Father Pitt

Tag: Storefronts

  • A Visit to McKeesport in 1888

    McKeesport was the second city of Allegheny County, far enough from Pittsburgh to be a small metropolitan center in its own right, but near enough to be within commuting distance of the larger city. The economic engine of the city was the National Tube Works, which gave McKeesport the proud nickname “Tube City.”

    Metal tubing, however, was not the city’s only industry. For example, the Wernke Brothers produced carriages, wagons, and other vehicles.

    All that money had to be kept somewhere, and this was the First National Bank. Later bank buildings in McKeesport grew much grander.

  • Regal Shoe Company

    This oddly domestic-looking storefront is made for a high-class tenant, and has found the perfect match in Heinz Healey’s haberdashery. The building was designed by Alden & Harlow, whose usual good taste is apparent.

  • One of the Oldest Buildings Downtown

    Pittsburgh is a colonial-era city, but downtown has been rebuilt so many times that not much is left from before the Civil War. This building probably dates from the late 1840s, making it one of the oldest remaining downtown. It probably came after the Great Fire of 1845, but it appears in this engraving of the Diamond as it appeared before 1852, which was the year the old courthouse in the middle was torn down.

    The building in the background, with smoke rising from its chimneys, is clearly meant to be this one. There are eleven columns of windows in the engraving instead of the nine columns of windows we see today, but old Pa Pitt suspects the engraver was working from a rough sketch and simply gave us his best guess.

  • Cast-Iron Front, Liberty Avenue

    A fine example of a Victorian cast-iron façade, nicely restored, on Liberty Avenue in the Cultural District.

  • A Very Tall Building for 1888

    The Hamilton Building stood at 91 and 93 Fifth Avenue, which, if the addresses are the same, would put it right about where the May Building is now. The owner, a dealer in pianos and cottage organs, was obviously very proud of its astounding height. But the skyscraper age was about to begin, and in a few years this would be just another inconsiderable storefront downtown, soon to be replaced by a skyscraper itself.

    Source: Allegheny County: Its Early History and Subsequent Development, 1888.

  • 242 Fifth Avenue

    This ostentatious little building on Fifth Avenue is in need of some restoration. Something could be done with the ground floor to make it more in sympathy with the upper storeys without spending the immense fortune it would probably take to recreate the original classical front. Even a simple modernist glass front would be more harmonious.

  • Cast-Iron Front on Fifth Avenue

    Restored a few years ago, this is a fine example of a Victorian cast-iron façade.

  • Market Street at First Avenue

    Market Street between First Avenue and the Boulevard of the Allies probably looks very similar to the way it looked in the later 1800s. In fact it probably looks very similar to the way most of the streets downtown looked before skyscrapers began to mushroom all over. But the eastern side of Market Street is scheduled for demolition, and although old Pa Pitt has not bothered to research what is replacing those low buildings, he would make an educated guess that it will be a high-rise full of luxury condominium apartments.

    111 Market Street, a tall building in the days before elevators.

    Condemned: a whole block of human-sized buildings on the east side of Market.

    The Lowman Shields Rubber Building on First Avenue seems to be scheduled for demolition at the same time as the buildings on Market Street. This fine Romanesque commercial building deserves to be kept, but the city is prosperous now, and prosperity is the enemy of preservation.

  • Apartments and Storefronts, Dormont

    This interesting residential-commercial structure on Potomac Avenue seems to combine two styles. The apartment building is a kind of very late Italianate, but the way the projecting storefronts form a sort of courtyard seems very much in the Mission style, as do the sloped roofs, which old Pa Pitt suspects were originally tile rather than asphalt shingles.

  • The Maul Building

    The Maul Building at Carson and Seventeenth is noted for its ornate terra-cotta exterior. Unfortunately the cornice has been lost, but the rest of the building, which dates from 1910, is still one of Carson Street’s commercial treasures.


    Map