Father Pitt

Tag: St. Joseph the Worker Parish

  • St. Colman Church, Turtle Creek

    St. Colman Church

    This was the last of the five (out of seven) churches old Pa Pitt managed to visit during the open house for St. Joseph the Worker Parish, seven of whose eight churches are closing this month. Because he got there just as the open house was winding up, Father Pitt didn’t get as many pictures as of the other churches, but the ones he did get give a good impression of what the church is like. They also show that it needs some maintenance work, which would probably be expensive.

    Belfry

    Addendum: The architect was Pittsburgh-born, Philadelphia-based Harold Wagoner, with Angel Chorne as associate.

    Nave
    Nave
    Interior
    Stained glass
    Sony Alpha 3000; Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.

    It’s always sad to see a church close. However, there is very good news for St. Colman’s School, a 1920s masterpiece by Link, Weber & Bowers. It is undergoing a thorough and expensive restoration for a second life. We took a few pictures of the school on the same visit.

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  • Good Shepherd Church, Braddock

    Good Shepherd Church

    Another of the seven closing churches in the inner eastern suburbs. The dominant feature of this one, built as St. Michael’s in 1929–1930, is the huge octagonal lantern.

    Addendum: The architect was Carlton Strong, according to Van Trump & Ziegler’s Landmark Architecture of Allegheny County (1967), p. 163.

    Good Shepherd Church
    Good Shepherd Church
    Good Shepherd Church
    Belfry
    Side entrance
    Windows
    The same windows from the inside
    Window
    Window
    Window
    Entrance
    Interior

    The interior of the church is much more auditorium-like than most Catholic churches of its era, probably because a square lot forced it to make that adaptation.

    Interior looking toward altar
    Chancel
    Chancel
    Chancel
    Interior
    Interior
    Choir loft
    Baptistery
    Stained-glass windows
    Stained-glass windows
    Sony Alpha 3000; Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
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  • St. Jude the Apostle Church, Wilmerding

    St. Jude the Apostle Church

    Another one of the seven closing churches in the near eastern suburbs. The exterior has the kind of “noble simplicity” American bishops love to praise, while at the same time maintaining a traditional look.

    St. Jude the Apostle
    Nave, looking toward altar

    The best description old Pa Pitt can come up with for the interior is “straightforward.” It is not spectacular, but it works for Christian liturgy, with everything in the right place and room for devotional art of the right sorts.

    Nave
    Nave
    Chancel

    A dramatic Last Supper painting behind the altar shows all the disciples in characteristic poses, including tortured Judas clutching his bag of money and stewing over what he’s about to do. (Click or tap on the picture to enlarge it.)

    Rear entrance and choir loft
    Nave, looking toward the rear
    Stained glass: John the Baptist and Annunciation

    The stained glass is also straightforward. To Father Pitt’s nose it has a strong scent of illustrated Sunday-school supplement about it, but it tells the Bible stories in a way that we can immediately recognize. Above, John the Baptist and the Annunciation.

    Jpseph and Jesus; Jesus praying in the wilderness

    Joseph and the child Jesus (who has made himself a model cross); Jesus praying in the wilderness.

    Jesus calling disciples; the Twelva adoring Mary

    The Transfiguration; the Twelve adoring Mary.

    Adam and Eve; Abraham and Isaac

    Adam and Eve cast out of the Garden of Eden; the angel staying the hand of Abraham as he is about to sacrifice Isaac.

    Jacob’s dream; David and Goliath

    Jacob’s dream; David with the head of Goliath.

    Manna from heaven; Moses about to smash the Ten Commandments
    Sony Alpha 3000; Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.

    Manna from heaven; Moses, seeing the golden calf, about the smash the tablets of the Law.

    Addendum: The church, built beginning in 1955 as St. Aloysius, was designed by William York Cocken and Edward J. Hergenroeder. The basement, however, was built in 1914 and temporarily roofed over, but multiple delays (including two big wars and a Depression) kept the congregation in that temporary basement church for more than forty years.1

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  • Madonna del Castello Church, Swissvale

    Statue and inscription: Madonna del Castello
    Madonna del Castello

    The first reaction of most visitors to Madonna del Castello is astonishment that such a thing even exists. The sanctuary hovers over the parking lot on spindly legs like some giant beetle ready to march out into the streets of Swissvale. It is beautiful, impressive, and a little terrifying.

    Many more pictures…

  • Stained Glass in St. Anselm Church, Swissvale

    Window

    Some of the most important windows in St. Anselm Church, Swissvale, which is scheduled to close this month. These pictures are large enough to show considerable detail; click or tap on the picture to enlarge it. Father Pitt took the time to document the windows in detail because Catholics usually remove the stained glass when they abandon a church.

    Many more pictures…

  • Inside St. Anselm Church, Swissvale

    Nave of St. Anselm Church

    The interior of St. Anselm in Swissvale, one of the seven churches in St. Joseph the Worker parish scheduled to close this month. We’ll have a separate article for the stained glass. Father Pitt publishes these pictures with gratitude to the parish volunteers who held a simultaneous open house in all the churches of the parish on Sunday, February 22. Old Pa Pitt managed to get to five of the churches during the two-hour window.

    Many more pictures…

  • St. Anselm Church, Swissvale

    Tower of St. Anselm

    St. Joseph the Worker is an eight-church Catholic parish in the near eastern suburbs. Seven of those churches are scheduled to close this month. A Wikimedia Commons user got in touch with Father Pitt and asked if he could document some of those churches before they close, and it seemed nothing less than a duty to respond.

    We begin with the exterior of the church that, of the seven, Father Pitt would most like to see preserved: St. Anselm in Swissvale. We have pictures of the interior as well.

    St. Anselm from the rear

    Albert F. Link was the architect of this magnificent Romanesque church, which opened in 1925. It shows Link’s usual adroit combination of historically informed detail with modern Art Nouveau veering toward Art Deco feeling.

    More pictures and more text…