Father Pitt

Tag: Romanesque Architecture

  • Watson Memorial Presbyterian Church, Observatory Hill

    Watson Memorial Presbyterian Church

    Designed by Allison & Allison, this stony Romanesque church was renamed Riverview Presbyterian in 1977, when, we suppose, no one remembered Watson anymore. After sitting vacant for a while, it now has a nondenominational congregation called Pittsburgh Higher Ground, and we wish them long life and prosperity in this beautiful building.

    Front entrance
    Riverview Presbyterian Church
    Tower and dormers

    Old Pa Pitt thinks writers on architecture tend to throw the name “Richardsonian” in front of the term “Romanesque” far too thoughtlessly, but there is no question about this church. It is very Richardsonian, right down to the little triangular dormers on the roof. Compare them to the ones on Richardson’s famous Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Allegheny West:

    Emmanuel Episcopal Church

    This is the architectural equivalent of a direct quotation.

    Pittsburgh Higher Ground
    Sony Alpha 3000; Samsung Galaxy A15 5G.

  • St. Stanislaus Kostka Church, Strip

    St. Stanislaus Kostka Church

    Frederick Sauer designed St. Stanislaus Kostka, which was built in 1891. The church presides dramatically over the broad plaza of Smallman Street. It used to look out on a sea of railroad tracks, but its view improved considerably when the Pennsylvania Railroad built its colossal Produce Terminal.

    Rear of St. Stanislaus Kostka
    Tower of St. Stanislaus Kostka
    Rectory of St. Stanislaus Kostka
    Nikon COOLPIX P100.

    It is probable that the rectory, done in a matching style, was also designed by Sauer. The glass blocks are not an improvement, but they have kept the building standing and in use.

  • Alpha Terrace, East Liberty

    Inscription: “Alpha Terrace”
    Alpha Terrace

    Alpha Terrace, a set of unusually fine Victorian rowhouses designed by James T. Steen1 in an eclectic Romanesque with bits of Second Empire and Gothic thrown in, is a historic district of its own. The houses are on both sides of Beatty Street in East Liberty. The row on the northwest side of the street went up in about 1885.

    Alpha Terrace
    Alpha Terrace

    The houses on the southeast side of the street are a few years newer, probably from about 1894, and they incorporate more of the Queen Anne style, with shingles and ornate woodwork.

    Oriels
    Woodwork
    Front doors
    Woodwork

    The rest of our pictures are from the sunny side of the street, for very practical photographic reasons. We’ll return when the light is better for the houses on the southeast side.

    Alpha Terrace Historic District
    Alpha Terrace
    Turret with witch’s cap
    Alpha Terrace

    Separate ownership is not always kind to terraces like this, but the aluminum siding on the roof is about the worst alteration Alpha Terrace has suffered.

    Alpha Terrace
    Alpha Terrace
    Alpha Terrace
    Alpha Terrace
    Dormers
    House in Alpha Terrace
    House in Alpha Terrace
    Turret
    Witch’s cap
    Witch’s cap
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.
    1. Old Pa Pitt is nearly certain of this attribution. The Wikipedia article, possibly following the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, attributes the design to Murphy & Hamilton, but Father Pitt is fairly sure that Murphy & Hamilton were contractors, not architects; they probably built the terraces. Alpha Terrace is attributed to Steen in a Historic Resource Survey Form for another of his buildings that was demolished anyway (PDF). The style of Alpha Terrace is very similar to the style of Steen’s downtown YMCA (demolished long ago), which, though it was on a much grander scale, used the same prickly witch’s caps and squarish dormers; it was pictured in the American Architect and Building News for February 10, 1883.
      ↩︎

  • Progress on the Coraopolis Station

    Coraopolis Train Station

    Designed by Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, probably the one firm with the best claim to the title of successors of H. H. Richardson, this station sat derelict for years. After a fundraising campaign, it is being restored as the Coach Fred Milanovich Center for Community Connection. We last saw it in July, and since then a good bit has been accomplished. Workers were busy today when old Pa Pitt came by.

    End of the Coraopolis station
    Coraopolis station
    Station from a block away
    The old freight depot
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

    The old freight depot is altered but still standing.

  • Union Church, Robinson Township

    Union Church and Cemetery

    Father Pitt thinks this is the most picturesquely sited church in Allegheny County. On a day of rapidly changing lighting, he captured it in multiple moods.

