Georgian Pittsburgh (Philadelphia, Scranton, Washington: houses, neighborhood, university)

[ainulinale]

Anything in the Pittsburgh metro built between 1720-1840 is fair game for this thread. I originally thought this might be difficult since Pittsburgh is so noted for being a Victorian-era city, but scouting out these areas, I found there is much more Georgian-period architecture in the area that I could reasonably expect to photograph.
The first piece is one of the oddest and most interesting houses I've found in the area. The core of the structure was built somewhere in between 1815-1835 with the wings added sometime before the Civil War. It is located in Scenery Hill, PA.






Ambridge, PA--1820s: There are about 80 of the small brick houses scattered around the town; many are in disrepair while others are bought by private investors.














Old Economy Village is the part of Ambridge, PA that is owned by the state and fenced off from the rest of the city. Like above, most structures are from the 1820s.
























The Bradford David House in Washington, PA was built in 1788 and was the home of the Whiskey Rebellion.









The LeMoyne House was built in 1812 in Washington, PA and is one of only 6-8 Historic Landmarks in the country marking the Underground Railroad.





I don't know the name of this house in Freedom, PA, but it was built on the Ohio River in the 1830s by a Philadelphia sea captain.










This building is now the Western PA Conservancy and was built in the 1830s. It is in Downtown Pittsburgh and is Greek Revival.






These buildings are from Washington and Jefferson University. The first, Old Main was built in the 1831 (center building). The other building is from 1793, is Greek Revival. The wings of the latter were added in 1816, also Greek Revival.














This house in the Hazelwood neighborhood of Pittsburgh was built in the 1790s and is obviously under repair.






The Brush Hill Home in Irwin, PA was built in 1798 and was the first "mansion style" house west of the Allegheny mountains.










I don't know if this house is old or not, but it looks old and was very close to the last house!






The Fort Pitt Blockhouse is the oldest extant structure in the city of Pittsburgh and I believe it may be the oldest west of the Allegheny Mountains. It was built in 1764.






This is the Century Inn or Hill's Tavern in Scenery Hill, PA. It was built in 1794 and has operated as a restaurant continuously for 214 years.












Hope you enjoyed it! I leave you with the bonus pic of Primanti Bros. downtown.

[dugdogmaster]

Nice stuff

[Katarina Witt]

Hi, ainulinale! Nice to have you back!

[ainulinale]

Originally Posted by Katiana

Hi, ainulinale! Nice to have you back!

Thanks. I missed not seeing you and the others I know on here...it's just I get so obsessed with this site. Hell, I feel I should've written a novel or two with all the time I spend on here!

[Katarina Witt]

I like the pix, BTW. Old Economy is near my childhood home in Beaver Falls. We used to take the out of state relatives there. I recall they had some programs there, re-enactments of the Old Economy days. The Harmony Society people laid out Beaver Falls.

[Tallysmom]

Originally Posted by ainulinale

Thanks. I missed not seeing you and the others I know on here...it's just I get so obsessed with this site. Hell, I feel I should've written a novel or two with all the time I spend on here!

One of the hardest things I faced out here in California is the notion that brick and stone are BAD HOUSES. Out here in earthquake country, at least.

To me a stone or brick house is the epitome of safe and sound.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by ainulinale

Thanks. I missed not seeing you and the others I know on here...it's just I get so obsessed with this site. Hell, I feel I should've written a novel or two with all the time I spend on here!

Ditto. I think of how many better ways I could have utilized the time it took for me to amass my 10,000+ post repertoire, and it saddens me sometimes. Nevertheless it's wonderful to see you back; you were always one of my favorite Pittsburgh posters, along with BrianTH, Katiana, and guylocke (wherever he went?)

These photos are absolutely lovely. As you probably have already deduced I'm a huge aficionado of the Victorian-era architecture that Scranton is so replete with, but I never realized just how gorgeous the Georgian style was as well. Thank you very much for opening my eyes to a new aspect on architecture!

[ainulinale]

Originally Posted by Tallysmom

One of the hardest things I faced out here in California is the notion that brick and stone are BAD HOUSES. Out here in earthquake country, at least.

To me a stone or brick house is the epitome of safe and sound.

Yeah, the West Coast definitely doesn't have the magnitude of brick and stone work that we have in the East. Oddly enough though I seem to meet people from the West that love Eastern architecture--one who was from Seattle couldn't get over how beautiful Pittsburgh's buildings are. He hated that everything in the West is new.

[ainulinale]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

Ditto. I think of how many better ways I could have utilized the time it took for me to amass my 10,000+ post repertoire, and it saddens me sometimes. Nevertheless it's wonderful to see you back; you were always one of my favorite Pittsburgh posters, along with BrianTH, Katiana, and guylocke (wherever he went?)

Thanks!

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

These photos are absolutely lovely. As you probably have already deduced I'm a huge aficionado of the Victorian-era architecture that Scranton is so replete with, but I never realized just how gorgeous the Georgian style was as well. Thank you very much for opening my eyes to a new aspect on architecture!

Thanks again! I really appreciate it. Yes, Victorian architecture is beautiful and so very much defines cities like Pittsburgh, St. Louis and, of course Scranton; but I think Washington DC represents the height of those styles.

The old city of Allegheny area of Pittsburgh has some great Victorian stuff too though:

[boardmanite]

really nice photos. i never thought that western pa had a lot of that style of architecture. reminds me of areas around lancaster pa.