Father Pitt

Tag: Rectories

  • St. Peter’s Rectory, McKeesport

    Front of St. Peter’s Rectory

    What this remarkable and slightly fantastical rectory needs is a nice church to go with it, but St. Peter’s was demolished several years ago. The rectory, however, has been restored and sensitively updated.

    The architectural style is a Gothic fantasy that even includes some Moorish-looking decorations. The emphatic vertical in the front creates the impression of a tower without exactly being a tower.

    Oblique view of St. Peter’s Rectory
    Side of the rectory

    These are all high-dynamic-range pictures, each made from three different photographs at different exposures.

    Since the clouds were picturesquely textured that day, old Pa Pitt thought he might try the effect of black-and-white pictures with a (simulated) red filter to bring out the clouds. The results are worth seeing, if you care to continue.

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  • St. Mary Magdalene Church, Homestead

    St. Mary Magdalene Church, Homestead

    This glorious Romanesque church was closed in 2009, but it was taken over by a community education organization called Dragon’s Den, which has kept it up beautifully, and in the well-preserved interior has added “a state-of-the-art two-level challenge course, climbing wall, and a 160-foot zip line that connects the choir loft to the former altar.” Now you know what to do with a big vacant church.

    Addendum: The architect was Frederick Sauer, who gave us a number of fine churches and the whimsical Sauer Buildings in Aspinwall.

    Entrance
    Arch
    Cornerstone
    Rectory

    The rectory is overshadowed by the magnificent church, but it is certainly a striking design in its own right.