The corner of Sidney Street and South 19th Street, where we find a Second Empire building with a beautifully kept storefront.
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A Backstreet Corner of the South Side in the Snow
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Two Front Doors on Sidney Street, South Side
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Row of Queen Anne Duplexes on Sidney Street, South Side
These three Queen Anne duplexes were once identical, or nearly so. Each one has had separate adventures, and each one has preserved some details and lost others.
This one probably preserves the original appearance best, though it has lost the stained glass in the parlor windows.
This one has suffered badly from separate ownership of the two sides. Some contractor charged quite a bit of money for mutilating the left-hand side. The right side has also been modernized, but with more taste, using windows that are the right size and shape for the wall.
This one has had similar alterations, but at least the parlor windows have not been filled in with toy blocks.
Old Pa Pitt is constantly surprised by the number of Pittsburgh homeowners who say, “I hate all that natural light and fresh air! Block in those big ugly windows and give me just enough glass to see what the weather is out there.”
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One Block of Sidney Street on the South Side
The 2100 block of Sidney Street has some of the finest high-Victorian houses on the South Side, and several of them have unusual decorative details worth a closer examination. Old Pa Pitt took an evening stroll down Sidney Street the other day and, as always, came back with a few pictures. We’ll start with No. 2109. Note the multiple shapes of roof slates, the woodwork in the dormers, and the rusticated lintels in the picture above.
Since we have fifteen pictures, we’ll put the rest below the fold to avoid slowing down the main page for a week.
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Herringbone
The sidewalk along Sidney Street, South Side. Old brick sidewalks are pleasant and picturesque; they do tend to be just irregular enough to be hazardous to pedestrians whose eyes are glued to their phone screens.
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B. M. Kramer & Co. Building
Note that this picture is more than 13 megabytes if you enlarge it. Old Pa Pitt can only say this is not bad for a first try. He has always admired this little masterpiece of industrial architecture (which surprisingly still houses a pipe, valve, and fittings company), and set himself the task of getting a picture of the Sidney Street face, which covers the entire block between 20th Street and 21st Street on the South Side. The evening sun was not kind to him, so he may try again on a cloudy day; but this is still the only picture of the whole Sidney Street face on the entire Internet, so Father Pitt gives himself credit for that much. Below, a more conventional (and much easier) view from the corner of 20th and Sidney Streets, with the usual utility cables.
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A Romanesque Church for Sale
This charming little church was most recently used as a law office; but the lawyers are moving out, and here is your chance to have an architecturally unique studio, office, or even residence on the South Side. It is about the same height and depth as the rowhouses next door, but comes with its own corner parking lot.
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B. M. Kramer & Co Building, South Side
Old Pa Pitt has always regarded this as a masterpiece of industrial architecture. It occupies a whole block of Sidney Street between 20th and 21st.
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Houses on Sidney Street, South Side
A particularly fine cluster of Victorian rowhouses on Sidney Street, South Side, near the intersection with 23rd Street.
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Sidney Street in the SouthSide Works
When the New Urbanist SouthSide Works development was built, the Town Square here on Sidney Street was clearly meant to be its retail heart. But it also lined a previously empty stretch of Carson Street with new storefronts in architecture cleverly echoing, without imitating, the Victorian shops of the old South Side. In effect, it extended the prosperous Carson Street business district a few more blocks. The result has been that the Carson Street side prospers, while the Town Square has had some trouble filling vacant storefronts. Nevertheless, the prosperity of Carson Street, as it continues to grow, should leach into the Town Square.
Camera: Canon PowerShot A540.
