Downtown Churches, Pittsburgh

 Pittsburgh has a pretty cool downtown.  It's got three grandiose performance venues--Heinz Hall, the Benedum, and the Byham, not to mention numerous other theaters that are nice but less splendid, like the O'Reilly and the August Wilson.  The banks, and post offices, and train stations, and other public buildings all have airy, marble-pillared lobbies.  There are statues looking down from above and dark little parks tucked away between the Gothic facades of 19th century office buildings.  But one thing our downtown does not have in great number is grand churches.  This stands in contrast to most other Eastern cities.

 The city's Episcopal cathedral and its first Presbyterian church both date back to the 1750s, when the English took the Point from the French and established a town here.  Of course, the original buildings were small, and humble, and replaced long ago. One church was for the English; the other was for the Scots.  The churchyard between the two is the oldest in Pittsburgh.  This is the interior of the Episcopal cathedral.  It's nice enough, but dim and unremarkable.

 The two towers stand side by side, standing guard over a shared graveyard where homeless people sleep on the marble slabs that name the dead who sleep below.

 The Presbyterian church, shown below, is slightly more interesting, with its dark woodwork and two full galleries of Tiffany stained glass.  In both of these buildings, it makes all the difference in the world when a glimmer of sun makes its way between the skyscrapers and filters momentarily through the somber stained glass.  

 But Pittsburgh is one of those strange towns where the best public buildings are in the outlying neighborhoods, like Oakland, East Liberty, and Shadyside.  The big museums, the main library, and all the universities are two or three miles east of downtown.  The old mansions are out that direction, too--the handful that remains.  These business district churches have their charms, but their edifices are much smaller and less extravagant than their sister parishes in the East End of the city.

There were homeless people sleeping in the pews of both of these churches.  Stained glass saints preside over their slumber.  Strangely enough, both churches also decorate their naves with foreign flags.  What's that about?