To enter the Church of the Assumption, you pass through an arch held up by Adam and Eve just after the Fall.
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Adam and Eve on the Church of the Assumption, Bellevue
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Brackets on the Church of the Assumption, Bellevue
The grotesque brackets along the sides of the Church of the Assumption run in a repeating series that seems to illustrate various stages of carving.
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Gargoyles on the Church of the Assumption, Bellevue
The gargoyles on the Church of the Assumption capture the true medieval spirit of inspired grotesquerie and goofiness and filter it through a twentieth-century sensibility. This gargoyle is having a bad day.
This one on the side of the building seems to be above a chimney vent. It demonstrates, in a silly way that would have appealed to the medieval sense of humor, one of the torments prepared for the damned.
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Church of the Assumption, Bellevue
Leo McMullen, a disciple of the great John T. Comès, put his own unique Art Deco spin on traditional Romanesque architecture to give us a remarkably successful melding of medieval and modern sensibilities. McMullen was a native of Bellevue, and it looks as though he decided to put his hometown on the map by giving it a church that would be the envy of any city in the world. He succeeded.
Father Pitt took so many pictures of this glorious church that he is forced to split them up into multiple articles. And even with dozens of pictures, he has hardly begun to catalogue the artistic treasures to be found here. If you appreciate architecture, stained glass, painting, and sculpture, you owe yourself a visit to the Church of the Assumption.
Many more pictures to come.
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Church of the Assumption, Bellevue
Camera: Samsung Digimax V4.
This splendid church was designed by Bellevue’s own Leo A. McMullen, an architect and organist who is almost forgotten today, but whose works were highly regarded in his time. The American Institute of Architects counted him as one of “six architects who shaped Pittsburgh,” according to his obituary in 1963.
The four evangelists—Mark, Matthew, John, and Luke, in that order—are lined up on the façade, each holding open a book that displays the first words of his Gospel.
Camera: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
