HAA0510, Architecture & Urbanism of the Pittsburgh Region

Information on library and website resources, beyond the syllabus

The syllabus highlighted Martin Aurand's www.library.cmu.edu/Libraries/ArchArch/PGHARCHres/index.html, which remains the most useful all-purpose guide to researching Pittsburgh's architecture and urbanism--and takes you to many resources cited below.

Note that in addition to website resources, there are a half-dozen places in Pittsburgh where you can go for direct consultation of resources. The leading places are:

1) Mr. Aurand's Architectural Archives, 4th floor of Hunt Library at Carnegie Mellon: tel. 412.268.8165.

2) The Reference Department of Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, in Oakland (middle of second floor: 412.622.3175) will direct you to three index-card drawers on the buildings of Pittsburgh: drawers 53, 54, 55 on architects; buildings by institutional categories (e.g. churches); and homes by owners names. The same department has three clippings files on architects and prominent buildings.

3) The Pennsylvania Department at Carnegie Library (third floor, right-side as you enter, tel. 412.622.3154) has clippings files and photographs of great value, and references to buildings in printed sources. They have all the Hopkins plat-maps on microfilm reels, plus the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for the years 1884, 1893, 1904/5/6; 1924--27; and updates for 1951. (Call number is P1017; reel sequence is 7911 specific to Pittsburgh).

4) The rare-book room (Oliver Room) at Carnegie Library has original Sanborn maps that you may consult. Best to call ahead to the curator, Greg Priori, 412.622.1932.

5) University of Pittsburgh's Archives Service Center, at at 7500 Thomas Boulevard, fairly close to Penn Avenue and "Clayton" in Point Breeze. They are open Monday--Friday, 9 to 5. Call them at 412.244.7091 or email to archives-ref@library.pitt.edu. General inquiries can also go to ascref@pitt.edu. (The www.library.pitt.edu home page has a "Ask-the-librarian" click-on, too.) For old photographs (they have scores of thousands of views by the City Photographer), email the curator, Miriam Meiselik: miriam@pitt.edu. To get there, wait for a free shuttle bus, number 25A, called "Library Resources Facility" that will take you direct from the front of Hillman Library on the hour, 9 to 4. More information: from libraries home page, go to "Libraries & Collections," and click on Archives Service Center.

6) Heinz Regional History Center, (specifically the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania's Senator H. John Heinz III Pittsburgh Regional History Center), at 1212 Smallman Street in The Strip. Hours are Tuesday--Saturday 10 to 5; admission free with UPittsburgh i.d. You can call the reference desk 412.454.6364, but they can only give you a general idea of their holdings. Also email to library@hspw.org. They have out on view Hopkins atlases from 1872, 1890, 1910 etc., and also Sanborn maps from 1927, but others can be brought out. They have a clippings ("vertical") file on Pittsburgh buildings and people also. For a look at their publications and some archival materials, go to digital.library.pitt.edu/hswp.

7) Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation (PH&LF), One Station Square, Suite 450, on the "far" side of the Smithfield Street Bridge. Tel 412.471.5808; fax 471.1633. Ask for Mr. Albert M. Tannler, Archivist. Particular resource: the Allegheny County Survey forms from the 1970s and 1980s; also books, maps, and very knowledgeable people.

RECAPPING OTHER WEBSITE AND HARDCOPY RESOURCES:

The website digital.library.pitt.edu/pittsburgh takes you to all the resources of Hillman and the Heinz Regional History Center.

The Pennsylvania Department at Carnegie Library has a useful website called "Bridging the Urban Landscape," mainly on Pittsburgh neighborhoods. The home page is www.clpgh.org/exhibit, which scopes out their resources. Click on "the photographers" as a fast way to get images. "Tours" brings you to www.clpgh.org/exhibit/neighborhoods, which divides Pittsburgh into the following neighborhoods (this is useful information for using the clippings and photo collection also; those highlighted have specific information): Allentown, Beechview, Beltzhoover, Bloomfield, The Bluff, Brookline, Carrick, Downtown, Duquesne Heights, East Liberty, Esplen, Fineview, Friendship, Garfield, Greenfield, Hazelwood, The Hill, Homewood, Knoxville, Lawrenceville, Manchester, Mount Washington, North Side, Oakland, The Point, Point Breeze, Polish Hill, Shadyside, Soho, South Side, Squirrel Hill, The Strip, Troy Hill, West End.

