A beautiful storefront with veiny marble and a large panel of stained glass spanning the whole width. Note the properly inset entrance, so that the door does not fly open into passing pedestrians’ faces—a requirement we have forgotten.
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Storefront on Potomac Avenue, Dormont
Samsung Galaxy A15 5G. -
Chandelier in the Manor Theatre, Squirrel Hill
Though the Manor has long been subdivided into four small theaters, part of the original ceiling remains in the lobby, and this chandelier, according to staff at the theater, is an exact replica of the original.
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Skylight in Baker Hall, Carnegie Mellon University
“My heart is in the work,” said Andrew Carnegie in 1900, and it was a good enough slogan to be immortalized in glass, especially if Carnegie himself was paying for it.
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Stained Glass in the Church of the Assumption
The drama of salvation plays out in glass in the Church of the Assumption, with each pair of windows illustrating events from the Old and New Testaments related by a common theme. We have only a few of the windows here; it would be worth spending an hour or two to examine all of them. Above left: King Achab sends Micheas to prison; the Agony in the Garden; King Joram rejects the prophecy of Eliseus. Above right: Abner is slain treacherously by Joab; Judas betrays Christ with a kiss; Tryphon deceives Jonathan with gifts.
Left: Joseph is sold by his brethren; Judas conspires with the priest and magistrates; Absalom entices the men of Israel. Right: Melchisedech meets Abram; the Last Supper; the manna from heaven.
Left: Esau sells his birthright to Jacob; the Temptation of Christ; the tempting of Adam and Eve. Right: Moses heals Miriam; Mary Magdalene at the feet of Christ; the repentance of David.
Left: Enoch is borne to heaven; the Ascension; Elias is raised into heaven. Right: Moses receives the tables of the Law; the descent of the Holy Ghost as fire from heaven; the sacrifice of Elias.
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Alumnae Memorial Window, Chatham University
A window by Louis Comfort Tiffany, donated to the Pennsylvania Female College (now Chatham) in 1888. The figure is taken from Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling: the Erythraean Sibyl, “here transformed into a symbol for women’s education,” as a plaque nearby says. This was an early work of Tiffany’s, believed to be his earliest in the Pittsburgh area. It was put away in about 1930 and sat in storage for seventy years, because who needed a window by Tiffany? In 2000 it was finally brought out of storage—old Pa Pitt imagines a janitor starting the ball rolling by saying, “Hey, can we get this thing out of the way?”—and restored for a place in the science building.
Note that Shakespeare’s name appears twice in the pantheon of great figures every young lady should know. No one else gets that honor, and—though Shakespeare certainly is worth twice as much as any of the others to an English-speaking college student—one wonders who specified the duplication, or even whether it was intentional.
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Arts-and-Crafts Storefront, Mount Oliver
This tiny building has a simple but rich front; we suspect that the projecting roof was originally covered with green tile, which would have set off the Arts-and-Crafts stained glass even more.
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Domestic Stained Glass on the South Side
Parlor windows and transoms over the front door are often decorated with stained glass. Old Pa Pitt has been out wandering the South Side in the evening to bring back a few pictures of stained glass the way it was meant to be seen.
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Domestic Stained Glass in Beechview
A stained-glass window in an early-twentieth-century house in Beechview. Stained glass like this was especially popular between about 1890 and 1920, just when the streetcar suburbs that later became city neighborhoods were mushrooming. These windows are often stolen if the house is vacant for a while, but even so thousands still decorate houses all around the city.
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Domestic Stained Glass in Shadyside
Some stained glass illuminated from the inside. Above: over the entrance to the Brayton apartments.
In a parlor window.
The entrance to a Tudor apartment building on Negley Avenue at Walnut Street.
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Trinity Window in Trinity Episcopal Cathedral
The large window at the rear of the cathedral. At the apex is the Shield of Faith, the emblem of the Trinity. In the center is Christ ascending, with the legend “He is the King of Glory.” Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John watch and record, each with his traditional symbol (man, lion, ox, eagle).
