Father Pitt

Tag: Italianate Architecture

  • Italianate House in Spring Garden

    House on High Street

    Spring Garden is a very old neighborhood, with some houses that go back to its roots as a valley farming community. This house, with its generous balcony and huge Italianate windows, caught old Pa Pitt’s eye, and by good luck the owners happened to be coming home and started a neighborly conversation. According to them, the house began as a barn in the 1860s; the foundation and some undetermined part of the barn are built into the house as it stands.

    The lush plantings of begonias and impatiens were just about at their peak when Father Pitt took these pictures.

    Front elevation of the house
    Sony Alpha 3000.
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  • A Walk on Western Avenue, Allegheny West

    Sidewalk of Western Avenue

    Some sights on one side of one block of Western Avenue, the business spine of Allegheny West. Though it has become a trendy and prosperous business district, Western Avenue still keeps its quirky combination of commercial buildings, private houses, and houses turned into commercial buildings.

    Houses on Western Avenue
    Porches
    Houses on Western Avenue
    Houses on Western Avenue
    House on Western Avenue
    House on Western Avenue

    This is a designated historic district, so that is a historic utility cable.

    House on Western Avenue
    Pair of houses
    House on Western Avenue
    House on Western Avenue
    House on Western Avenue

    This is the only house on the street that has not been expensively restored. Much original Italianate detail is left for the next ambitious owner to savor.

    Elaborate Italianate lintel
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS; Sony Alpha 3000 with 7Artisans f/1.4 35mm lens.
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  • A Tall House on the South Side

    House in the back streets of the South Side
    Ansco Memar with AristaEDU ISO 100 film.

    Originally a store with upstairs living quarters. The corner location made a side entrance for the living quarters possible.

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  • Victorian Houses on Allegheny Avenue, Manchester

    Houses on Allegheny Avenue

    A few Victorian houses on the edge of Manchester.

    Houses on ALlegheny Avenue

    The one at right was originally a double house, now apartments.

    Pair of Second Empire houses

    These two are also divided into apartments, though we wouldn’t know it from the front.

    E. M. Butz house

    We’ve seen the E. M. Butz house before; now here it is again captured on film in glorious black and white.

    E. M. Butz house
    E. M. Butz house
    Ansco Memar with AristaEDU ISO 100 film.
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  • Some Houses on Cedar Avenue, Dutchtown

    908 Cedar Avenue

    Cedar Avenue, facing the East Commons, was a prestigious address in old Allegheny, and after spending some time looking a bit down in the mouth it is becoming a prestigious address again. Fortunately it lost very few of its splendid Victorian houses. Here are a few of them.

    Lintel with incised decoration
    Incised decoration
    Roof brackets
    Front door
    906 and 904 Cedar Avenue
    906 and 904
    904
    Balcony and round window
    900

    For many years this house has been the headquarters of the Dental Society of Western Pennsylvania.

    900
    1006 and 1004
    916
    916
    916
    916
    Face on a keystone, 906 Cedar Avenue
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
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  • Italianate House in Larimer

    Old house in Larimer

    This double house, probably built in the 1880s, has had multiple renovations, and some of the vinyl siding has flaked off to reveal the much worse siding that preceded it. Siding has swallowed details of the window and door frames, but the carved roof brackets were grandfathered in with cutouts.

    Old house in Larimer
    Old house in Larimer
    Sony Alpha 3000.
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  • An Evening Stroll on Western Avenue, Allegheny West

    907–911 Western Avenue

    Allegheny West never quite became a slum, but it was down on its luck for a while. Over the past few decades it has very gradually turned into an expensive and trendy neighborhood, and the Western Avenue business district is lively and full of interesting one-off restaurants and shops. In a short stroll, we see some of the variety of commercial and domestic buildings that line one side of the street.

    909 Western Avenue
    Transom and lintel
    913–915 Western Avenue
    939 Western Avenue
    Dormer
    Dormer
    939 Western Avenue
    947 Western Avenue
    Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR; Kodak EasyShare Max Z990.
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  • Pittsburgh Charity Hospital, Larimer

    Pittsburgh Hospital

    Originally a Catholic hospital, later known as just Pittsburgh Hospital. Now it is the Champion City Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. The main building was put up in about 1902; the architects were Schickel & Ditmars of New York,1 who were most famous for Catholic churches, including the immense Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, but also designed a number of hospitals.

    Frankstown Avenue front
    Frankstown Avenue end

    The addition on the Frankstown Avenue end has not weathered well.

    Pittsburgh Hospital
    Pittsburgh Hospital
    Pittsburgh Hospital
    Row of dormers
    Pittsburgh hospital with postwar additions
    Sony Alpha 3000.

    Postwar additions might have been designed by Press C. Dowler, who we know designed the School of Nursing behind the hospital in 1946 (which we’ll see soon).

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  • Some Houses on North Franklin Street, Manchester

    1301 North Franklin Street

    Five houses on North Franklin Street epitomize the paradox of Manchester: three are gorgeously restored, and two are condemned. This one, one of the condemned, had a little corner store on the ground floor.

    Dormer
    Doorway
    Woodwork with incised decorations

    We’ll find these incised decorations on all but one the houses. They were very popular in the 1870s and 1880s.

    Woodwork with abstract floral decoration
    1309

    This house and the one next to it are nearly identical, except for differences in decoration. They were probably put up at the same time.

    Woodwork and transom
    Lintel with incised decoration
    1311
    Front door of 1311

    This house has a plaque dating it to 1881.

    Woodwork and transom
    Lintel with incised decoration
    1313

    This house is probably the most recent of the lot; from the style, we would date it to the 1890s.

    1315

    This house has been up for sale for a couple of years now, so the owner is probably motivated to sell. A quarter-million dollars should be enough to get that blue sticker off the front.

    Woodwork and transom
    Lintel with incised decoration
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
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  • Italianate House on Carson Street, South Side

    2120 East Carson Street

    This little house is one of the few survivors from the days when much of Carson Street in East Birmingham was residential. It preserves most of its fine mid-Victorian Italianate detail, so it is worth a closer look than most pedestrians on the busy sidewalk of Carson Street usually give it.

    Front door

    One unfortunate change is the entrance. Instead of double doors with an art-glass transom, we have a stock door from the home center and pieces of plywood around it. But the elaborate woodwork surrounding the entrance is still intact.

    Transom and lintel
    Woodwork
    Lantern
    Downstairs window

    It is typical of Italianate houses that the downstairs windows are very tall. This is the bright and cheerful branch of Victorian domestic architecture.

    Bracket

    The windowsills rest on ornate iron brackets.

    Bracket
    Lintel
    Upstairs window
    Upstairs windows and cornice
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
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