Another excellent Carnegie Library web guide is "House Histories: How to Trace the Genealogy of Your Home" (but which can be used for any building) at www.carnegielibrary.org/location/pennsylvania/history/househist. The website describes Deeds and how to find them in the Recorder of Deeds Office in the Allegheny County Office Building, downtown (but be aware this degree of exactitude is not a requirement of your paper). There is a good description of Historic Maps and Atlases on the balcony in the Allegheny County Office Building: these are "plans of lots," which show how developers intended to divide up and build on their land. Excellent for parts of the city that were built up in "cookie-cutter" fashion, such as Squirrel Hill, Bloomfield, and the suburbs.

The website has a good explanation of the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps and the G. M. Hopkins Atlases for Pittsburgh, Allegheny City and vicinity. It notes their availability in the Allegheny County Office Building, Pennsylvania Department of Carnegie Library, at the Carnegie-Mellon Architectural Archives, and at the Heinz Regional History Center. Most of those places also carry the Atlas of the County of Allegheny for 1876 and the eighteenth-century Warrantee Atlases for Allegheny and nearby counties.

The website explains Building Permits for Pittsburgh (1948 to present in City Bureau of Building Inspection; 1917 to 1948 unavailable; 1895 to 1917 on microfilm in Archives of Industrial Society in Point Breeze (see below); also miscellaneous reports on buildings by the Department of Public Safety, from 1877 to 1928. But be careful: you need a good deal of luck with these. (Reference to WPA Survey Books and PH&LF Historic Site Surveys (the first highly specialized, the second until now hard to consult without a database). Good explanation of City Directories (1856--1975), how to find and use them, as well as Census Records (1850--1920, but more specialized then you'll probably want). To learn about buildings through their owners, consult the Biography Indexes to prominent citizens. The website gives main libraries, hours, and telephone numbers. NOTE also, you can "search" in a window at any time.

The Hopkins Company Atlases are all on-line from 1872 to 1939, via digital.library.pitt.edu/pittsburgh. But The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for Pittsburgh are NOT on-line. They are available on microfilm for 1884 (partial), 1893, 1906, 1927, and 1951 at the Heinz History Center and at the Pennsylvania Department of Carnegie Library. These show every building in the city, with detailed plans of industrial complexes, labeled. The Archives Service Center in Point Breeze has original Sanborn maps, which are in color, and quite efficient to use: 28 separate volumes from the years 1905, 1906, 1925, and 1927. Also there is the General index, Sanborn maps, Pittsburgh, Pa., volumes 1 to 18 inclusive (New York: Sanborn Map Co., 1928--1944), which is a book of 334 pages that lists all the streets that are covered in the various maps: call number G1264 P6G475 S3 1928.

Also, the Sanborn fire insurance maps microform: Pennsylvania (Sanborn Map Company, Teaneck, N.J.: Chadwyck-Healey, 1984) consists of 73 microfilm reels for the whole state, for the years 1884--1950. You can consult these reels in the Pennsylvania Department at Carnegie Library; there are also 3 more reels that cover the years 1950--1970 for selected Pennsylvania cities but not for Pittsburgh (but McKeesport is included). The University of Pittsburgh Johnstown Campus library has these same 73 reels (call number HG9778.P4 S3 1984z), which you can order, but you need to know first which reels you want; they will take a few days to arrive.

For help in architectural descriptions, use Virginia and Lee McAlester, A Field Guide to American Houses (Frick and Hillman library copies: NA7205 M35 1984). Or Marcus Whiffen, American architecture since 1780: a guide to the styles.

The most helpful jourals are Carnegie Magazine and Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine (renamed Pittsburgh History). You might also find your building cited in the Bulletin (1876-1930); Index (1895-1930); or Bulletin-Index (1930-1949). These three magazines discussed new Pittsburgh buildings; partial index in the Reference Department of Carnegie Library. The magazines are kept at Carnegie Libary and the Heinz Center.

The Pittsburgh Architecture Club produced a Yearbook of exhibition catalogues for 1901--1917, which listed and/or illustrated new buildings (partial collections at Carnegie, Frick, CMU).

Charette was the magazine of Pennsylvania division of the American Institute of Architects (1919 to 1962: Hillman and Frick have it from the 1930s; earlier at CMU and Carnegie Libary: information on local buildings). The magazine Columns has done the same thing since about 1987.

Builder was a regional magazine on microfilm at Carnegie Libarary, only known issues 1904 to 1919.

Builders' Bulletin was printed from 1916 until today; gives information on all significant new buildings in the Pittsburgh region, but no guarantee! Most issues at Carnegie Libarary, full run at the Pittsburgh Builders' Exchange, 2270 Noblestown Road.

A final word: you need to be resourceful: one student found information on an obscure little church by tracking down a website for its denomination. That is the kind of thought-process that will pay off.