Father Pitt

Tag: Lions

  • A Fourth Avenue Safari

    Lion in front of the Dollar Bank

    The other day old Pa Pitt went lion-hunting on Fourth Avenue. It’s a good game to play with children or out-of-town visitors: walk down Fourth Avenue and see how many lions you can count. They’ll have fun noticing the wide variety of carved lions, but they’ll also be noticing details of the architecture around them, which can start interesting conversations. We begin with the famous Dollar Bank lions—actually painstakingly accurate hand-carved duplicates of the originals, which were the work of Max Kohler. The originals were moved inside the bank, where they will be protected from weather and accidents.

    Lion in front of the Dollar Bank
    Lion in front of the Dollar Bank
    Lion on the Colonial Trust Company building

    These lions decorate the Fourth Avenue front of the Colonial Trust Company building, now part of Point Park University.

    Lion on the Colonial Trust Company building
    A lion on the front of the Keystone Bank Building

    A lion on the front of the Keystone Bank Building.

    Lion on the Peoples Savings Bank Building

    Very Romanesque lions on the Peoples Savings Bank Building.

    Lion on the Peoples Savings Bank Building
    Lion on the Peoples Savings Bank Building

    Now, when we come to the Arrott Building, we have to suspend the game, because…

    Lion on the Arrott Building
    Lions on the Arrott Building
    Lions on the Arrott Building

    …there are, by Father Pitt’s estimate, more than 200 lions on the Arrott Building.

    Lions on the Arrott Building
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS; Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR.
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  • S. S. Kresge Building

    S. S. Kresge Building

    S. S. Kresge was never the presence in Pittsburgh that Murphy’s was, but all the five-and-dime stores had outlets downtown. Murphy’s, Kresge’s, McCrory’s, Woolworth’s—they were all similar operations, and all the founders knew each other. G. C. Murphy, in fact, had worked for S. S. Kresge and John G. McCrory before setting out on his own.

    The S. S. Kresge Company is better known to younger people (meaning under the age of seventy or so) as the parent corporation of Kmart.

    Inscription: “S. S. Kresge Co.”

    The whole front of the building is done in terra cotta, including this inscription.

    Pediment with lion’s head
    Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR.

    The pediment, though it seems undersized for the building, is filled with rich decoration.

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  • Courthouse Lion

    Courthouse Lion
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

    Of all the hundreds of lions on buildings downtown, the Romanesque lions that guard the county courthouse are the most distinctive. They used to be at street level, but the lowering of the Hump, the awkward hill that used to make navigating downtown even more difficult than it is now, left them stranded far above pedestrians’ heads.

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  • Rowe Building (Penn-Highland Building), East Liberty

    Rowe Building

    Built in 1898 for Rowe’s department store, this building has been called the Penn-Highland Building for years now. The architects were Alden & Harlow.

    Crest on the corner

    Lions stare back at you from all over the building.

    Lion ornament
    Rowe Building
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS; Sony Alpha 3000 with 7Artisans f/1.4 35mm lens.
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  • The Lionhead, Shadyside

    Lion’s head

    Originally the Kent and the Howe, this pair of attached buildings was renamed for its most prominent decorative feature—the lion’s heads that preside over each entrance. The architects were the Chicago firm of Perry & Thomas, who were responsible for a number of apartment buildings in Shadyside and Oakland; they were especial favorites of the developer John McSorley.

    The Lionhead
    Entrance
    Balconies
    Nikon COOLPIX P100.

  • Bank in Dormont

    Bank in Dormont

    This building originally housed a bank, and was still a PNC branch until a few years ago. It was built in 1926, and it straddles the line between classical and Art Deco.

    Front of the building
    Lion ornament

    You know it’s a bank because it has a vomiting lion at the top of the building.

    Perspective view

    As with many banks, the elaborate stone front hides a building mostly clad in cheaper and more prosaic brick.

  • Top of the Diamond Bank Building

    Lion on the Diamond Bank Building

    Banks and lions go together all over Pittsburgh, and the top of the Diamond Bank Building, an early skyscraper designed by MacClure & Spahr, has a copper cornice bristling with lion heads.

    Top of the Diamond Bank Building

  • 819 and 821 Penn Avenue

    819 and 821 Penn Avenue

    A pair of commercial buildings with striking terra-cotta details—especially No. 819, on the left. The huge windows would have allowed light to pour into workshops on the upper floors.

    Bracket
    Greek key and egg and dart
    Spiral
    Vitruvian scroll
    Cornice

    Truly enlightened zoning regulations would mandate cornices with lions’ heads on all buildings more than four storeys tall.

    Diamond
    Side by side

  • Lion’s Head, Shady Oak Apartments

    A lion’s-head ornament on the Shady Oak Apartments on the border of Shadyside and Oakland.

  • Lion on the Keystone Bank Building

    Lion on the Keystone Bank

    Fourth Avenue has a denser population of lions than anywhere else in Pittsburgh, and possibly anywhere else in North America.