Father Pitt

Tag: Lodges

  • Return of the New Granada

    New Granada Theater

    The restoration of the New Granada, built as the Pythian Temple, is nearly complete. For decades there has always been a plan to restore the New Granada, and it has always fallen into the Slough of Despond, and the building has stood as a silent accusation, pointing a mocking finger at our failures as a community. But we have successes, too; and if this project was thirty or forty years in getting to this point, it did get to this point.

    New Granada sign

    The New Granada was originally built in 1928 as the Pythian Temple, a lodge for the Knights of Pythias. The architect was Louis Bellinger, the only Black registered architect in Western Pennsylvania for his entire career. Above the first floor, the building is mostly unchanged from the way Bellinger drew it. The lodge did not survive the Depression; in 1937 the building was remodeled as a theater with a new Art Deco base by Alfred Marks of Marks & Kann. As the New Granada, it quickly became one of Pittsburgh’s top venues for jazz stars, and every great Black performer of the era stopped here.

    New Granada marquee
    New Granada
    New Granada from up the street
    Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR.

    We also have pictures of the Pythian Temple from last year, in the middle of the restoration work.

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  • Odd Fellows Hall, Wilmerding

    Odd Fellows Hall

    Though it was later converted to other uses, this building began as an Odd Fellows lodge built in 1910, as we can see from the inscription at the top and the date on the cornerstone.

    I.O.O.F.

    “I.O.O.F.” for “International Order of Odd Fellows.”

    I.O.O.F. lodge
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
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  • American Legion Post No. 54, Bridgeville

    American Legion post

    The honest Depression-era simplicity of this building, dated 1931 by the stone beside the front steps, is very attractive. The windows have been replaced; but they have not been blocked in, which sets this apart from almost every other men’s club in southwestern Pennsylvania. Perhaps the explanation lies in the fact that there is a large and mostly windowless basement with separate entrances.

    American Legion post
    American Legion post
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
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  • Wilkinsburg Masonic Temple

    Wilkinsburg Masonic Temple
    Nikon COOLPIX P100.

    Built in 1916, the Wilkinsburg Masonic Temple was designed by Alden & Harlow. Mr. Alden had already been dead for eight years, but his famous name was kept at the head of the firm; Howard K. Jones, whose name was not added to the firm (as “Alden, Harlow & Jones”) until 1927, was doing much of the design work by 1916, and may have had a large hand in this building.

    It’s a curious structure, two-thirds basement. Often lodge halls were put on upper floors to provide rentable storefronts on the ground floor that would pay for the building, but that is obviously not the case here. Perhaps the reason may be sought in pure symbolism. Whatever goes on in this building (which the uninitiated are not permitted to know) is so lofty that even the members must ascend through two and a half levels of basement before they can reach the main event.

    A full-page photograph in the Architectural Record from 1925 shows us that the front of the building has not changed in any noticeable way, except for the new doors and windows:

    1925 photo of the Wilkinsburg Masonic Temple.
    From the Architectural Record, September, 1925.

    Unlike some other landmark buildings in Wilkinsburg, this one has been preserved by new occupants, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Mosque, who clearly love the building and keep it in sparkling condition. Even the inscription and the cartouche have been attractively covered, not obliterated, by the Muslim community.

    Wilkinsburg Masonic Temple
    Olympus E-20N.
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  • Odd Fellows Lodge, Hazelwood

    Odd Fellows lodge

    W. Ward Williams was the architect of this fine hall, built in 1912 for the local lodge of the International Order of Odd Fellows. Like most lodge halls, it was built with the meeting hall upstairs, so that the ground floor could be given over to rent-paying storefronts. The building has been neatly restored and is now home to Community Kitchen Pittsburgh.

    I. O. O. F.
    Three-link chain

    The three-link chain is the emblem of the Odd Fellows.

    Front of the building
    Odd Fellows lodge
    From down Second Avenue
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

    Map.

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  • Jr. O. U. A. M. Building, Oakland

    Jr. O. U. A. M. Building

    The Junior Order of United American Mechanics is a fraternal order that was originally the young people’s division of the Order of United American Mechanics. Since it has its own Wikipedia article, old Pa Pitt will send you there for information about the order. For this building, however, he is happy to be your source of information. It was built to be the national headquarters of the organization, which had previously been in the Wabash Building downtown. “The new five-story building of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics at Forbes and Halket sts., was completed last June at a cost of about $350,000, exclusive of the site. The national headquarters of the order, which formerly were in the Wabash building, occupy the entire fourth and fifth floors of the new building, while the lower floors are given over to offices and store rooms.” (Pittsburgh Press, Monday, January 4, 1926.) This building was designed by Louis Stevens, best known for elegant homes for the well-to-do, but also the designer of all the public buildings in the borough of Overbrook (now part of the city of Pittsburgh).

