Father Pitt

Tag: Streetscapes

  • Dinwiddie Street: A Resurrection

    Houses on Dinwiddie Street

    In 1889, William Smith Fraser, one of our top architects in those days, supervised a whole long block of fifty elegant stone-fronted houses lining both sides of Dinwiddie Street.1

    A majority of the houses disappeared over the years; the street came to look like a battle zone, three-quarters abandoned.

    But the wheel turned again. About fifteen years ago, Rothschild Doyno Collaborative designed infill housing and refurbished the Fraser houses. The new houses were built at the same scale and setback as the old, and with some of the same massing; the old houses were refurbished with inexpensive materials that matched the new houses.

    Dinwiddie Street

    It’s still not a rich neighborhood. But it’s a beautiful and welcoming streetscape again, and it’s an inspiring example of how an interrupted streetscape can be made whole. The new houses are definitely of our century, but they belong on the street. Without duplicating the Fraser designs, they make themselves at home in the neighborhood.

    Houses on Dinwiddie Street

    In this picture, the houses with stone bays in front are some of the original Fraser houses. Their more colorful neighbors are the “infill” houses.

    Fraser houses

    A pair of the original Fraser houses.

    Looking down the row on Dinwiddie Street
    Houses on Dinwiddie Street
    Dinwiddie Street
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.
    1. Source: Philadelphia Real Estate Record and Builders’ Guide, May 29, 1889, p. 246. “The contract for the fifty modern dwellings, previously reported, to be erected on Dinwiddie street by Mr. Lockhart, has been given to Henry Shenck. W. S. Fraser, Seventh street and Penn avenue is the architect. These dwellings will be of brick, with stone fronts, bay windows and porches, and all modern conveniences.” ↩︎
    Comments

  • Exchange Way

    Exchange Way

    Exchange Way is an ancient alley that has served the backs of buildings on Liberty Avenue and Penn Avenue for two centuries or more. It has never been completely continuous, and a two-block interruption caused the name of the stub of the alley that branched off Cecil Way to be forgotten, so that it was renamed Charette Way when the Pittsburgh Architectural Club opened a clubhouse with its entrance on the alley. But originally that alley was part of Exchange Way, too.

    A good alley is a symphony of textures, and some of Father Pitt’s favorite pictures are black-and-white photographs of alleys.

    Exchange Way
    Comments

  • Third Avenue

    Third Avenue from Stanwix Street, Pittsburgh
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.

    Looking eastward up the whole length of Third Avenue from Stanwix Street.

    Comments

  • Sciota Street, Bloomfield

    Houses on Sciota Street in the Bloomfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.

    A typical backstreet Bloomfield row of frame houses, showing almost every treatment working-class Pittsburghers can think of to apply to the exterior of an old house.

    Comments

  • West Side of the Diamond

    West side of the Diamond
    Nikon COOLPIX P100.

    The west side of the Diamond or Market Square, seen from Graeme Street.

    Comments

  • Milo Street, Beechview

    Milo Street, Beechview

    Like many other streets that appear on the maps of hilly neighborhoods, Milo Street is entirely stairs. Whenever you see a street sign that seems to be pointing off the edge of a cliff, a stairway like this is usually the explanation.

    “Milo Street” sign
    Milo Street
    Kodak EasyShare Z1285.

  • Boulevard of the Allies

    Boulevard of the Allies

    Looking eastward from the pedestrian bridge at Gateway Center Park.

  • Penn Avenue in the Cultural District

    Penn Avenue looking northeastward
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

  • An Alley in Lawrenceville

    Garden Way in Lawrenceville
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.

    Garden Way looking eastward from Fisk Street.

  • Milgate Street, Bloomfield

    Houses on Milgate Street in the Bloomfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh
    Kodak EasyShare Z1285.

    These frame houses were built in the 1880s and 1890s. They are detached houses—detached by just enough room for an average person to walk between them. As a group, they form a good document of the things ambitious salesmen could sell to middle-class homeowners in the twentieth century. Not a single one retains its original details: they have all had their siding replaced, and most have smaller windows than the originals. And, of course, several have sprouted aluminum awnings.