The 2100 block of Sidney Street has some of the finest high-Victorian houses on the South Side, and several of them have unusual decorative details worth a closer examination. Old Pa Pitt took an evening stroll down Sidney Street the other day and, as always, came back with a few pictures. We’ll start with No. 2109. Note the multiple shapes of roof slates, the woodwork in the dormers, and the rusticated lintels in the picture above.
Since we have fifteen pictures, we’ll put the rest below the fold to avoid slowing down the main page for a week.
A pair of commercial buildings with striking terra-cotta details—especially No. 819, on the left. The huge windows would have allowed light to pour into workshops on the upper floors.
Truly enlightened zoning regulations would mandate cornices with lions’ heads on all buildings more than four storeys tall.
Henry Hornbostel was one of the first architects to employ polychrome terra cotta. Here are three different patterns from buildings at Carnegie Tech, now Carnegie Mellon University.
Thistles, in tribute to Andrew Carnegie’s Scottish pride.
This Art Deco apartment block was built in 1928 or shortly after. At first glance it looks like a simple rectangular modernist box, but a second glance reveals some rich decorative details.
The building is on Centre Avenue, which is a neighborhood border on city planning maps; thus it is technically in Bloomfield, but most Pittsburghers would probably say Shadyside.
Addendum: The architects were Marks & Kann, according to the Charette, the magazine of the Pittsburgh Architectural Club.
Now called just 606 Liberty Avenue, this was once a high-class department store. The odd-shaped building was designed by MacClure & Spahr, who gave us many distinguished buildings downtown. The odd shape was forced on this one by the oblique angle of the intersection of Liberty and Oliver Avenues. That last block of Oliver Avenue was later filled in to make PNC Plaza, but this building memorializes the intersection that used to be.
The front on both streets is covered—perhaps the appropriate word is festooned—with terra-cotta decorations. The style is a kind of fantasy Jacobean Renaissance, with wide arches coming to a very shallow not-quite point. Old James I only wished he could have buildings like this in his realm.
A small school by a distinguished architect: Charles M. Bartberger, who gave us several fine schools. (He is often confused with his father, Charles F. Bartberger, who designed some prominent churches.) The Lee School is now a retirement home under the name Gualtieri Manor.
The entrance is surrounded by tasteful terra-cotta ornamentation.
This pattern is called a Vitruvian wave, named for Vitruvius, the ancient Roman author whose manual on architecture became the arbiter of everything that was proper in design during the Renaissance.
The arms of the city of Pittsburgh over the entrance.
[Update: This article has been thoroughly revised with information about the architect and date, with thanks to David Schwing.] Continuing our visits to car dealers of the past, we come to the Samson dealer. More recently it was a gallery of some sort, and now it is decaying, although part of the building appears to be still in use.
The building was put up in about 1918, as the automobile business was passing from big business to colossus of American industry. The architect was probably R. Maurice Trimble, who was hired to design a building here when the Samson Motor Company bought the land. The only uncertainty is that the building was announced as a four-storey structure, but plans often shrink on the way to execution.
The front is a feast of terra-cotta details.
Gazette Times, January 30, 1918: “One of the finest buildings devoted to the automobile business in the city will result from a sale closed recently, whereby the Atlantic Land Company has sold to H. Samson a plot of ground approximately 91×218 feet on the north side of Baum boulevard near Melwood street. The plot is in the heart of the automobile district and is situated between the Atlantic Refining Company’s building and the Kaufmann & Baer garage. The consideration was $30,000. The proposed building will be constructed over the design of Architect R. M. Trimble, bids to be received next month. It will be a brick, concrete and steel structure covering the entire plot and will cost $150,000. It is understood that the deal was negotiated by George Bros.” The 1923 Hopkins map shows 4643 Baum Boulevard belonging to Samson Motor Co., with the Atlantic Refining Co. gas station on one side and the Kaufmann & Baer garage on the other.
The Renshaw Building at Liberty Avenue and Ninth Street was built in 1910, with an extra floor added to the top at some time in the modernistic era. It’s a perfect miniature skyscraper, with base, shaft, cap, and the outlined bosses’ floor above the main floor. There are some good terra-cotta decorations, especially around the Ninth Street entrance.
Two buildings very similar in size and shape and remarkably dissimilar in decoration. The one on the left has attractive but very ordinary classical details. The one on the right is festooned with terra-cotta tiles in an almost shocking green.
Addendum: This latter building was designed by Frederick Sauer, who signed it in a shield to the right of the right-hand display window.
We continue our visits to car dealers of the mythic past with one that catered to the very highest class of motorist. The Painter-Dunn Company sold Pierce-Arrow cars, a luxury brand that lasted until 1938. This dealership is the architectural equivalent of the Pierce-Arrow advertisements, which concentrated on elegant design without trying to tell us how good the car was. The design conveyed the message.
Father Pitt does not know the whole history of this building. The elaborate cornice at the top of the second floor suggests that the third floor was a tastefully managed later addition.
Addendum: The Construction Record in 1915 confirms that this building was put up as two floors, and names the architects: “Architects Hunting & Davis Company, Century building, awarded to Henry Shenk Company, Century Building, the contract for constructing a two-story brick and terra cotta garage and assembly shop on Center avenue, Shadyside, for the Painter-Dunn Company. Cost $100,000.”
Note how Millvale Avenue runs right into the garage entrance.
![Service entrance]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Sampson_Motor_Co.%2C_Oakland%2C_2022-08-19%2C_service_entrance_01.jpg)
