Father Pitt

Tag: Rundbogenstil

  • Gospel Hall, Bloomfield

    Gospel Hall, front elevation

    W. Ward Williams was the architect of this little church facing Friendship Park, built in about 1915.1 It has been painted for its new life as a day-care center in bright patterns that both contrast with and emphasize its Rundbogenstil features.

    These pictures were taken in July of 2025, but somehow old Pa Pitt forgot about them until now.

    Gospel Hall
    Gospel Hall
    Olympus E-20N.
    1. Source: The Construction Record, September 19, 1914. “Architect W . Ward Williams, Magee building, has revised, plans for a one-story brick and concrete church, to be built on 4923 Friendship avenue, for the Gospel Hall Congregation.” Additions and alterations by the same architect, 1927. Source: The Charette, September, 1927: “343. Architect: W. Ward Williams, 309-4th Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pa. Title: Gospel Hall, Friendship Avenue, E. E., Pittsburgh, Pa. Alterations and additions. Ordinary construction. Two stories, new heating plant. Job closes August 16. Plumbing, heating and wiring reserved. List of Bidders: Walker & Curley, H. S. Moorhead & Company; A. J. Gloekler; Pittsburgh Engineering & Construction Corp.; and J. Kindler.” ↩︎
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  • A Jewel on Braddock Avenue, Braddock

    1129 Braddock Avenue

    Two doors up the street from St. Michael’s School is this colorful little building, of whose history old Pa Pitt knows nothing. Perhaps someone better informed can reveal it to us in the comments. Father Pitt thought it might have been part of St. Michael’s parish, but old maps do not seem to suggest that it was. Whatever it was, its colorful tile arches and terra-cotta ornaments are worth preserving, and we are happy to see it so well maintained.

    A feast of terra cotta
    Entrance with tile decorations
    Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR; Sony Alpha 3000 with 7Artisans F/1.4 35mm lens.
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  • Old Rankin Municipal Building

    Rankin Municipal Building

    What was once a rather flamboyant exercise in provincial Rundbogenstil has been tamed by multiple alterations, but we can still see some of the characteristic ornaments—such as the varied crenellations along the cornice and the heavily emphasized eyebrows over the originally arched windows.

    Rankin Apartment inscription

    The building has a new life as apartments, which at least keeps it standing, even if the conversion did dilute much of its original character.

    Old Rankin municipal Building
    Sony Alpha 3000; Kodak EasyShare Max Z990.

    Update: Thanks to our alert correspondent David Schwing, we have this old postcard that shows the building when it was young and Romanesquer. It was put up in 1908; the architect was E. W. Milligan of Swissvale.1

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  • Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children, Oakland

    Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children

    George S. Orth was the architect of this school, one of the first large institutional buildings in the Oakland district. It was built in 1894, and it still serves its original institution.

    Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children

    The style is a sort of Flemish Renaissance filtered through Americanized Rundbogenstil. The horizontal stripes in the brickwork are such an instantly distinctive feature that they have been imitated in the school’s modern additions.

    Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children
    Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children
    Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children
    Kodak EasyShare Max Z990; Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
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  • Passionist Convent, Carrick

    Passionist convent

    This was the first Passionist convent in the United States. The architect was Edmund B. Lang, whose firm would soon be known as Edward B. Lang & Brother, the Brother being Herman J., who would design some fine churches, including St. George’s in Allentown and St. Basil’s in Carrick.

    Convent

    The cornerstone was laid in 1910, and the Pittsburg Press covered the event in its “Religious and Charitable” section for September 2, 1910 (p. 9).

    The cornerstone of the first Passionist convent in America will be laid in Carrick next Sunday afternoon at 4 o’clock. This convent, the mother house of the order in this country, is also the first cloistered convent to be built in the local diocese. The ceremony of laying the stone will be conducted by the Rev. Father Stanilaus Grennan, provincial of the order in this country. Bishop J. F. Regis Canevin, of the Pittsburg diocese, and a number of prominent members of the clergy and laity are expected to be present. The convent, which has been designed by Architect Edmund B. Lang, is severely plain in plan. It is being built of brick and stone. The American Passionist Sisterhood consists of the five nuns who came to this country from Italy, arriving in Pittsburg May 5. Since coming here the number has been augmented, two Pittsburg girls and one Baltimore girl being now in the novitiate, preparing themselves to join the order.

    Convent
    Inscription reading “Passionist Nuns”
    Belfry
    Chapel and convent

    The chapel is a good example of the late Rundbogenstil as practiced by the Langs.

    Chapel
    Chapel
    Wooden awning
    Wooden awning
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
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  • Telephone Building

    Telephone Building
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.

    This building stands out among the skyscrapers that surround it like a strange relic of a lost civilization—the pre-skyscraper age. It was built in 1890, and the architect was young Frederick Osterling. He would soon master the Richardsonian Romanesque style and become one of our most accomplished practitioners of it, but this is pre-Richardsonian Romanesque. The weighty but graceful eyebrows over the arches, the complex and irregular rhythm of different sizes, and the surprising but flowing curves all remind us of Osterling’s old master Joseph Stillburg, whose Romanesque ideas went back to his native Austria.

