Most pedestrians on Walnut Street pass this building without noticing it; at best they may glance at the rounded corners, but otherwise it strikes them as just another modernist building. It is in fact one of the very earliest outbreaks of modernism in Pittsburgh: it was designed by Frederick Scheibler and opened in 1908. It must have been startlingly modern indeed surrounded by Edwardian Shadyside.
The cornice and dormers are fine specimens of Victorian woodwork.
This modest apartment building (it looks as though the ground floor used to be a store) is enlivened by interesting brickwork.
On a storefront on Carson Street, South Side.
Last week old Pa Pitt published this picture of a cast-iron storefront on 18th Street, South Side.
Today, walking past the same building, he noticed an inscription at the base.
This is the mark of the founder who cast the storefront, and we see that it was a very local business: East Birmingham was the borough that went from today’s 17th Street to about 27th Street.
This unusual cast-iron storefront is on 18th Street at the intersection with Sarah Street. Its arches are echoed by the windows above, which still retain their original four-pane configuration.
Even on a splendidly Victorian street like Carson Street on the South Side, this building stands out as unusually ornate.
If you look up the word “Polithania” in your favorite search engine, you will find this building and nothing else. It was a bank and land office for Polish and Lithuanian immigrants (Poland and Lithuania have a long history of interconnection). Now it cleans teeth, but the original signs are still over the doors.
The Second Empire style is named after the Second French Empire of Napoleon III. Its most obvious characteristic is the mansard roof with dormers, which supposedly arose in France because, in buildings that were taxed by their interior space, attics were not taxed, and the space under the roof counted as an attic no matter how accommodating it was. The building here at the corner of Carson and 18th Streets is a splendid example of the Pittsburgh implementation of the style.
More old backstreet stores converted into living spaces on the South Side. As old Pa Pitt mentioned earlier, it is easy to recognize these old backstreet stores. They are usually on corners, and the ground floor shows the distinct traces of its old commercial purpose. Above, two side by side on 23rd Street.
The cheap-looking fluted pilasters, ersatz-colonial multipane windows, roof over the entrance, and pedimented schedule board make it almost certain that this pair of houses combined into one was used as a funeral home.
Not every backstreet storefront has been turned into living space. Once in a while we run across one that is still active as a business, like this salon on Sidney Street.
