Father Pitt

Tag: Victorian Architecture

  • Victorian Store and Apartments in Homewood

    529–531 North Homewood Avenue

    A good example of the style old Pa Pitt thinks of as German Victorian, with heavily eyebrowed Rundbogenstil arches and prominent finials. It was probably built in the 1890s; it appears on plat maps in the early twentieth century (check the “1903–1906” box) as owned by L. Vilsack—almost certainly the Leopold Vilsack who was a prominent real-estate developer in the East End and one of the founders of Iron City Brewing, whose mausoleum in St. Mary’s Cemetery is in an exaggerated version of the same style. The windows have been filled in with new ones of the wrong size, and the ground floor has been altered (the storefront originally had a corner entrance), but most of the decorations that give the building its Victorian character have survived.

    Front elevation
    529–531 North Homewood Avenue
    529–531 North Homewood Avenue
    529–531 North Homewood Avenue
    Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR.

    Correction: When this article was first published, old Pa Pitt had negligently typed “Homestead” instead of “Homewood” in the headline. Thanks to a correspondent for pointing out the error.

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  • Pair of Victorian Commercial Buildings in Allentown

    Hilltop and Cartus Buildings, Allentown

    These two buildings probably date from the 1880s. Though they were identical, they seem always to have been under separate ownership. At Pittsburgh Historic Maps, they first appear on the 1890 layer as belonging to Elizabeth Fisher (the building on the left) and Mary A. Curtis. The ground floors have been altered a bit, but the upper floors retain much of their original detail.

    816 East Warrington Avenue
    Nikon COOLPIX P100.
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  • Frame Victorian in Park Place

    222 East End Avenue
    Olympus E-20N.

    A Victorian frame house, built in the 1890s (according to old maps), whose siding was never replaced with one of the Four Horsemen—aluminum, vinyl, Insulbrick, and Permastone. The porch was filled in at some point, probably about a century ago—at any rate, so long ago that the siding of the addition is also wood.

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  • Victorian Survivor on Neville Street, Oakland

    326 North Neville Street

    As this part of what used to be Bellefield turned into an apartment district, a few old houses remained here and there, turned into apartments. This one suffered less alteration than most, and its splendid curved porch hints at the leisurely exurban atmosphere of Victorian Bellefield.

    326 North Neville Street
    Kodak EasyShare Z981.
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  • J. D. Thompson Building

    608 Wood Street

    This building on Wood Street, right across from the subway station, was probably put up in the 1880s; it appears on an 1890 map as belonging to Jonathan D. Thompson, and in 1923 still belonged to J. D. Thompson. The elaborate stone front is liberally decorated with incised patterns. We would call the style Italianate; the architect probably thought of it as Italian Renaissance.

    Update: Note the comment from “Camerafiend” below, which gives us news clippings to show us that this building was designed by E. M. Butz and built in 1874. E. M. Butz is perhaps most famous as the architect of the Western Penitentiary.

    608 Wood Street
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  • Cladden Building, McDonald

    Cladden Building

    For its size, McDonald has an unusually rich architectural heritage. The Cladden Building sits right at the center of the borough and almost defines downtown McDonald with its exuberant outburst of Victorian eclecticism. The acute angle of the building seems to pivot on the big round turret on the corner. Almost certainly the original entrance to the corner storefront was right on that corner, with the structure above held up by an egregiously fat Corinthian pillar.

    Cladden Building
    Sony Alpha 3000; Fujifilm FinePix HS10.
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  • St. Mary’s R. C. Schools, Lawrenceville

    Inscription: 1881, St. Mary’s R. C. Schools

    Built in 1881 for St. Mary’s, an Irish Catholic parish in Lawrenceville, this old school is now neatly restored as apartments.

    St. Mary’s R. C. Schools, front elevation
    Belfry
    Perspective view
    Belfry
    Awning

    Much of the original woodwork is preserved, including incised folk-art decorations typical of the period.

    Incised decoration
    Brackets
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.
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  • Cast-Iron Front on Wood Street

    101 Wood Street

    A well-preserved cast-iron front, though the building has lost its hat. Father Pitt would probably paint it a different color.

    101 Wood Street
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.
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  • More of Victorian Liberty Avenue in Bloomfield

    4701 Liberty Avenue

    More of the Victorian business district of Bloomfield, from the age when it was a very German neighborhood. We begin with a building we have seen before, which has just finished a renovation and is ready for another century and a quarter of use. The tall third floor, as old Pa Pitt remarked before, looks like an assembly room of some sort.

    The rest of these buildings all date from the 1890s.

    4623

    The date stone gives us the date 1890 and the name of the owner, P. Biedenbach.

    Crest of 4623, with date stone reading “P. D. Biedenbach, A. D. 1890”
    4609
    4605 and 4607

    Two of a row of modest houses with storefronts put up in the 1890s.

    4525

    A building that preserves its corner entrance, though not the original treatment of it.

    4523

    Elaborate brickwork distinguishes this building from its neighbors.

    4521
    Olympus E-20N.

    Another small storefront with living quarters above.

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  • Husler Building, Carnegie

    Front elevation of the Husler Building

    Samuel T. McClarren, a very successful Victorian architect and a resident of nearby Thornburg, designed this landmark building, which was put up in 1896.

    A small alteration to the front gives us an example of how important the little details are to the appearance of a building. The arched windows in the top floor have been shortened, as we can see by the slightly different shade of brick where they have been filled in. The original design would have created a single broad stripe from the arches at the top to the storefront below. Interrupting that composition makes the building look awkward and top-heavy. The ground floor has also been altered in a way that obscures the vigor of the design. Once we have said that, however, we should acknowledge that the building is generally in a good state of preservation and praise the Historical Society of Carnegie for keeping it up.

    Date stone: Husler Building, 1896
    Husler Building

    This building has a very difficult lot to deal with, and the architect must have found it an interesting challenge. First, the lot is a triangle. A kind of turret blunts the odd angle on the Main Street end and turns it from a bug into a feature.

    Husler Building from the Chartiers Creek bridge

    The second challenge is that one long side of the lot is smack up against Chartiers Creek, a minor river that is placid most of the time but can be a raging torrent when storms make it angry. The foundations would have had to take all the moods of the river into account, and the fact that the building has stood through disastrous floods suggests that Mr. McClarren knew what he was up to.

    Husler Building from across Chartiers Creek
    Rear of the Husler Building

    A view from across Chartiers Creek shows us the sharp point of the triangle in the rear.

    Husler Building
    Bay windows on the front
    Ornament
    Spiderweb window
    Husler Building with ghost signs for Lincoln Savings Bank
    Nikon COOLPIX P100.
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