Father Pitt

Tag: Normandies

  • North Hills Estates, Ross Township

    110 Thompson Drive

    North Hills Estates is a suburban plan in Ross Township just north of West View. It was laid out in 1929, and most of the central part was built up in the 1930s—a period when, surprisingly enough, there was quite a bit of house construction going on in the suburbs. For those who had money, it was considered more economical during the Depression to build a new house, what with the low cost of labor and materials, than to buy an existing one. Thousands of houses sat empty, repossessed by lenders, but meanwhile new suburbs like North Hills Estates filled up with beautiful homes.

    This is another article for people who like to scroll through dozens of house designs and marvel at the variety of styles, and at the high quality of almost all the designs.

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  • Some Houses on Standish Boulevard in Seminole Hills, Mount Lebanon

    75

    More houses from Seminole Hills, for which no excuse is needed, since the variety of styles and the imaginative designs speak for themselves.

    Turret
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  • Some Houses on Greenridge Lane, Green Tree

    1109 Greenridge Lane

    Most Pittsburghers probably think of Green Tree as the quintessential postwar dormitory suburb. The borough does have a longer history, however, and one small area near the intersection of Greentree Road and Potomac Avenue was built up with unusually fine houses in the 1920s and 1930s. Greenridge Lane is part of that little enclave.

    1109
    1126
    1126
    1126
    1127
    1130
    1130
    1131
    1134
    1134

  • A Rainy Evening in Murdoch Farms, Squirrel Hill

    1311 Bennington Avenue
    Architect: Lamont Button.

    It was rainy and dim, so don’t expect too much of these pictures. But old Pa Pitt happened to be in Squirrel Hill just before dark with half an hour to waste, so he took a walk in the rain in Murdoch Farms, one of the richest parts of Squirrel Hill, and did what he could with the camera.

    5458 Fair Oaks Street
    5462 Fair Oaks Street
    Architect: Edward Crump.
    1200 Bennington Avenue
    1320 Bennington Avenue
    5450 Fair Oaks Street
    5357 Fair Oaks Street
    5357 Fair Oaks Street
    1331 Bennington Avenue
    1310 Bennington Avenue
    5367 Fair Oaks Street
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

  • Hillside House in Carrick

    15 Wynoka Street
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.

    Dutch Colonial meets Normandy in an attractively eclectic house that you can see from a long way away, because it perches on the side of a steep hill.

  • A Normandy in Shadyside

    Normandy house by J. A. Cornelius

    James A. Cornelius was a developer and builder who designed his own houses. This is what Pittsburghers call a Normandy—a house in the fairy-tale style with a turret entrance. It was meant to be one of a whole block of houses built on the old Liggett estate in Shadyside.

    From the Pittsburgh Press, June 15, 1930.

    Note the photograph of this house, and the house circled on the perspective map. The houses were meant to have their main fronts facing inward, where a landscaped common would make them into a garden community.

    Only this house and the one next door were built, however. It appears that the project fell on hard times—1930 was not the best year to begin a development of luxury houses. The rest of the property, according to researcher David Schwing, was eventually sold to Herman Kamin, who developed apartments on it.

    Turret
    Canon PowerShot SX150IS; Samsung Galaxy A15 5G.