    Front elevation
    Composite picture from 2019.

  • Rodler Hotel, Mount Oliver

    Rodler Hotel

    This was a “hotel” in the old Pittsburgh sense, which is to say a neighborhood bar with rooms upstairs to qualify it for a “hotel” liquor license, which was much easier to get than a liquor license for a bar. The last time we saw the Rodler Hotel, about ten years ago, it appeared to be abandoned; but now it has new windows and is stabilized and occupied. The collapsing aluminum awnings have also been removed.

    Corner entrance

    The corner entrance was filled in years ago to make a vestibule. Father Pitt prefers corner entrances left open, but he was not the owner of the building.

    Corner entrance
    Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR.
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  • Murphy Building, Sheraden

    Murphy Building

    William J. Shaw was the architect of the most prominent commercial block in Sheraden, built in 1904 or 1905 for Sheraden’s own self-made developer, contractor, and civic luminary John Murphy.1 The details are mostly Renaissance; but the heavily eyebrowed arches and weighty and elaborate cornice make the term “Rundbogenstil” appropriate, giving us another chance to say the word “Rundbogenstil.”

    Inscription: “MVRPHY”
    Acute angle of the Murphy Building

    This is a classic Pittsburgh “flatiron” building, with the classic Pittsburgh problem of three dimensions of irregularity in the lot. To the right the ground slopes precipitously down to the Sheraden station—a railroad station when it was built, a busway station now that the West Busway has duplicated the old Panhandle commuter route to the western suburbs.

    Corner of the Murphy Building

    We considered taking those utility cables out. After a couple of experiments, we realized it would require more hand-painting than we were willing to do.

    Pilaster base with egg-and-dart ornament

    A pilaster base on the sharp corner with oversized egg-and-dart ornamentation.

    False Balcony

    A Renaissance false balcony with egg-and-dart, dentils, and balusterasters in relief. Old Pa Pitt had to invent the term “balusteraster” to describe these false balusters, and now that he has invented it he will use it wherever appropriate. We can see that this building keeps a sharp eye on the complicated and confusing every-which-way intersection outside; possibly the most amusing videos are posted to some YouTube channel.

    Murphy Building
    Inscription
    Nikon COOLPIX P100.

    Inscription on the Hillsboro Street side.

    1. Pittsburgh Gazette, July 9, 1904, p. 11: “Plans are being prepared by Architect W. J. Shaw for a three-story store and office building to be erected in Railroad street, Sheraden, at a cost of $32,000 by John Murphy.” Also, Philadelphia Real Estate Record & Builders’ Guide, July 27, 1904, p. 481: “Plans have been prepared by Architect W. J. Shaw, Smith Building, for a three-story store and office building to be erected on Railroad street, Sheraden, for Mr. John Murphy, at a cost of $32,000. It will be well finished throughout and provided with the usual modern conveniences.” ↩︎
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  • Victorian Store and Apartments in Homewood

    529–531 North Homewood Avenue

    A good example of the style old Pa Pitt thinks of as German Victorian, with heavily eyebrowed Rundbogenstil arches and prominent finials. It was probably built in the 1890s; it appears on plat maps in the early twentieth century (check the “1903–1906” box) as owned by L. Vilsack—almost certainly the Leopold Vilsack who was a prominent real-estate developer in the East End and one of the founders of Iron City Brewing, whose mausoleum in St. Mary’s Cemetery is in an exaggerated version of the same style. The windows have been filled in with new ones of the wrong size, and the ground floor has been altered (the storefront originally had a corner entrance), but most of the decorations that give the building its Victorian character have survived.

    Front elevation
    529–531 North Homewood Avenue
    529–531 North Homewood Avenue
    529–531 North Homewood Avenue
    Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR.

    Correction: When this article was first published, old Pa Pitt had negligently typed “Homestead” instead of “Homewood” in the headline. Thanks to a correspondent for pointing out the error.

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  • First National Bank of Crafton

    First National Bank of Crafton

    One of several “flatiron” buildings produced by the irregular street layout of Crafton. This one is odd angles all around.

    First National Bank of Crafton
    First National Bank of Crafton
    First National Bank of Crafton
    Corner entrance to the First National Bank of Crafton

    The main entrance is on the sharp corner facing the intersection of Noble Avenue, Crafton Avenue, and Dinsmore Avenue (which is what we meant when we said Crafton had an irregular street layout).

    Segmental pediment

    A segmental pediment—that is, a pediment whose top is a segment of a circle, rather than the more usual triangle.

    First National Bank of Crafton

    The side entrance would have led into the upstairs offices: a bank putting up a building like this would expect to make extra income from office rentals, and bank buildings were usually prestigious addresses.

    First National Bank of Crafton

    The side of the building not meant to be seen is finished more cheaply.

    First National Bank of Crafton
    Fujifilm FinePix HS20 EXR.
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