Father Pitt

Tag: Spires

  • Chapel, Chatham University

    Chapel

    Old Pa Pitt happened to notice that there were very few pictures in Wikimedia Commons of Chatham University, one of the most beautiful college campuses in Pittsburgh or anywhere. That omission had to be rectified. There are now thirty-two more good pictures in the Chatham University category, and we’ll be seeing many of them in the coming days. This is the chapel, a fine Colonial-revival building from 1940.

    Spire
    From a distance

    On city planning maps, Chatham is in Squirrel Hill. The University calls this the Shadyside campus. We put it in both categories.

  • The Retreating Storm

    The spire of Third Presbyterian Church, Shadyside, silhouetted against retreating storm clouds at sunset.

  • Working on the Spire of Heinz Chapel

  • Spire of First Baptist Church, Oakland

  • Defying the Storm

    Spires of the Tabernacle of the Union Baptist Church, South Side

    Spires of the Tabernacle of the Union Baptist Church, South Side, Pittsburgh, highlighted in evening sun against a stormy sky.

  • Spire of the Smithfield United Church of Christ

    The first structural use of aluminum was this ornate tracery spire on the Smithfield Congregational Church by Henry Hornbostel. Unfortunately the decorative stamped concrete that covers the rest of the church is crumbling, and it will cost millions to repair. The church has been shrouded in mesh for years now, but the spire still proudly catches the early-morning sun.

  • St. Mary of the Mount

    Front elevation of St. Mary of the Mount

    Here is a huge picture of the front of St. Mary of the Mount on Grandview Avenue, Mount Washington. It’s made from eight individual pictures, all cleverly sewn together by Hugin. If you click on the picture, you can enlarge it to 4,692 × 6,569 pixels, or about 30 megapixels. (It could have been larger, but old Pa Pitt decided that 30 megapixels was probably large enough.) Many thanks to Wikimedia Commons for being willing to host huge pictures at such a level of detail.

    The architect was Frederick Sauer, whose conventionally attractive churches do nothing to prepare us for the eccentric whimsy he could produce when he let his imagination run wild.