This is one of the iconic churches of Pittsburgh, a city with many glorious religious buildings—Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox churches, as well as synagogues. The Presbyterian churches are especially grand, due to the wealth and prominence of so many of the city’s Scottish and Scotch-Irish citizens.
In her memoir, An American Childhood, Annie Dillard writes about attending Shadyside Presbyterian Church as a child and teenager. Her father insisted that she be there every Sunday, though he and her mother stayed home. On one occasion, Annie was sitting in the balcony, mocking the Sacrament, only to realize that her adolescent friends weren’t joining in the mockery; they were praying. She eventually renounced her membership to an assistant pastor, became Catholic for a while, then left that tradition, too. I don't know where she landed on the religious spectrum. Is she even still alive?
During the factory closures of the 1980s, this church building was attacked by vandals with cans of spray paint… Why? Because so many of the greedy bastards who were shuttering the Mon Valley and moving steel-operations to cheaper locations attended Shadyside Church. The ushers wore white gloves and morning coats back in those days. It’s a kinder, more compassionate place nowadays, and far less exclusive.
I hadn’t set foot in this building for a very long time. Last time here, I was enrolled in the seminary on Highland Avenue, and the pastor of this church was one of our part-time professors—an erstwhile “prince of the pulpit” (with an ego that could barely fit beneath the ornate sounding board above said pulpit—see photograph). I came back last Sunday afternoon for an “early music” concert by a group that holds all its events in religious edifices, which is a bonus for me, as a fan of both early music and sacred architecture. I’ll document the other venues monthly, as the concert series continues: Calvary Episcopal, Hicks Chapel at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (my alma mater) and Rodeph Shalom Synagogue. I’ve often wanted to create another blog dedicated solely to sacred architecture…or maybe publish a coffee table book about rural churches in Western Pennsylvania. But alas, good quality cameras intimidate me.
