Father Pitt

Tag: Jacobean Architecture

  • Dilworth School, East Liberty

    Dilworth School

    In 1915 the city of Pittsburgh was on a school-building binge and could hardly find architects to keep up with the demand. Thus there are schools from that era in widely different styles. Here we have a fine example of Collegiate Gothic with just a touch of Art Nouveau. The architects were Vrydaugh & Wolfe, otherwise best known for churches and millionaires’ mansions.

    The Dilworth School ni 1916

    In 1916, when the school was a year old, the architects showed their design and this photograph at the Pittsburgh Architectural Club’s annual exhibition, so we can see that very little has changed about the exterior of the school. The most obvious change is to the windows, which have been replaced with modern windows, the same size as the originals but without the multiple small panes. (The very dark shade of the brick is the result of the film stock of the era, which was not very sensitive to red light.)

    Entrance
    Crest
    Inscription: Dilworth School
    Inscription and terra-cotta decorations
    Main entrance
    Dormer
    Dilworth School
    Sony Alpha 3000; Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
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  • St. Gabriel’s School, Marshall-Shadeland

    St. Gabriel’s School

    You may have noticed this old school if you looked out the window while your chauffeur drove you down the Ohio River Boulevard. It was built in 1922 for St. Gabriel’s, a Slovak parish, whose church stood across California Avenue from the school. In the late 1960s, when the expressway portion of the Ohio River Boulevard was built, the church was demolished; the congregation moved into the school while it built a big new modern church on the hill above. (We may see that building later: it still stands, though not in use as a church.)

    St. Gabriel’s School
    To get this picture of the front, Father Pitt had to stand on the narrow, sloping Belgian-block median between California Avenue and the ramp to the Ohio River Boulevard while cars whizzed by on both sides. Since he lived to bring the camera back, you have this picture.

    The school has been closed for years, but the building is kept standing. It seems to be in use as a warehouse.

    Cornerstone with A. D. 1922
    Crest with cross
    Cross ornament
    Ornamental shield
    St. Gabriel’s School
    Kodak EasyShare Max Z990.
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  • Universal Steel Company Office, Bridgeville

    Universal Steel Company office

    Charles J. Palmgreen was the architect of this fine Jacobean structure, which looks so much like a school that old Pa Pitt spent an hour trying to figure out which school it was before finally finding a picture of it in the Pittsburgh Press for March 23, 1927, which identified the building.

    “The office of the Universal Steel Co. on Station st., the most impressive office building in Bridgeville.”
    Universal Steel Company office
    Universal Steel Company office
    Terra cotta from the Corning Terra Cotta Company

    The terra-cotta decorations were supplied by the Corning Terra Cotta Company of Corning, New York, which we know from a booklet published by the company that listed dozens of buildings, including their architects, which is where we got the attribution to Mr. Palmgreen.

    Universal Steel Company office
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
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  • Gladstone School, Hazelwood

    Gladstone School

    O. M. Topp was the architect of this palace of education, which grew in stages to magnificent proportions on a difficult slope. The original part of the school, opened in 1914, was featured in School Houses: the Eleventh Annual Year Book of the Pittsburgh Architectural Club Incorporated, a record of the 1916 exhibition of the Pittsburgh Architectural Club.

    Gladstone School in 1916
    THE GLADSTONE SCHOOL
    O. M. Topp, Architect, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
    [1916]
    Gladstone School in 1916
    VIEW SHOWING PORTION NOW FINISHED
    THE GLADSTONE SCHOOL
    O. M. Topp, Architect, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
    [1916]
    Floor Plan
    PLAN SHOWING THE COMPLETED BUILDING
    THE GLADSTONE SCHOOL
    O. M. Topp, Architect, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
    [1916]
    Entrance

    After sitting vacant for two decades, the main part of the school has been restored as apartments, much to the delight of nearby residents. One neighbor on the same street told old Pa Pitt he had been a student at the school, and was very happy to see the building taken care of once again—and happy to see someone documenting it with a camera.

    Entrance
    Downspout

    If you visit, don’t forget to look up at the downspouts.

    Annex

    The population of the neighborhood rapidly grew, and an annex was added in 1926, connected to the main school by a pedestrian bridge. Restoration of the annex is still in progress.

    Annex
    Kodak EasyShare Max Z990.

  • Wilkinsburg High School

    Wilkinsburg High School

    When the thriving borough of Wilkinsburg needed a magnificent new high school to accommodate its mushrooming population, the borough government decided to get the best building possible by inviting an all-star cast of architects to a competition. From the Pittsburg Press, July 8, 1908, p. 17:

    Plans for a high school building to cost over $200,000 will be received by the school board of Wilkinsburg. The architects in the competition are Thomas H. Scott, M. G. Wilkins Company, DeBobula & Hazeltine, Milligan & Miller, S. E. Schrieber and E. J. Carlise. M. F. Henning is chairman of the building committee. The competing architects will be given about a month to submit plans.

