Ozark Witch Hazel (Hamamelis vernalis) grows very happily in Pittsburgh, and the first warm winter day from January onwards it will open up these curious little flowers. If you cut some twigs in the cold weather and bring them in to put in a vase, the flowers will open in a day or two and start filling the room with perfume.
Carson Street on the South Side is reputed to be one of the best-preserved Victorian commercial streets in North America. Mere snow cannot deter old Pa Pitt from his duty of documenting the city around him, so here is a generous album of Carson Street buildings, most of Victorian vintage, with falling snow for added picturesque effect.
Mission Hills in Mount Lebanon, laid out in 1921, is a neighborhood where houses in all different styles coexist happily. Most of those styles are historical or romantic; this ultramodern house is a definite outlier, and an unexpected treasure in a neighborhood full of treasures. Father Pitt does not know the architect, but because of the striking similarities between this house and one in Swan Acres attributed to Joseph Hoover, we shall tentatively assign this one to Hoover as well. (And old Pa Pitt promises to get to Swan Acres soon and bring back some pictures of that remarkable neighborhood.)
Could the house number be more perfectly styled to match the house?
And is that a genuine Kool Vent awning over the side door?
