Father Pitt

Tag: Meadowcroft Avenue

  • Three Variations on a Colonial Theme in Twin Hills, Mount Lebanon

    885 North Meadowcroft Avenue

    By the time these houses were being put up, probably in the late 1930s or early 1940s, the “Colonial” style had grown almost to a mania. It would take over the housing market in the second half of the twentieth century to such an extent that nine out of ten houses in real-estate listings of the 1990s were described as “colonial,” though most of them bore little resemblance to any architecture known from before the American Revolution.

    These three houses are all built on the same basic plan: the rooms arranged around a small center hall with stairway. The house above proclaims its Colonial ambitions with a front door surrounded by a simple and attractive classical frame.

    889 North Meadowcroft Avenue

    The main house is on the same plan as the previous house, but here a front porch is added, and a charming garage with miniature cupola plays up the Colonial theme.

    905
    Kodak EasyShare Max Z990.

    Once again the same basic layout, but here the second floor is done in siding (wood originally) instead of brick, and a small vestibule is added at the front entrance.


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  • Row of Duplexes on Meadowcroft Avenue, Mount Lebanon

    Duplexes on Meadowcroft Avenue, Mount Lebanon

    Here is another urban development that sat isolated in the hinterlands for some time after it was built.

    Plat map from 1917.
    Hopkins plat map, from Pittsburgh Historic Maps.

    Streets had been laid out and land had been divided into lots all over Mount Lebanon, but these duplex houses on the old Schaffer estate were the first buildings to go up for blocks around. Old farmhouses were still standing nearby. At that time the street was called Schaffer Place, but it and Marion Avenue to the south were later renamed Meadowcroft Avenue as an extension of Meadowcroft Avenue across Beverly Road.

    The architect who designed these buildings was not content to stamp out the same box ten times and call it a day. The designs are varied within a common theme, making an interesting streetscape that forms a community while giving residents a sense that their own homes are distinct.

    Duplexes on Meadowcroft Avenue
    44 North Meadowcroft Avenue
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    Row of duplexes
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS; Fujifilm FinePix HS10.
  • Collect ’Em All!

    Maywood

    This small apartment building on Overlook Drive in Mount Lebanon is the Maywood.

    Entrance to the Maywood

    If you’ve spent any time walking around in the Great State of Mount Lebanon (as Peter Leo used to call it), you might recognize it. But you might not have seen it here. Perhaps you saw it over there:

    Meadowbrook

    This is the Meadowbrook on Meadowcroft Avenue.

    Meadowbrook

    Or maybe you saw…

    140 Academy Avenue

    The Wil-O-Be on Academy Avenue. Or…

    El Ronson

    This one on McCully Street was called El Ronson, which is old Pa Pitt’s new favorite name for an apartment building.

    Entrance to El Ronson

    Or perhaps you saw…

    266 Beverly Road

    It seems that this one on Beverly Road had only its address for a name. The lintels are slightly different, and the roof is flat.

    266 Beverly Road

    And then there’s…

    The Harmon

    The Harmon, on the left. The Shirley, next to it, is the same basic design, but its variation of the detail strikes us as almost daring after all the others we’ve seen.

    We have not exhausted the incarnations of this apartment building, but this should be enough to start your collection. Now you can go out into the streets of Mount Lebanon and keep an eye open, and eventually you may be able to collect the complete set.