    Jr. O. U. A. M.
    Cornerstone, with date of foundation (1853) and construction (1924)

    The cornerstone was laid in 1924, but the building was completed in 1925.

    Cartouche
    Entrance

    It will come as no surprise that the building now belongs to the University of Pittsburgh.

    Metalwork
    Metalwork
    Cornice
    Jr. O. U. A. M. building
    From Magee Hospital
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10; Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.
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  • Elks Lodge, Carnegie

    Elk Avenue with Elks Lodge

    The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks was one of the most popular organizations in the golden age of lodges; this particular lodge seems to have been influential enough to have the street renamed for it. The same social forces that have diminished our other clubs and our churches have caused many of the Elks Lodges to close, and this building now belongs to a law firm.

    Elks Lodge
    Front elevation
    B. P. O. E. 831
    Perspective view
    Nikon COOLPIX P100.

    Addendum: The architect was John H. Phillips of McKees Rocks, a prolific designer of schools and other public buildings in suburban boroughs. The lodge was built in 1911 to replace an earlier Elks Temple destroyed by fire. Source: “Proposed Temple of Carnegie Elks,” Gazette, June 18, 1911, where the architect’s rendering is printed.

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  • Allegheny Social Hall, Dutchtown

    Allegheny Social Hall

    This building has been neglected for decades, but it was solidly constructed and has suffered less than we might think from that neglect. It’s for sale right now, and it would be a splendid meeting hall for your lodge. All you have to do is found a lodge, and make sure to invite people with money to be your charter members.

    Addendum: The architect was C. G. Mentel; the building was put up in 1904.1

    Front elevation
    Inscription: “Allegheny Social Hall”
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.

    Father Pitt took some pictures of this building back in 1999, and it is surprising how little it has changed since then—either for the better or for the worse.

    Allegheny Social Hall in 1999
    Allegheny Social Hall

    Map.

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  • Pythian Temple, Hill District

    Pythian Temple

    This is the most important remaining work of Louis Bellinger, who for his entire career was the only Black architect in Western Pennsylvania. It was built as the Pythian Temple, an exceptionally grand lodge house. It opened in 1928; but after less than ten years it was sold and became a movie theater, the New Granada, with the ground floor redesigned in streamlined Art Deco by Marks & Kann. Both as a lodge and as a theater it was one of the great jazz venues of all time, and the roster of stars who performed here is long and dazzling—Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and our own Lena Horne, just to name four.

    After half a century of vacancy and multiple schemes for restoration, the New Granada is finally getting the love it deserves. It will have performance spaces and offices, and the whole block has been redeveloped with colorful new apartments and restored older buildings.

    Knight’s helmet in terra cotta

    Except for the ground floor, the building still stands very much as Bellinger designed it. Shields and helmets in terra cotta remind us of the building’s Knights of Pythias origins.

    Shield and helmet
    New Granada Theater
    Nikon COOLPIX P100.

    In seventeen and a half years of writing about Pittsburgh, few things have made old Pa Pitt happier than seeing the progress on this building. It will stand for years as a tribute to a neglected architect, to the history of the Hill, and to the great legacy of jazz in Pittsburgh.

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  • International Socialist Lyceum, Dutchtown

    Perry’s Hall

    This was called Perry’s Hall when it was built in 1898, according to a historic marker on the side. A retail store occupied the ground floor; the second floor was used for lodge meetings—a common arrangement in lodge buildings. Thus the rather grand side entrance, which would lead directly to the stairs up to the meeting hall.

    Side entrance

    By the 1920s, we see on the plat maps that the building was in use as an International Socialist Lyceum—which makes a much grabbier headline than “Perry’s Hall,” don’t you think?

    From a 1925 Hopkins plat map digitized at Historic Pittsburgh.

    We notice, incidentally, that the small frame buildings next door are marked as belonging to “F. Fabian.” We wonder whether that is a misunderstanding, and the property really belonged to the American Fabian Society, or whether it is one of those amusing coincidences in which history abounds but which would be too implausible for a novelist to invent.

    Perry’s Hall
    Nikon COOLPIX P100; Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.

    In more recent times, the building was the site of the lamented James Street Tavern, a venue for traditional jazz, for many years. It has just been splendidly restored, and the owner is offering it for lease. So there is no reason it could not be an International Socialist Lyceum again. All it needs is a socialist with enough money.

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