Twelva adoring Mary

    The Transfiguration; the Twelve adoring Mary.

    Adam and Eve; Abraham and Isaac

    Adam and Eve cast out of the Garden of Eden; the angel staying the hand of Abraham as he is about to sacrifice Isaac.

    Jacob’s dream; David and Goliath

    Jacob’s dream; David with the head of Goliath.

    Manna from heaven; Moses about to smash the Ten Commandments
    Sony Alpha 3000; Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.

    Manna from heaven; Moses, seeing the golden calf, about the smash the tablets of the Law.

    Addendum: The church, built beginning in 1955 as St. Aloysius, was designed by William York Cocken and Edward J. Hergenroeder. The basement, however, was built in 1914 and temporarily roofed over, but multiple delays (including two big wars and a Depression) kept the congregation in that temporary basement church for more than forty years.1

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  • Madonna del Castello Church, Swissvale

    Statue and inscription: Madonna del Castello
    Madonna del Castello

    The first reaction of most visitors to Madonna del Castello is astonishment that such a thing even exists. The sanctuary hovers over the parking lot on spindly legs like some giant beetle ready to march out into the streets of Swissvale. It is beautiful, impressive, and a little terrifying.

    Many more pictures…

  • Inside St. Anselm Church, Swissvale

    Nave of St. Anselm Church

    The interior of St. Anselm in Swissvale, one of the seven churches in St. Joseph the Worker parish scheduled to close this month. We’ll have a separate article for the stained glass. Father Pitt publishes these pictures with gratitude to the parish volunteers who held a simultaneous open house in all the churches of the parish on Sunday, February 22. Old Pa Pitt managed to get to five of the churches during the two-hour window.

    Many more pictures…

  • Hall of Sculpture

    Hall of Sculpture

    The Hall of Sculpture in the Carnegie (as seen by the ultra-wide auxiliary camera on old Pa Pitt’s phone, so don’t expect too much if you enlarge the picture), designed in imitation of the interior of the Parthenon.

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  • Vestibule of the Carnegie Institute

    Vestibule of the Carnegie Institute Building

    The vestibule at the original entrance to the Carnegie Institute building, seldom used now because visitors come in through the modernist Scaife Galleries addition. This picture was taken hand-held in dim light with the ultra-wide auxiliary camera on old Pa Pitt’s phone, so please forgive its obvious flaws.

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  • Fine Dining in 1883

    Prospectus of the Seventh Annual Exposition of the Pittsburgh Exposition Society, 1883.

    A look at the interior of the Cafe Reineman on Fifth Avenue shows us what was expected of any establishment claiming to be the best restaurant in Pittsburgh, and indeed west of the Allegheny Mountains. It is brightly lit by gas—the artist has made the illumination by large chandeliers a prominent feature. It has tables for couples and families arrayed in efficient rows to accommodate many guests and leave room for the waiters to navigate. It has an ornate bar with immense mirrors and proper facilities for expectoration on the floor. For single gentlemen diners, there are stools along the wall. For unaccompanied ladies, there is a Ladies’ Entrance as far from the bar as practically possible, allowing them to pass into the eating part of the establishment without enduring rude remarks from the expectorating drunks—who appear to be starting a fight even in the drawing, as if a bar without a fight would be an unacceptable omission in the most complete establishment in the West. And, of course, the location is important: just across from one of the main theaters, the Opera House, whose last incarnation became the Warner. (Note that address numbers on Fifth Avenue have changed: this would be at about 343 Fifth Avenue now.)