Father Pitt

Tag: University of Pittsburgh

  • Holland Mansion, Oakland

    Music Building, University of Pittsburgh

    Now the Music Building of the University of Pittsburgh, this house (built in 1884) was a gift from his wife to the pastor of the Bellefield Presbyterian Church across the street. It is thus one of the few buildings in Oakland that predate Oakland (along with the tower of the church, which still stands beside a modern office building). It is also a lesson for clergy: if your particular sect permits marriage, it is a good idea to marry an heiress. You can see the advantages. Most pastors’ wives do not give their husbands a mansion designed by Longfellow, Alden & Harlow, and that is because most pastors do not sensibly marry heiresses as they ought to do.

  • Stephen Foster Memorial

    Stephen Foster Memorial

    One of the cluster of Gothic buildings by Charles Z. Klauder at the heart of the University of Pittsburgh, this looks like the baptistery for the Cathedral of Learning. It houses a museum of Stephen Foster, two theaters, and the Ethelbert Nevin Collection. There was a time when Ethelbert Nevin might have got a museum of his own, but he missed his chance, and now he is an appendix to Stephen Foster.

  • Cathedral of Learning

  • Panther Fountain at the Cathedral of Learning

    This fountain sits below the southwest entrance to the tower, across from the William Pitt Student Union.

  • Litchfield Towers, Oakland

    Two of the three cylindrical skyscraper dormitories poetically named A, B, and C by the University of Pittsburgh, but popularly known as Ajax, Bab-O, and Comet.

  • Log Cabin on the Pitt Campus

    This is an old log house—probably about 200 years old—brought in from the rural exurbs of Armstrong County to represent the log cabin that has long played a prominent part in Pitt’s origin story. From 1787 until its first building was ready, the Pittsburgh Academy used a log building. That building is long gone, of course; this one was donated by a rich alumnus. It looks a bit silly among the sophisticated Gothic extravagances of the Stephen Foster Memorial, the Cathedral of Learning, and Heinz Chapel.

    These pictures were taken back in February; for some reason old Pa Pitt never got around to publishing them until now. They are rendered in two-color old-postcard style for no very good reason other than that they looked better that way.