    The cemetery is stuffed with Revolutionary War veterans, and several of them will be appearing over at Pittsburgh Cemeteries.

    Union Church in sunlight with dark clouds
    Union Church
    Tower
    Union Church
    Union Church
    Union Church and Cemetery
    Union Church in an HDR photo
    Side of the church
    Union Church in sun with blue sky
    Kodak EasyShare Z1285; Kodak EasyShare Z981; Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.

  • Granite Building

    Granite Building (German National Bank), Pittsburgh

    The Wood Street end of the Granite Building in a composite photograph that gets a little fuzzy toward the top, but otherwise gives us a good notion of the design of the Romanesque extravaganza. It was built in 1889 as the German National Bank; the architects were Bickel & Brennan—the Bickel being Charles Bickel, who would go one to become Pittsburgh’s most prolific architect of commercial buildings.

    We also have pictures of some of Achille Giammartini’s carvings on the building, and of the German National Bank ghost signs still visible on the side that faces Liberty Avenue.

  • Neville Island Presbyterian Church

    Neville Island Presbyterian Church

    About this church old Pa Pitt knows only what you see in these pictures. The sign has not changed since 2021, but the grounds are still mowed and the building is in good shape. (Addendum: The congregation informed the Presbytery that it would close the church in 2022, according to a Pittsburgh Presbytery newsletter [PDF].) Its most prominent feature is its tower with eye-catchingly prickly battlements.

    Neville Island Presbyterian Church
    Oblique view of the front of the church
    Kodak EasyShare Z1285.

  • St. Joseph’s Church, Coraopolis

    Jt. Joseph’s Church

    William P. Hutchins was the architect of this church, built in 1924. It takes its inspiration from ancient Roman basilicas, with a light overlay of Art Nouveau. Most architectural historians would probably just say “Romanesque” and leave it at that, but it is a more interesting building when we recognize its ancient sources.

    Cornerstone with date of 1924
    West front
    Frieze
    Tympanum and decorations over the entrance
    St. Joseph’s
    Nikon COOLPIX P100.
    St. Joseph’s in the sun
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.

  • St. Paul of the Cross Monastery Church, South Side Slopes

    St. Paul of the Cross Monastery Church

    Charles F. Bartberger designed this magnificent church, one of only a very few large churches in this area still standing from before the Civil War (it was built in 1854). It is not that we had no large churches; it is only that the ensuing age of prosperity made most of the large ones even larger—or kicked them out of the way to make room for skyscrapers, as happened with the old St. Paul’s Cathedral downtown, also designed by Bartberger, which was bought and demolished by Henry Frick.

    Monastery Avenue

    This one has had good luck. It belongs to a still-active monastery in a neighborhood that, by its topographic nature, will probably never become prosperous enough to displace the church. It dominates the view up Monastery Street and Monastery Avenue.

    Side of the church

    A relief of Christ stumbling on the way to Calvary is over the main door.

    St. Paul of the Cross

    St. Paul of the Cross reminds us that our way to God lies through the passion of Christ. He wears a benevolent expression, but he is a ferocious terror to pigeons.

    St. Paul of the Cross
    St. Paul of the Cross Monastery Church

    Cameras: Canon PowerShot SX150 IS; Kodak EasyShare Z1285.

  • Coraopolis Train Station

    Coraopolis Station

    Built in the late 1890s, this Pittsburgh & Lake Erie commuter station was designed by Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, one of at least three firms that claimed to be the successors of the great H. H. Richardson, and perhaps the one with the most direct claim, since Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge were the ones who completed Richardson’s outstanding jobs when he died. It is a temple of locomotion in the high Richardsonian style that may remind you of another Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge building in Pittsburgh, Shadyside Presbyterian Church.

    Tower

    After many years of raising money and praying, the community is working on restoring this landmark to pass down to future generations.

    Coraopolis station
    Coraopolis station and construction equipment
    Coraopolis station and chain-link fences
    Coraopolis station
    Coraopolis station
    Coraopolis station

    Cameras: Kodak EasyShare Z1285; Canon PowerShot SX150 IS. Most of these pictures are stacks of three different exposures, so that detail is preserved in both the highlights and the shadows.