Father Pitt

Tag: Italianate Architecture

  • Two Civil-War-Era Houses in Marshall-Shadeland

    2640 California Avenue

    Two houses that both seem to date from the Civil War era; they both appear on an 1872 plat map of Allegheny City. This one has just had some spiffing up. It is an Italianate variant of the typical Pennsylvania I-house with an addition in the back (although the addition in this case may have been part of the original plan). It has been divided into two dwellings, but the outlines of the house and many of its details are well preserved.

    2640
    Side of the house, showing rear wing

    The outline of the house on the 1872 maps shows the wing in the rear, so it is at least that old.

    2628 California Avenue

    This house was inhabited until recently; it looks as though it had a fire and is undergoing repairs. It has a more complicated history. It also appears on the 1872 map, and later maps that distinguish the materials of buildings show that this was a wood-frame house. At some point around 1900 it was divided into two dwellings. Some time after 1923 it was sheathed in buff Kittanning brick, giving us an 1860s form with 1920s exterior details.

    2628
    Canon PowerShot S45; Kodak EasyShare Max Z990.
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  • House from the 1880s in Shadyside

    5973 Alder Street

    It is the northeastern corner of Shadyside now, but this house was built in the neighborhood that developed around the East Liberty station, which was not far from where the East Liberty station is today—now a busway station, but on the same route. This house was built in the 1880s for a family named McCully, to judge by old maps. It has been divided into three apartments, but it has kept many of its 1880s details.

    Front door

    This entrance is probably a replacement for a front porch that ran the width of the building.

    Carved brackets

    The original carved wooden brackets include the abstract cutout botanical decorations that were very popular in the 1870s and 1880s

    5973 Alder Street
    Kodak EasyShare Max Z990.
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  • First Hungarian Lutheran Church of Pittsburgh, Hazelwood

    First Hungarian Lutheran Church of Pittsburgh

    Hazelwood was a famously Hungarian neighborhood, and several kinds of Hungarian churches sprouted there. The cornerstone of this church was laid one hundred years ago today on December 20, 1925, but it’s not much different in front from the vernacular Gothic churches of half a century earlier.

    Cornerstone with date of 1925 and the name of Rev. S. Ruzsa

    If we walk around the side of this church, though, we see what is really unusual about it: it grows out of a big old Italianate house built in the 1870s.

    First Hungarian Lutheran Church

    The new building was dedicated on May 16, 1926.

    Church and house
    Entrance

    The congregation is long gone, but the church now belongs to an organization called “Center of Life.”

    Cornice brackets

    The old house has some very fine woodwork, which we hope can be preserved.

    Former door
    Collapsed stained glass
    Kodak EasyShare Max Z990.

    Some of the stained glass has fallen to pieces. It is expensive to restore stained glass, but the Union Project in Highland Park made restoring stained glass a community-education project, with spectacular results.

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  • Three Civil War Veterans Uptown

    20, 18, and 16 Chatham Square

    Without moving an inch, these old houses have been on three different streets. They were built, probably just after the Civil War (since they appear on an 1872 plat map), on Chestnut Street. After the conquest of Allegheny by Pittsburgh, duplicate street names were eliminated—most often by changing the ones on the North Side, but in this case the Chestnut Street in what had been Allegheny was richer and more influential, so this became Hooper Street, defying the usual rule that the new name should begin with the same letter as the old. When the Lower Hill was deleted by “urban renewal,” Hooper and Washington Streets were merged to make Chatham Square. Through it all, these fairly modest houses have remained intact, and they seem secure now that Uptown is becoming more desirable again.

    20, 18, and 16 Chatham Square
    Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR.
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  • Pair of Italianate Houses in Manchester

    1429 and 1431 Pennsylvania Avenue

    A pair of rowhouses whose elaborate Italianate details have been meticulously restored. And since, as longtime readers know, old Pa Pitt collects breezeways…

    Breezeway
    Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR.
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  • Italianate Mansion in Manchester

    1414 Pennsylvania Avenue

    We’ve seen this house in the spring; now here it is in the fall, when we can see more of it because there are fewer leaves.

    Tower
    Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR.
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  • Italianate Double House in Manchester

    1428 and 1426 Pennsylvania Avenue
    Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR (a stack of three different exposures).

    A pair of houses probably built in the 1860s or 1870s, according to old maps, with an addition in the rear in the 1880s.

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  • J. D. Thompson Building

    608 Wood Street

    This building on Wood Street, right across from the subway station, was probably put up in the 1880s; it appears on an 1890 map as belonging to Jonathan D. Thompson, and in 1923 still belonged to J. D. Thompson. The elaborate stone front is liberally decorated with incised patterns. We would call the style Italianate; the architect probably thought of it as Italian Renaissance.

    Update: Note the comment from “Camerafiend” below, which gives us news clippings to show us that this building was designed by E. M. Butz and built in 1874. E. M. Butz is perhaps most famous as the architect of the Western Penitentiary.

    608 Wood Street
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  • Two Houses on Brighton Road, Allegheny West

    913 Brighton Road

    These two houses facing West Park on what used to be Irwin Avenue both have interestingly complex histories. The one above has a detailed history by the late Carol Peterson, so here we will only mention the things that led to its appearance today and encourage you to see the Peterson history for more details. It was built in about 1870 as an Italianate house. In 1890 Augusta and Jacob Kaufmann of the Kaufmann Brothers department store bought the house. It was given a third floor, and the whole house was made over in the Romanesque style with Queen Anne overtones.

    Front door
    907 Brighton Road

    The house next door was probably built at about the same time as its neighbor. Without the help of Carol Peterson, we can only report what we observe. It was also built in the Italianate style, and it looks as though the third floor is an addition here as well. But the addition may have been made earlier than the alterations to its neighbor, since the tall windows were done in the same Italianate style as the ones below the third floor. The round bay in front was finished off with a mansard roof, showing the influence of the Second Empire style that was popular here before Romanesque became the big fad.

    907 Brighton Road
    Window
    Lintel
    907 Brighton Road
    Kodak EasyShare Z981.
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  • Letitia Holmes House, Allegheny West

    Letitia Holmes house

    Letitia Holmes, a widow who had inherited a fortune from her pork-packing husband, had this house built in the late 1860s and lived here till she died half a century later. The restrained but rich Italianate style suggests an architect with taste, and some day old Pa Pitt will find out who it was.

    Letitia Holmes house

    The late Carol Peterson wrote a thorough house history of 719 Brighton Road, so Father Pitt will send you there for more details.

    Porch and front door
    Front door
    Window
    Letitia Holmes house
    Front elevation on a rainy day
    Kodak EasyShare Z981; Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.
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