Father Pitt

Tag: Schools

  • Observatory Hill in 2000

    Three pictures taken with a Russian Lubitel twin-lens-reflex camera in January of 2000. Very little has changed in 21 years. Above, the Byzantine Catholic Seminary, a building that is a strange mix of modernist and classical elements with an onion dome.

    The Byzantine metropolitan’s residence. In the Latin Rite, Pittsburgh is not even an archdiocese, but in the Byzantine Rite, Pittsburgh is the seat of an archeparchy covering eleven states.

    A typical Observatory Hill house on Riverview Avenue, one of the neighborhood’s most attractive streets.

  • The Back of Fifth Avenue High School

    The space across the alley from the rear of Fifth Avenue High School, Uptown, is now a parking lot, and on New Year’s Day it was a deserted parking lot. Thus, with a wide-angle lens, old Pa Pitt could get this picture of (almost) the entire rear of the school, which was designed by Edward Stotz. It sat abandoned for three decades, but now, like every other large building in the city, it has been turned into loft apartments.

  • Morse School

    Now part of the Morse Gardens apartments, this fine-looking 1874 school was designed by T. D. Evans, about whom old Pa Pitt knows nothing else. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places.

  • St. Casimir’s High School

    Like most of the other schools on the South Side Flats, this one has been converted to loft apartments. Externally, though, the building has changed very little.

  • Polish School, South Side

    This old Polish school on 15th Street, built in 1898, was attached to St. Adalbert’s, the big Polish parish just down the street.

  • St. Peter’s Parochial Schools, South Side

    Like almost every other school on the South Side, this one has been turned into apartments.

  • Letsche Elementary School (1941 Addition), Hill District

    In 1941, this addition with interesting Art Deco panels was grafted on the otherwise classical Letsche Elementary School in the Hill District. The school is now the Pittsburgh Student Achievement Center, a school for students who do not thrive in more traditional schools.

  • Clifford B. Connelley Trade School

    Now the home of the Energy Innovation Center, this grand old school on the brow of the Hill taught useful skills to generations of students. The architect was Edward B. Lee, who was a favorite school designer around here.

  • Morse School, South Side

    The Samuel F. B. Morse School, built in 1874, is now the Morse Gardens apartments. It has recently had some extensive renovation work.

  • Schenley High School in 1916

    Grant Boulevard (now Bigelow Boulevard) Front.

    Abandoned for some time because it would have been too costly to restore for use by students, this magnificent building by Edward Stotz may soon be luxury apartments for yuppies. Here we see it as it was when it was newly built in 1916, from the Year Book of the Pittsburgh Architectural Club.

    Rear.

    Main Entrance Hall.

    Would you like to build your own Schenley High School? Here are the original plans: