Father Pitt

Tag: Schools

  • Auditorium Entrance, Andrew W. Mellon Middle School, Mount Lebanon

    Entrance to Andrew W. Mellon Middle School

    The National Forum warns us that we have to keep an eye on this school. All the schools of its era in Mount Lebanon were designed by Ingham & Boyd, or by Ingham, Boyd & Pratt once Pratt became a partner. This one comes from the era when they were adapting Art Deco elements to their usual ruthlessly symmetrical classicism, and the result shows some similarity to the same firm’s Buhl Planetarium. It has not changed much since it was built, except that, when the name was changed from “Junior High School” to “Middle School,” the inscription was clumsily applied with no spacing between the letters. That bugs old Pa Pitt, but he is not going to get up on a ladder and fix it himself.

    Medallion with theatrical masks

    Father Pitt does not know the sculptor of these two medallions, but he has a pretty good guess. Compare them to the reliefs by Sidney Waugh on Buhl Planetarium: The Heavens and The Earth and Primitive Science and Modern Science. It seems likely that the same architects hired the same sculptor for these reliefs.

    Medallion with lyre
    Marquee
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

    The marquee is festooned with unexpectedly colorful Art Deco swags.

  • Coraopolis Junior High School

    Coraopolis Junior High School

    Edward Stotz, who also designed Fifth Avenue High School and Schenley High School (the country’s first million-dollar high school), was the architect of this staid and respectable school, now turned into apartments.

    “Ridgeview” Apt’s 1130

    The inscription over the door was hand-painted by someone with a distinctive idea of quotation marks.

    Entrance
    Kodak EasyShare Z981.
    Side of the school
    Coraopolis Junior High School
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.

  • St. Francis de Sales School, McKees Rocks

    Inscription: St. Francis de Sales School
    This composite picture is big; enlarge it to appreciate the variety of classical ornament.

    Unlike the adjacent church, St. Francis de Sales School found a new use when it closed, and it is still maintained. The alterations were heavy and unsympathetic, but we can still see enough of the original design to imagine the rest. The original part of the school was built in 1909; it appears to have been expanded later. This is the Margaret Street end, with the original inscription.

    St. Francis de Sales School
    St. Francis de Sales School

    This end of the school appears to be a later expansion.

    Belfry

    The open belfry in this entrance tower, and the entrance below it, suggest some Art Nouveau influence.

    St. Francis de Sales School
    St. Francis de Sales School
    Sony Alpha 3000 with 7Artisans f/1.4 35mm lens; Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.

  • Neville School, Neville Island

    Neville School, old section

    The school for Neville Township, the municipality whose borders are the shores of Neville Island, was built in three main stages. The little school above, with four or five rooms, was the first.

    Inscription: Neville School
    Entrance to the old section
    Old section of the Neville School
    Old section of the Neville School
    Middle section

    Some time later, a two-storey building in a matching Jacobean style was built around the corner.

    Middle section of the Neville School
    Book and torch
    Perspective view

    Finally, a postwar modern section was added, probably around 1960 to judge from the style. It was not in use for a long time: old Pa Pitt had a very pleasant conversation with a neighborhood resident whose wife was a member of the last graduating class of this school in 1971. Neville Township and Coraopolis merged their school systems into the Cornell School District, whose name is a portmanteau of the two municipalities. Fortunately, the buildings have found other uses.

    Newest section of the Neville School

  • Edwin Markham Public School, Mount Lebanon

    Inscription: Edwin Markham Public School, Mount Lebanon

    All the older schools in Mount Lebanon were designed by Ingham & Boyd, and here we see a fine example of their style. An Ingham & Boyd school is an implied guarantee that your children will grow up to be respectable citizens. The buildings are in a restrained classical style, with just enough ornament to show that good money was spent on this structure. This particular school is named for a poet who was a big deal in the early twentieth century and has been almost completely forgotten since then.

    Edwin Markham Public School
    Edwin Markham Public School
    Entrance
    Door
    Frieze
    Edwin Markham Public School
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

  • St. Michael’s Mädchen Schule, South Side Slopes

    St. Michael’s Mädchen Schule

    It seems certain that this building, formerly the girls’ school for St. Michael’s parish, will be demolished sooner or later; what has saved it so far is the expense of demolishing a large building in a neighborhood with low property values. But the South Side Slopes, like many city neighborhoods, have become much more valuable lately.

    Right now, the building appears to house a whole alternate civilization of “homeless” squatters. In an ideal city, perhaps, it could continue to do so, but with a city budget for maintaining it and providing the elementary comforts to the residents. We do not live in that ideal city.

    At any rate, it seemed worth stopping to record a few details of the building before it disappears entirely, and another piece of Pittsburgh’s rich German history is gone. We also have a few pictures from a year and a half ago, including a composite view of the front.

    Entrance, perspective view
    Entrance
    Inscription

    “St. Michael’s Mädchen Schule” (“St. Michael’s Girls’ School”).

    Inscription

    “Errichtet A. D. 1872” (“Erected A. D. 1872”).

    Inscription

    “Wiedererbaut A. D. 1900” (“Rebuilt A. D. 1900”).

    Pilaster
    St. Michael’s Mädchen Schule
    Kodak EasyShare Z981.

  • Western Theological Seminary, Allegheny West

    Western Theological Seminary
    Sony Alpha 3000.

    We saw the Western Theological Seminary at the blue hour last month. Here are a few pictures taken just after sunset, when the light is brighter and just touched with gold.

    Tower

    The building was designed by Thomas Hannah in 1914. It is now West Hall of the Community College of Allegheny County, which has an admirable record of preserving historic buildings.

    Entrance
    Top of the tower
    Perspective view
    Another perspective
    From the sidewalk

  • Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children, Oakland

    Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children

    George S. Orth was the architect of this palace of education, which was finished in 1894. It’s a little bit Flemish Renaissance, with eye-catching horizontal stripes and Rundbogenstil eyebrows over the arches.

    Front of the school
    Entrance arcade

  • Western Theological Seminary, Allegheny West

    Western Theological Seminary

    “Blue hour” pictures are very fashionable these days. Well, old Pa Pitt can do those too, if you really want them.

    Western Theological Seminary tower
    Entrance

    We also have pictures of the Western Theological Seminary by day.

  • Sharpsburg Public School

    Sharpsburg Public School

    Here is a hint for institutions finding themselves in possession of distinguished historic buildings that are crumbling a bit at the cornice: when the low-bidding contractor says, “Sure, I can fix that…”

    Perspective view of the building

    …see what the second-lowest-bidding contractor has to offer.

    One end of the building

    The building is still in use as a school, now for special education. We note that it has been modified to suit the modern discovery that natural light poisons children’s blood.

    Blocked entrance
    Ionic capital