    The winner was Thomas H. Scott, whose name was among the few correctly spelled in the article. He beat some big names, including Wilkinsburg’s own Milligan & Miller, E. J. Carlisle (who already had many schools to his credit), the W. G. Wilkins Company (specialists in large industrial buildings and warehouses, including the one that is now the Andy Warhol Museum), the wildly eccentric and self-aggrandizing genius Titus de Bobula (with an otherwise unknown partner), and probably Frederick Scheibler, if we are correct in guessing that “F. G. Scheibler” was misheard over the telephone as “S. E. Schrieber.” Scott, of course, was a big name himself, and the borough could have had no reason to regret its choice.

    Front of the school

    The school, which is an interconnected complex of buildings that also included the junior high school, is no longer in use as a school: Wilkinsburg students go to Westinghouse in Pittsburgh from the seventh grade on. But the building is well maintained.

    Terra-cotta shield
    Another shield
    Entrance
    Entrance
    Wilkinsburg High School
    Sony Alpha 3000; Fujifilm FinePix HS10.
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  • Entrance to the Jones & Laughlin Headquarters Building

    Entrance to the Jones & Laughlin Headquarters Building
    Samsung Digimax V4.

    MacClure & Spahr designed the headquarters for Jones & Laughlin, which is now the John P. Robin Civic Building. The entrance is lavishly decorated. The angle below shows off two of the most impressive lanterns in the city.

    Entrance to the John P. Robin Civic Building
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

    More pictures of the Jones & Laughlin Headquarters Building: front of the building, from the southeast, and the construction of the second stage of the building.

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  • Hazelwood Christian Church

    Hazelwood Christian Church

    Here is another church with the sanctuary upstairs, if you look at the front. This is Pittsburgh, though, so upstairs is the ground floor in the rear.

    Front elevation
    Entrance
    Cornerstone: “Christian Church, 1921”
    Front elevation really big
    Nikon COOLPIX P100; Samsung Galaxy A15 5G
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  • Oliver Bathhouse, South Side

    The Oliver Bathhouse

    The Oliver Bathhouse, built as the South Side Baths but soon renamed for its donor (who had died in the long delay between the donation and the construction), has been getting a thorough restoration and renovation. The outside of the building looks almost brand new.

    Old photo of the South Side Baths

    This picture from Preservation Pittsburgh’s collection is dated January 31, 1913, at Wikimedia Commons, but that is an error. In the Construction Record for May 30, 1914, we read, “Architects MacClure & Spahr, Keystone building, will lake bids until June 1 on the erection of a brick, stone and terra cotta fireproof bath house on Tenth and Bingham streets, for the Henry W. Oliver Estate. Cost $100,000.” The building might have been finished by January of 1915 if the construction got started right away. Wikipedia concurs that the building was finished in 1915. Since this picture was taken from a printed source, we suspect that a poorly-scanned “1918” might have been misread as “1913.”

    Inscription over the entrance: “South Side Baths presented to the City of Pittsburgh by Henry W. Oliver.”
    “South Side Baths, presented to the City of Pittsburgh by Henry W. Oliver.”

    Oliver’s steel mills nearby employed many of the workmen who would benefit from these baths. He might not pay them enough to afford more than squalid tenements with inadequate bathing facilities, but he was willing to spend enough to make them smell better on Saturday nights.

    Cartouche
    Oliver Bathhouse
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.

    The Oliver Bathhouse survives as a bathhouse, uniquely among the public baths in Pittsburgh, because the more upscale denizens of today’s South Side appreciate its large indoor swimming pool, the only city pool open in the winter.

    More pictures of the Oliver Bathhouse.

    Map.

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  • B. F. Jones Mansion, Allegheny West

    Magnolias at the entrance to the B. F. Jones house

    Rutan & Russell, both of whom had worked for H. H. Richardson, designed this immense Jacobean pile for steel baron Benjamin Franklin Jones, Jr., son of the Jones of Jones & Laughlin. It was finished in 1910. The terra-cotta company must have made its numbers for the entire year supplying the ornaments for this house, right down to the address over the entrance.

    808 in terra cotta
    B. F. Jones house

    The house now belongs to the Community College of Allegheny County, which keeps the exterior perfect.

    B. F. Jones house
    B. F. Jones house
    Dormer
    Window
    Terra-cotta panels
    Downspout

    Even the downspouts are works of art.

    Corner of the roof
    Magnolias

  • Malta Temple, North Side

    Malta Temple

    Built in 1927, this was a lodge for the Knights of Malta, one of those Masonic orders that old Pa Pitt has never sorted out. Most North Siders remember it as the Salvation Army building. It narrowly escaped demolition in 2008, and now it is in good shape again and ready for its next life.

    Entrance
    Perspective view
    Kodak EasyShare Z1285; Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

    Addendum: The architects were Beltz & Klicker, as we learn from their own drawing of the building as it was published in the Press on September 11, 1927.

    “Knights of Malta bldg., now being erected at North ave. West, and Reddour st., Northside, one block west of Federal st., as it will appear when completed. The building and site will represent an expenditure of about $140,000. It is being erected by the four North Side Malta commanderies, numbering 1,200 members, who hope to have the new building ready for dedication about Christmas. The building committee consists of Arthur Stambaugh, Louis Falck, Albert Gawinske, and M. Landsdale. Beltz & Klicker were the architects.”

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