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Pittsburgh: Then & Now
Pittsburgh and the surrounding region are home to architectural masterpieces designed by such noted architects as Henry Hobson Richardson, including the Allegheny County courthouse and jail. Some of the most important architectural sites in Pittsburgh include places of worship, such as Trinity Cathedral. The city continues to adapt in order to meet the demands of its residents and the world. In Pittsburgh Then and Now juxtaposes specially-commissioned historic photographs with views of the same scenes as they exist today. * Mount Washington is remembered as the vantage point, 400 feet above the Monongahela River, from which the Virginia major of that name spied out the strategic possibilities of the forks of the Ohio River. Now, privately owned, new buildings and public spaces have been added in front of the redbrick Commerce Court.
* In 1917, Pittsburghers could see the Allegheny River, the Monongahela, and their formation of the Ohio at the Pittsburgh Point from Mount Washington. The Point is now a park, the old bridges are gone, and the meeting of the rivers is marked by a fountain.
* Fifth Avenue looking east from Market Street in 1899, with a typical Victorian mixture of Italianate and indeterminate architectural styles, including a little Gothic, executed mainly in brick and cast iron. A little of the older architecture has the Floyd Building is one of Pittsburgh’s finest examples of the High Victorian Gothic style and the Italianate cast-iron front is one of the oldest commercial structures in the area.
* In 1921, looking across Liberty Avenue and northward up Sixth Street from the end of Market Street, one would have seen Rosenbaum’s department store, Pittsburgh Life Building, and Woolworth. Today the central building is Heinz Hall, which reopened in 1971 as the home of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
* In 1917, Pittsburghers could see the Allegheny River, the Monongahela, and their formation of the Ohio at the Pittsburgh Point from Mount Washington. The Point is now a park, the old bridges are gone, and the meeting of the rivers is marked by a fountain.
* Fifth Avenue looking east from Market Street in 1899, with a typical Victorian mixture of Italianate and indeterminate architectural styles, including a little Gothic, executed mainly in brick and cast iron. A little of the older architecture has the Floyd Building is one of Pittsburgh’s finest examples of the High Victorian Gothic style and the Italianate cast-iron front is one of the oldest commercial structures in the area.
* In 1921, looking across Liberty Avenue and northward up Sixth Street from the end of Market Street, one would have seen Rosenbaum’s department store, Pittsburgh Life Building, and Woolworth. Today the central building is Heinz Hall, which reopened in 1971 as the home of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
144 pages, Hardcover
First published April 5, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 24, 2024
A series of matched historic and contemporary photos of the city and its immediate environs with an emphasis on architectural styles.
August 5, 2010
Walter C. Kidney, Pittsburgh Then and Now (Thunder Bay Press, 2004)
In the decade or so since collections of photobooks that are solidly grounded in place became all the rage (think Arcadia Press' Images of America books, or the myriad photobook offerings from The History Press), I've often thought that bookstores, which tend to focus on stocking local fare, are missing some great opportunities where these things are concerned; they've always struck me as being more for the armchair traveler than the local historian (who's probably seen it all anyway). I have lived for the past eighteen years in and around Cleveland, and while the Cleveland books by both presses have interested me, the best of the bunch I've found have been William Burg's excellent works on San Francisco (a city I've never visited) and Lisa Heidinger's thoughful Arcadia book on Sedona, AZ.
While I have lived in Cleveland all these years, I grew up all over the mid-Atlantic, spending eleven of my formative years in greater Pittsburgh. Walter Kidney's Pittsburgh Then and Now is the first book of this type that's made me understand that there is more to these books than armchair travel; it's the first one that's really dug up that sense of nostalgia in me. Though, I grant you—I last lived in western Pennsylvania in 1990, so there's still an armchair-traveller aspect to my enjoyment of this book, I think.
Be that as it may, the “then and now” aspect of the book is an interesting twist on the usual “here's a batch of old photographs” standard: in this case, the photographs were assembled, and then a recent photograph, taken from as close to the same place and with the same angle as possible, is added for the purposes of comparison. It's a likable conceit, and it gives a much starker indication of how things have changed over the years. Again, I'm pulled back to the armchair-traveler thing, since my own last view of most of these landmarks happened over a decade before the recent pictures were taken, so I have a kind of timeline thing going on here, as well; it makes me think that, while that would be extremely difficult to put together after the fact, a book of photographs by decade of the same spot would be a truly wondrous thing. This one is a good step on the way, though I admit my own mental pictures may have influenced my enjoyment here. Others either more or less familiar with the territory may, probably will, see it differently. *** ½
In the decade or so since collections of photobooks that are solidly grounded in place became all the rage (think Arcadia Press' Images of America books, or the myriad photobook offerings from The History Press), I've often thought that bookstores, which tend to focus on stocking local fare, are missing some great opportunities where these things are concerned; they've always struck me as being more for the armchair traveler than the local historian (who's probably seen it all anyway). I have lived for the past eighteen years in and around Cleveland, and while the Cleveland books by both presses have interested me, the best of the bunch I've found have been William Burg's excellent works on San Francisco (a city I've never visited) and Lisa Heidinger's thoughful Arcadia book on Sedona, AZ.
While I have lived in Cleveland all these years, I grew up all over the mid-Atlantic, spending eleven of my formative years in greater Pittsburgh. Walter Kidney's Pittsburgh Then and Now is the first book of this type that's made me understand that there is more to these books than armchair travel; it's the first one that's really dug up that sense of nostalgia in me. Though, I grant you—I last lived in western Pennsylvania in 1990, so there's still an armchair-traveller aspect to my enjoyment of this book, I think.
Be that as it may, the “then and now” aspect of the book is an interesting twist on the usual “here's a batch of old photographs” standard: in this case, the photographs were assembled, and then a recent photograph, taken from as close to the same place and with the same angle as possible, is added for the purposes of comparison. It's a likable conceit, and it gives a much starker indication of how things have changed over the years. Again, I'm pulled back to the armchair-traveler thing, since my own last view of most of these landmarks happened over a decade before the recent pictures were taken, so I have a kind of timeline thing going on here, as well; it makes me think that, while that would be extremely difficult to put together after the fact, a book of photographs by decade of the same spot would be a truly wondrous thing. This one is a good step on the way, though I admit my own mental pictures may have influenced my enjoyment here. Others either more or less familiar with the territory may, probably will, see it differently. *** ½
October 12, 2015
Another lovely PHLF book featuring old photographs of the Pittsburgh area, along with a more modern counterpart. I especially appreciated the pictures where not too much has changed.
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May 1, 2009History,Pittsburgh,Architecture
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews