PA & NY 2023: Pittsburgh - Duquesne Incline, Randyland, Heinz Field, Warhol Museum, Contemporary Crafts

 

After exploring Downtown Pittsburgh, my husband Rich and I spent a day visiting sites on the North and South shores of the Ohio River, starting with the Duquesne Incline where we took a funicular ride to the top to get a panoramic view of Pittsburgh from above. This historic funicular has been in operation since 1877 and was originally steam powered before converting to electricity in 1935.  We started the trip at the lower station on West Carson St. down by the river and rode up to the top which took us to Grandview.  It cost $2.50 USD per person round trip, but you can buy a one-way ticket for $1.25.  I can see people taking this as a short cut to get between the two funicular stations since it is a long way around by foot, taking over an hour.  Today, the Duquesne Incline carries about 482,000 passengers per year with about 75% of them being tourists like us who are riding it just for fun and for the spectacular views of the city.

The incline is 800 feet long, rising an altitude of 400 feet at a 30 degree angle.  There are two incline cars going in opposite directions with each one holding about 18-25 passengers.  Windows are available on all side of an incline car so that you can watch as it rises or descends, like a roller coaster, or look out from the sides to see the views.  The cars travel at a maximum speed around 4 miles per and takes less than 5 minutes per ride. The wooden cars are painted red on the outside and have an ornate ceiling that looks like it is made of golden copper although this might just be a decorative effect.   There is a lantern light attached to the ceiling which presumably lights up at night, since the incline cars run from early morning until past midnight.

As we climbed towards the top, we could see views of the downtown area that we had explored on our guided walking tour the day before.  We spotted row of yellow bridges including the Robert Clemento and Andy Warhol Bridges, as well as the Pittsburgh Skyline.  We recognized the distinctive architecture and gleaming glass façade of the main PPG tower as well as other skyscrapers in the area including the top of the Gulf Tower which has a weather beacon that lights up to display the weather conditions.

The upper station of the Duquesne Incline houses a small museum that provides information and exhibits about the incline’s machinery and operations.  From a platform, you can watch as the gears grind and rotate to propel the incline cars up and down the slope.  The museum also describes the history on the funicular railway.  Outside the upper station, there is a viewing platform with binoculars available for use.  It was very crowded on the platform when we first exited our incline car, because a big tour bus had just pulled up in front of the station and the occupants were flooding onto the platform.  Rather than jostling for position with the hoards, we decided to walk around the area.  By the time we returned to viewing platform, the tour bus had departed, and we could leisurely continue to admire the vista including the WWII-era submarine USS Requin on the river in front of the Carnegie Science Centre.

On our short walk, we strolled a few minutes west on Grandview Avenue to reach Points of View Park where we had the same gorgeous views without the crowds. We could see where the 3 rivers meet and far into the distant to parts of the area that we had not visited.  We also got to admire the bronze sculpture called “Points of View” created by James West in 2016 which depicts the 1770 meeting between George Washington and Seneca chief Guyasuta.  The clever title of the sculpture refers both to the meeting of minds between the two historical characters, as well as the views that we could see from this location.  The funicular ride was a fun excursion that allowed us see Pittsburgh from a whole different vantage point (or point of view .. pun intended).

Following our funicular ride, we crossed the bridge spanning the Ohio River to reach Pittsburgh North and visited several sights there, starting with a popular outdoor art museum known as “Randyland”, which is also the home of eccentric local artist Randy Gibson.  Starting in 1995, Gibson transformed his 3-storey house and the area surrounding it into a vibrant, quirky spectacle with a mixture of murals, sculptures, potted plants, outdoor furniture, found objects and signs including conflicting ones that say, “Welcome to Randyland” and “Home Sweet Home” as well as “Enter at your own risk” and “Danger, No admittance”.  There are several large cutout images of what presumably is Randy himself.

My favourite sections of this space are the ones devoted to music and dance.  Painted-over windows depict the silhouettes of a jazz band featuring a bassist, saxophone player and drummer playing musical notes that float in the air.  Large colourful cutouts of another saxophone player and a couple jiving to the to beats are found against a long fence.  On another wall is a painted map depicting “Old Allegheny City” which shows the locations of homes, buildings, parks and the Allegheny river.

Even the sidewalks surrounding this house are decorated with brightly coloured chalk drawings of flowers and vines.This was a really wonderful place to visit as a tourist, but I wonder whether the neighbours enjoy living next to this display and whether they find it fun and cheerful or overwhelming?  At least a few neighbours across the road seem to have gotten into the spirit, as their homes and sidewalks are also brightly painted.

Continuing on, we went to the former Heinz Field (2001-2021), now named the Acrisure Stadium after Acrisure Insurance bought the naming rights in 2022.   We first saw the home of the Pittsburgh Steelers football team from across the river when we were standing by the Point Fountain. Despite the new naming rights, the history of Heinz at this stadium is still apparent with a large Heinz sign and a giant tilted ketchup bottle prominently on display.  Nearby the stadium are several notable memorials.  The Southwestern Pennsylvania WWII Veterans Memorial highlights the role of Pittsburgh during World War II.  Amongst the various tributes is a triangular pedestal with a folded flag on top and the words “Duty”, “Honor” and “Country” on each of the sides.  Dedicated in 1996, the Law Enforcement Officers Memorial of Allegheny County is a monument honouring fallen officers of the Pittsburgh police force.  Located in a scenic enclosed area surrounded by flora and a view of the river, there is a sculpture of an officer and his police dog as well as a police call box with the label “The Last Call”.

A bronze statue of baseball Hall-of-Famer Honus Wagner (1897-1917) is located outside the home plate entrance of PNC Park where the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team plays. Wagner was an American League shortstop playing for almost his entire career with the Pittsburgh Pirates and is considered as one of the greatest shortstops ever. He won 8 National League batting titles and led the league in stolen bases 5 times, earning his nickname of “The Flying Dutchman”.  The Manchester Bridge was a steel truss bridge that spanned the Allegheny River from 1915 to 1969 with four large bronze sculptures featured on its portals.  Two of these sculptures depicting American Indian chief Guysuta (the same figure that we saw earlier at Points of View Park) and pioneer Christopher Gist now sit by the Stadium, near their original location of the bridge.  Various tour companies offer riverboat sightseeing tours and we spotted one of the riverboats docked by the harbour.  One of the main reasons to come down to this area was to see the sculpture of Fred Rogers (from Mr. Rogers’ Neighbourhood) positioned to look outward over the three rivers.  To my dismay, the sculpture was blocked off for maintenance so I could not get close to it.  I had to settle for a quick photo from behind the barriers (which I mildly considered hopping before dismissing this as a bad idea).

Our final stop in Pittsburgh North was a visit to the Andy Warhol Museum.  We have seen many examples of Warhol’s most iconic pieces from his various phases including the soup cans/Brillo box consumerism, celebrity silkscreens, use of multiples, forays into film and a few works from his early days.  Accordingly, we were not sure how much of what we would see in this museum would be new for us.  But since this 7-storey museum is known as the one of the largest in the world to be dedicated to a single artist with over 10,000 artifacts created from different mediums, we were hopeful of seeing new aspects of Warhol or at least different examples of his various styles.

As it turned out, we did not need to worry since along with familiar works, we saw many “new” (to us) Warhol art pieces for the first time.  This started out in the parking lot across the street from the museum, where the parking attendant sat inside a large Brillo box, one of Warhol’s iconic commercial packaging-related references.  The entrance hallway was covered with multiples of Warhol’s self portrait and in the main lobby is the red couch that was originally kept in The Factory, Warhol’s New York studio in the 1960s.  Above is a large photographic image of Andy reclining on the couch, basically inviting tourists to mimic his pose.  I did my best but should have put on my sunglasses to complete the impression.

Telling the story of Andy Warhol’s life and works, the museum is divided chronologically with different decades represented on each floor, starting from the top (7th) floor which concentrates on Warhol’s earlier years between 1930-1959.  Here we saw photographs of Andy as a child (when his name was Andrew Warhola) and young man, images of his family and in particular, his mother Julia who was also an artist.  There are examples of Julia’s sketches including a series of pencil drawings from the early 1950s depicting cats, which directly influenced a book that Andy produced in 1954, called 25 Cats Named Sam and One Blue Pussy.  We had seen an exhibit focused on this book before, but not Julia’s images which inspired Warhol. By the 1950s, Warhol was producing commercial drawings such as an image of a cycling family that he drew for Sports Illustrated, and a set of shoe drawings including a plain pump labeled “This is a shoe” followed by an ornate stiletto captioned “This is a shoe made with Fleming Joffe leather”.

A series of drawings titled “In the Bottom of My Garden” depicts whimsical fairies and cherubs playing with one another.  There were black and white sketches and colorized version drawn with Warhol’s technique of using blotted lines. The illustrations were published as a book in 1956.  Other examples from the late 50s include Warhol’s drawing of a tattooed female holding a large flower while wearing a dress, hat and boots, and a delectable ice cream sundae in a cornucopia-shaped cone.  Other commercial drawings including advertisements for vacuums, television sets, Listerine anti-septic mouth wash and more.  On the 6th floor, which covers Warhol’s works from 1960s, we started to see examples of his silk screen process, which involves laying a photograph on a mesh screen and then passing an ink-covered squeegee over the mesh to transfer the image onto the canvas below.  A unique silk screen on linen from 1962 depicts 7 Cadillac cars with each image from top to bottom revealing a bit more of the car, almost as if it is driving towards you.

Since the early 1960s, as opposed to depicting everyday objects and products as advertisements, Warhol began using them as subject matter in his pop art works.  In particular, the Campbell’s soup can was an iconic image that Warhol represented repeatedly, at least partially because he actually liked the product and ate varieties of the soup every day for over 20 years.  In 1962, he created 32 canvases, each depicting a different flavour of Campbell’s soup.  We have seen many examples of this series, but at the Warhol Museum, we saw versions of this ubiquitous soup can that we had never seen before.  This included the “Big Torn Cambell’s Soup Can (Pepper Pot)” depicting a partially torn label that exposes the tin can underneath, and a version where a crushed Beef Noodle Soup seems to morph into a shopping bag.  Many examples of Warhol’s multiples were also on display including “Three Coke Bottles”, a large sheet of S&H Green Stamps, and overlapping black and white images of Natalie Wood.

The fifth floor is dedicated to Warhol’s works from the 1970s.  A mostly empty open-space, with silver-painted bricks on the walls, a silver steamer trunk and stool, is a reference to Warhol’s Silver Factory on 47th Street in New York.  This was an experimental art studio and social space where artists, musicians, actors and writers gathered during the 1960s and early 70s.  Photographs on the wall depicted the actual factory space.  The bar stool was used in the film “Kitchen” starring Edie Sedgwick while the trunk served as storage for film prop as well as a platform for film projectors during screenings and was featured in another Sedgwick film titled “Vinyl”.  While we had seen versions of Warhol’s paintings of famous characters including Elvis, Elizabeth Taylor, Chairman Mao and Nixon, at the museum we saw for the first time paintings he did of cats and dogs, including ones of his own pet dachshunds Amos and Andy.  We also saw a series of works featuring revolvers, knives and gangsters, in line with his more well-known morbid images of car crashes.

In 1985, Warhol bought a pink papier mâché elephant as a prop for a fashion exhibition at MOMA.  Following the exhibition, Jean-Michel Basquiat attempted to redecorate the elephant but did not complete the job.  Eventually Warhol asked pop artist Keith Haring to paint the sculpture with his iconic dancing figures.  In 1986, Warhol created his “Last Supper” series based on Da Vinci’s masterpiece, producing over 100 different renditions using silk-screening, hand-painting and collage.  While there are religious depictions in Warhol’s version, it also features motorcycles and “The Big C” which ambiguously could have referred to Christ, but also Cancer and AIDS.  One of the final rooms that we explored in the museum is reserved for rotating exhibitions.  The one on display when we were there dealt with the band “The Velvet Underground” and their debut album “The Velvet Underground & Nico” which was produced by Andy Warhol.  The album cover was designed by Warhol and featured a peel-away banana, leading to the album being known as the “banana album”.   A large grid with different versions of this album cover were arranged as another example of Warhol’s multiples.

We thoroughly enjoyed visiting the Andy Warhol Museum, and while many of the techniques and phases were ones that we had been exposed to before, we were able to see examples that were new to us.  One interesting aspect of the museum was the use of custom-built tactile reproductions of some of his most iconic works, making the art accessible to blind and low-vision visitors.  On a side wall outside the museum was a final tribute to Andy Warhol.  In 2022, artist Laura Jean McLaughlin was commissioned by the museum to create a ceramic mosaic made of porcelain clay, glaze, slip and luster.  Titled “Julia”, it depicts Andy’s mother Julia Warhola in midst of painting her works including an angel and several cats.

The next day, we visited the Contemporary Craft Museum, an art institution which showcases crafts made from a variety of mediums including ceramics, glass, fiber and cloth, metal, paper, mixed media and more.  The museum offers rotating exhibitions as well as a retail store that sells handcrafted objects made by both local artists and artists from across the country.  When we visited, the exhibition was called “Climate Awakening: Crafting a Sustainable Future” which explores the effects of climate change, environmental degradation, pollution and other environmental issues through the use of art.  Susie Ganch’s piece titled “Remember me, Katrina” looks from afar like a gorgeous floral tapestry, but up close you can see that the work consists of used, discarded coffee cup lids.  Some of the lids are marked with the coffee stains.  The “swirling vortexes of trash” reference to the raging storm caused by Hurricane Katrina.

Ganch also created Purisima, a geographic landscape representation of Purisima Creek Redwoods, made from collected used pill bottles, wood, silk and faux pearls.  The heights of the pill bottles reflect the elevation change of up to 2000 feet that exists in the area while engravings on the bottle caps indicate the micro-climates in this region.  Courtney Mattison’s series of works titled “Surface Tension” are made of glazed stoneware and porcelain, shaped to look like coral reefs that have been damaged by climate change and fossil fuel mining, turning white and dripping down the wall as they die.  Her series called “Fossil Fuels: Oil Drum” continues to explore the connection between the oil industry and threats to the coral reef ecosystem.  These pieces depict ceramic red fuel containers and oil drums with various corals and other sea life attached to them, bleached white from pollution.  We saw a couple more works by Susie Ganch including a whimsical piece called “Landscape #5: Pixel” which consists of a wood and steel frame covered with thousands of strips cut from used plastic bags to form a giant cube hanging from the ceiling with a circular hole at the bottom that allows you to stand underneath and stick your head inside.

A similar work by Ganch titled “Bale” is a photograph of what looks like a large roll of bubble wrap sitting in a field as if to simulate a hay bale.  The bale is made from a compressed collection of debris including discarded plastic, fabric and other consumer goods sitting.  Positioned in outdoor, pastoral landscapes, the juxtaposition highlights consumerism and packaging waste. In the piece called "Molalla River Meander",  Adrien Segal uses carved plywood to represent the way that the Molalla River flows through Oregon, highlighting how its path has changed between 1995 through 2009 due to flooding.  Segal’s work “Sea Ice/Albedo” consists of coloured slabs of cast glass meant to represent Arctic sea ice that is melting due to global warming.  Albedo relates to the proportion of light or radiation that is reflected on a surface.   The poignant works of art in this Climate Awakening exhibition are so creative and beautiful to look at, yet their message is alarming.

In addition to the rotating exhibition, the Contemporary Crafts Museum also has a large retail area where works are for sale. There were so many items to look at including small sculptures, jewelry, clothing, greeting cards, wall hangings, wooden stools and a wide assortment of ceramic vases, bowls, plates and mugs.  Even though Rich and I had self-imposed a “strict” ban on purchasing too many souvenirs on this trip because we were in midst of renovations at home and had no where to store new items, we could not resist all the beautiful pieces for sale.  We ended up purchasing a tall mug with an octopus attached to the handle, an ornately decorated squat mug with a face and four feet, and a bowl painted with an image of a woman and a black cat that reminded me of the Julia mosaic that we saw at the Andy Warhol Museum.

PA & NY 2023: Pittsburgh - Downtown Walking Tour, Point State Park, The Strip

To get a better sense of downtown Pittsburgh, we took a guided walking tour with the organization “Walk the Burgh” who also led guided cycling tours.  Our guide started with the history of the area, which was originally inhabited by the Shawnee and Lenape Native American tribes.  We heard about how the meeting of three rivers, the Allegheny, Monogahela, and Ohio Rivers formed a triangular spit of land designated as “The Point”, making this an ideal location for settlement as the waterways provided power, transportation and access to coal and iron ore.  As a result, it was heavily fought over between the British and the French in the 18th Century.  In 1754, Fort Duquesne was erected while the area was under French rule.  The fort was named after the presiding governor general of New France, the Marquis de Duquesne, whose legacy is still prominent within the region today with a University, an Incline and a private club bearing his name.  After many battles, the British finally triumphed in 1758, destroying the French fort and erecting Fort Pitt, named after British statesman William Pitt the Elder, after whom the city of Pittsburgh was also named.   We would see remnants of both these historic forts later in the day.  Pittsburgh also has a connection to the Lewis and Clark Expedition since Lewis spent time here in 1803 before launching his keel boat on the Allegheny River to meet up with Clark.

For the most part, the rest of our walking tour was more of an architectural tour as we were brought to one gorgeous building after another, with the names Frick, Carnegie and Mellon coming up time and time again.  We started at the Koppers Building, once the headquarters for Koppers Gas and Coke Company, a global chemical and materials company founded in 1912 and acquired by industrialist Andrew Mellon in 1914.  The 34-story, 475-foot tall Art Deco-styled Koppers skyscraper was commissioned by Mellon and completed in 1929.  It has a distinctive green copper roof and was constructed with Indiana limestone and polished granite.  As impressive as the exterior of the building is, the interior is even more stunning with marble walls, ornate elevator doors, decorative clocks, brass railings, art-deco styled chandeliers, a gilded mailbox and an enormous, multi-paned window above the entrance.

Originally the Union Arcade, a shopping mall with 240 shops commissioned by Henry Clay Frick and designed by architect Frederick Osterling in 1915-16, the building was purchased in 1923 and became the Union Trust Building.  Constructed in a Flemish Gothic style, the building features a mansard roof, terra cotta dormer windows and ornamentation added to the terra cotta and sandstone facades. At the top of the building are multiple “chapel-like” structures which camouflage the mechanical towers and act as a tribute to the St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Cathedral that used to occupy the site.  Inside we marveled at the eleven-story grand atrium with a breathtaking 40-foot-wide Tiffany glass dome, stained glass windows and a gilded mosaic ceiling in one section.  The royal blue carpet and lavender chairs add to the majestic feel of the space.

The Beaux-Arts William Penn Hotel opened in 1916, once again developed by Henry Frick.  It was hailed at the time as the “grandest hotel in the nation” and also the largest after an addition of another wing in 1929 brought the total number of guest rooms to 1600. The hotel changed hands multiple times and underwent many renovations resulting in the number of rooms reducing to 602 in the present day.  The exterior is noted for its three towers of red brick while the interior features Renaissance Revival design elements.  Unfortunately, we did not get to see it on our tour, but the hotel is known for the Urban Room, a grand Art-deco ballroom with 14 murals.  We did get to admire the beautiful, multi-tiered grand lobby with its decorative ceiling and chandeliers and Art-deco flooring.  A “hidden” bar in the basement of the hotel named “The Speakeasy” serves Prohibition-era inspired cocktails.  It is said that back in the day, the hotel staff invented band leader Lawrence Welk’s famous bubble machine.  Many famous people have stayed at the hotel including John F. Kennedy, and Bob Hope who proposed to his wife there in 1934.

Although we did not go inside, we saw several buildings that had interesting architectural features.  The Park Building was constructed in 1896 in the Beaux-Arts style and was one of the first steel-skeleton skyscrapers standing at 15 stories.  It is recognized from afar because of the 30 sculptures depicting kneeling Atlas figures holding up the top cornice of the building.  We spotted the Keenan Building (now Midtown Towers) from blocks away because of its distinctive red dome that was initially gold-coloured.  Built in 1907 at a height of 239 feet with 18 stories, the building was named after Colonel Thomas Keenan, owner of the Pittsburgh Press newspaper.  Along the sides of the building are bas-relief carvings of prominent figures of the time including the mayor George Guthrie and Governor Edwin Stuart, as well as historical figures such as George Washington, William Pitt and William Penn.  It was rumoured that wild parties and other scandalous activities were held in the space inside the dome, but these proved to be unfounded.

We passed by the Duquesne Club, originally a private members club founded in 1873 which did not allow women to join until 1980.  New memberships are only accepted by invitation/recommendation from existing members.  The club offers fine dining, social events, hotel and conference facilities and a fitness centre.  Entering the theatre district, we passed by the Benedum Center for the Performing Arts that is currently home for ballets and operas.  It was originally the Stanley Theatre, a grand movie palace known as “Pittsburgh’s Palace of Amusement”.  Nearby, the Agnes Katz Plaza opened in 1999 and was named for a local patron of the arts. The plaza is decorated with a 25-foot high tiered water fountain with heated water that flows all year round, and eyeball-shaped benches designed by artist Louise Bougeois.  From this area, we could spot the Andy Warhol Bridge that spans the Allegheny River, leading directly to the Andy Warhol Museum, which we would visit the next day.  Painted on the side of a building on Smithfield St is a mural titled “Two Andys” which depicts Andy Warhol and Andrew Carnegie at a beauty salon, each with curlers in his hair, sitting under a hairdryer.  The mural was completed in 2005 and humorously depicts two important figures in Pittsburgh’s history.

Next we walked through what looked like a palace made of glass.  It was PPG Place, the headquarters of a company that was founded in 1883 as the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, manufacturing high-quality plate glass used in glass doors, mirrors and windows.  Over the years the company diversified, adding paints, chemicals, fiber glass, optical products, coatings and resins to their products. The PPG complex sits on 5.5 acres of land across a 3-block site and consists of a main neo-Gothic styled 40-story tower with tall, pointed spires, plus 5 other buildings all with black glass façades consisting of nearly 1 million square feet of PPG’s energy-efficient clear reflective glass.  In a covered alcove between buildings, we saw a collection of colourful dinosaur statues like the one we spotted when we first passed through the outskirts of Pittsburgh.  These were part of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s “DinoMite Days” fundraiser from 2003 and include a T-Rex named “Mr. Dig”, a Torosaurus shaped like a Heinz ketchup bottle named “Ketchupsaurus” and a Stegosaurus named “Philliposaurus” after architect Phillip Johnson who designed PPG Place.

Our tour ended in Market Square, a historic spot originally known as “Diamond Square” when it was first built in 1784. It was the site of the first Allegheny County Courthouse, jail and newspaper.  Today it is a central hub of activity that hosts a public market, the city hall, cafes, bars, restaurants and shops.  Events are held here throughout the year including farmers’ markets, holiday markets, yoga classes, concerts and festivals.  Some famous establishments include Primanti Brothers Restaurant and Bar, serving sandwiches piled high with French fries, coleslaw and other toppings since early 1900s and Nicolas Coffee, selling coffee blends and teas since 1919.

Another historic establishment located in Market Square is the Original Oyster House, established in 1870 and now the oldest restaurant/bar in Pittsburgh.  Since we both love oysters, my husband Rich and I decided to have lunch here.  The menu focuses mainly on fried seafood dishes including fried oysters, crabcakes and fish sandwiches.  We both ordered the Key West fried oyster dinner with potato chips that came with  either coleslaw or a side salad.  We started with an order of crab cake, which was good but the main attraction for me was the oysters.

The Original Oyster House has interesting and historic interior décor including a long counter/bar area that stretches the entire length of the dining area and features a large poster of boxer Rocky Marciano behind the counter.  There are many more sports photos of boxers, baseball teams, football players and a series of beauty pageant black and white photographs.  Access to the washrooms was interesting.  To get to the “Women’s Room”, I had to request a key from the cashier, and walk past the kitchen to a separate dining area.  The “Men’s Room” was in the main restaurant, but you had to wait to be “buzzed” in by an attendant behind the counter.

After lunch, we walked from the Market Square towards Point State Park, a 36-acre state park located around the meeting point of the three rivers.  To get to this point, which is also known as the “Golden Triangle”, we had to walk under the Interstate 376 Expressway which actually formed a nice arch that framed the view which we were heading towards.  Once we reached the other side, we saw the granite outline marking the spot of the old French Fort Duquesne along with a marker indicating the centre of the fort.  Over to one side is a Block House which is the only remnants of the English Fort Pitt.  It is now a museum which commemorates the French and Indian wars of 1754-1763.

A highlight of Point State Park is the massive 150-foot fountain whose water comes from a subterranean sand and gravel aquifer (rock that holds groundwater) 54 feet below the surface which was formed in the last ice age. It has become an urban legend that this water source is a mythical “fourth river”.   The fountain is a popular attraction which and draws tourists, strollers, cyclists and buskers to the area and is illuminated at night with white and gold lights.  Looking across to the opposite shore, you can see views of the Acrisure (formerly Heinz) Stadium and the Carnegie Science Centre.  We would get a closer look at these sites the following day.

We also caught a glimpse of the Duquesne Incline with a funicular that we intended to take a ride on, as well as the Andy Warhol Bridge.  From the point, we walked east along a section of the Three Rivers Heritage Trail which is a 24-mile regional trail running along the banks of the three rivers.  Our part of the trail led us towards the area called “The Strip”.  Along the way, we found a 300-yard long mural exhibit created in 2021 by artist Camerin “Camo” Nesbit.  Titled “Black Flowers”,  it features alternating images of flowers and monarch butterflies with portraits of notable Black Pittsburgh residents including Broadway/TV actor Billy Porter and rapper Wiz Khalifa.

Our last stop of the day was The Strip district, a vibrant and historic neighbourhood spanning multiple streets along a half-square mile area with the Allegheny River to the north, Liberty Avenue to the South, running between 11th to 33rd Streets.  It is known for its international grocery stores, produce stands, meat and fish markets, sidewalk vendors, boutique shops and eateries, restaurants and bars.  This area reminds me of Toronto’s Kensington Market.

Historically this was an industrial area filled with mills, factories and warehouses and you can still see remnants of this by the ghost signs faintly printed on the sides of some buildings.  The Senator John Heinz History Centre is located in The Strip and is easily spotted by nature of the Heinz sign with the tilted Ketchup bottle.  The museum showcases exhibits on the history of Pittsburgh innovations including the Ferris Wheel and the Big Mac.  There are also exhibits dedicated to Heinz innovations and artifacts from Mr. Rogers’ Neighbourhood.  Unfortunately it had already been a long day and we did not have the time or energy to explore this museum.  Maybe on a return visit..

PA & NY 2023: Pittsburgh - Shadyside Mansions, Shops, Restaurants

After completing our three day exploration of Frank Lloyd Wright designed or inspired houses, my husband Rich and I were ready to head towards Pittsburgh where we would stay for five days.  Enroute, we stopped in Ohiopyle, PA for lunch. Located along the Youghiogheny River, this pretty little borough is a popular tourist recreational stop due to its proximity to the Ohiopyle State Park and Ohiopyle Falls, a 20-foot water fall that provides fast-moving rapids.  In fact, the name Ohiopyle is derived from a Native American Indian word meaning “white, frothy water”.  Water sports including whitewater rafting, kayaking, paddleboarding and recreational fishing are a major attraction here, as attested by the numerous establishments renting water sports equipment as well as bicycles.  This is because Ohiopyle is also a great area for cycling as the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) runs through the area.  The GAP is a 150-mile rail trail connecting Pittsburgh to Cumberland, Maryland that provides opportunities not only for cycling but also hiking, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.

For lunch, we selected a small complex that includes the Ohiopyle Bakery and Sandwich Shoppe, Paddler’s Pizza and a “famous” hot dog shack irreverently named “Bite My Wiener” which we decided we had to try, just to say that we ate there.  The hot dogs were actually quite good as Rich went for the traditional “2 Dogs” which gave him two all beef hot dogs on a brioche bun with mustard and relish.  I chose the “Beefmeister” consisting of ground beef mixed with cheddar cheese rolled up and served on a bun with tomato and mayo (hold the pickle!).  There were several equally cheeky “wiener” related t-shirts for sale as well as some quirky art pieces, making this a fun stop.

On the main drag, we found the picturesque United Methodist Church which was constructed in a “Folk-Victorian” style in 1893 and features irregular rooflines, gingerbread detailing and decorative trim around the stained glass windows.  Nearby is an old train station dating back to 1912 which has been revamped into a recreation hub with modern rest rooms, water fountains, benches and bike repair stations.  The Falls Market General Store includes a restaurant, deli, ice cream shop, general store and a provider of camping supplies.  If we had more time, we would have taken a short hike along the Great Allegheny Passage Trail, but we were in a rush to get to Pittsburgh, so we settled for just walking across the bridge that spanned the river.

It took another hour and a half to drive to Pittsburgh where we spotted a colourfully decorated plastic sculpture of a dinosaur while we were still in the outskirts of the city.  We would see other dinosaurs in the downtown core. Perhaps this animal was chosen as the symbol of Pittsburgh, just like Toronto adopted the moose for its outdoor art displays and other cities have positioned plastic whales, bears, cows and other animals in public areas to liven up public spaces, promote tourism and foster community engagement.  We would be staying in Shadyside, an upscale neighbourhood located in the East end of Pittsburgh, which is known for its historic Victorian mansions, boutiques, shops, galleries, restaurants and cafes.

For our 5-night stay in Pittsburgh, we selected Mansions on Fifth, a boutique hotel at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Amberson Avenue that consists of two side-by-side stately houses which are historically significant.  The larger Elizabethan Revivalist mansion was the home of Willis McCook, attorney to the steel magnate Henry Clay Frick (whose museum we would visit during this trip).  Constructed in the early 1900s, the 20,000 square foot mansion featured the finest ironwork, leaded and stained glass, ceramic tiles and carved wood.  Around the same time, McCook also commissioned the construction of an 8000 square foot Tudor-styled manor house, now called the Amberson House, for his daughter Bessie and her new husband.  The McCook Mansion (renamed Fifth Avenue House) and Amberson House changed hands several times over the decades until it eventually became a hotel that offers 13 guest rooms/suites and 9 guest rooms respectively.   When I booked our room at “Mansions on Fifth”, I did not realize that there were two houses to choose between and just selected the most economical one.  As it turned out, our assigned room was on the top floor of the Amberson House.

At first I was disappointed that we were not in the majestic main house.  But the Amberson House had its own quaint charm.  It had a lovely sitting area on the main floor with a gilded mosaic-covered fireplace, beautiful hardwood floors and woodwork throughout and gorgeous stained glass windows on the second floor landing.  Our room on the third floor was massive with a king-sized bed, a desk and sitting area for me to set up my laptop, and huge bathroom with a roomy walk-in shower.

It turned out to be the best of both worlds for us to stay in the Amberson House while still having access to look around the ground floor of main house.  Our room in the Amberson House was a bit less expensive and was quieter since it only had guest rooms while the Fifth Avenue House had a pub on the second floor and ballrooms that were rented for weddings and parties at night.  It was relatively quiet in the main house during the day, so we were able to spend some time admiring the gorgeous décor.  We sat in the armchairs by the fireplace and inspected all the intricate details, walked up the grand staircase to get a closer look at the stained glass window on the landing and wandered into the various ballrooms and dining rooms.  When we checked out in the morning five days later, the clerk let us sneak upstairs to peek into the guest rooms and suites whose doors were open while the maids cleaning them.   Other than the presidential suite which consisted of two separate bedrooms and a sitting room, the guest rooms in the main house were not that different from our room in the Amberson House.

One evening during our stay, we decided to have a light dinner in the hotel’s Oak Room pub which offered craft cocktails and bar snacks.  Perhaps because it was off season and later in the evening, there was not much choice on the menu.  We ordered an artichoke crab dip with crostini and a veggie/hummus plate with pita bread.  I had an “Autumn Sunset” cocktail made from herbal and peach liquors mixed with orange and cranberry juices while Rich had a Gary’s Nut Brown ale.  This was not our most memorable meal, but it did allow us to enjoy the ambience of an early 1900s pub including the elegant oak paneling, exposed wooden ceiling beams, stained glass windows and grand fireplace.

The Mansions on Fifth are not the only historic or impressive mansions in the area.  Directly across the street is the Negley-Gwinner-Hartner mansion, built in the “Second-Empire” style around 1871 for lawyer William Negley who was a major in the American Civil War.  The house has ornate dormer windows, decorative brackets under the eaves, grey-hexagonal shingles on the lower half of its mansard roof, stained glass windows on the side, a covered veranda held up by doric columns and a second floor open-air terrace.  But what really stands out from afar are the decorative attachments on top the four chimneys on each corner of the rooftop.  From afar, they look like giant birds perched on the chimneys.  The property changed hands to Edward Gwinner in 1910 and Dr. Leo Hartner in 1963, each of whom partook in major renovations.  Declared a Pittsburgh historical landmark in 2000, the house remains a private residence.  More beautiful homes can be found when strolling along Amberson Avenue including one that looks like a Hobbit’s home with a slooping roof and an eyebrow window, as well as many with castle-like turrets.

The Korean Central Church of Pittsburgh in Shadyside was originally the First Methodist Protestant Church, and then a church for the Seventh Day Adventists before becoming a nondenominational church for an English-speaking Korean congregation.  The impressive structure was designed in Romanesque style by Frederick Osterling who also designed the Heinz Company Factories and Clayton House, the home of Henry Clay Frick.  The historic Roslyn Place is the last remaining wooden street in Pittsburgh and one of the few remaining in the United States.  The 250-foot-long street was constructed in 1914 using a technique patented by Samuel Nicolson in 1859 that involves laying down oak logs soaked in creosote, a distillation of tar from wood or coal that is used to preserve wood.  The wood blocks were less expensive and quieter than cobblestones, also providing better traction for horses and carriages.  In 1985, a $75,000 restoration project rebuilt the street using new wooden blocks and now the site is a historical landmark.

Shadyside is a vibrant neighbourhood would a diverse array of shops and restaurants, especially along Walnut Street and Ellsworth Avenue.  Many of the stores were closed when we walked around the area so we mostly peered through the windows and saw pop part, glassworks, a game store with a Pittsburgh-themed monopoly board, arts supply store, gift shops, clothing and shoe stores.

Although Mansions on Fifth offered an ala carte breakfast, the options cost more than we wanted to spend, and we also preferred a quick meal before starting our day.  As always when arriving in a new town, we found a grocery store where we were able to buy some fruit and snacks to eat during our stay.  This along with the complementary coffee often served as our starting meal and allowed us to have a more substantial lunch and dinner.  One day for breakfast, we went to Bruegger’s Bagels in Shadyside to get coffee and breakfast sandwiches.  I selected a tomato, bacon, avocado and egg white sandwich on an everything bagel while Rich opted for egg, ham, bacon onion and peppered cream cheese on a cheese and onion bagel.  The seating area was closed at the bagel shop, so we brought everything back to the hotel and ate our sandwiches with some grapes.

The day that we initially planned to visit the Carnegie Art Museum, we had breakfast at Crêpes Parisienne, a very popular French crêperie that was quite busy by the time we arrived, and we barely snagged the last table. That day I had a crêpe with tomato, spinach, mushroom while Rich had one with egg, sausage and cheese.  Both of us chose bechamel sauce for our crepes and shared a “Paris Fog” tea, which was Earl Grey tea with steamed milk.  Belatedly we regretted not ordering a sweet waffle, but the lineups were too long at that point, so we headed for the museum, just to find that it was closed that day!  This is not what the website said but they had just changed to their fall schedule and had not yet updated it.  Quickly rearranging our plans to visit the art museum the next day instead, we decided to have a second breakfast at Crêpes Parisienne.  This time we arrived just as it opened, both ordered salmon crêpes with chives and crème fraîche, and a liege waffle w chocolate sauce, strawberry, whipped cream.

While in Pittsburgh, we did most of our dining in the Shadyside district where our hotel was located since there were so many good options.  The first night that we arrived, we dined at Toyoca, a trendy Mexican restaurant and bar that specializes in tacos and tequila.  To start off, I ordered the drink special which was a Cantaloupe Margarita consisting of white tequila, orange liquor, lime juice and a homemade cantaloupe mix.  Rich ordered a Paloma Negra which had tequila, grapefruit juice and soda.  For appetizer we choose a Queso Fundido cheese fondue with Queso Oaxaca cheese curd, chorizo sausage, roasted poblano peppers and salsa served with nacho chips.  Then it was time for our taco mains.  We each ordered the steak taco with arugula, red onion, cilantro and salsa.   For my second taco, I chose cauliflower and portobello with diced corn, zucchini, bell peppers, plantains, arugula and salsa my second while Rich picked chicken and chorizo with cheese, red onion, salsa Verde and citrus mix.  Finally for dessert, Rich chose a Leche Cake which was vanilla cake made with 3 types of milk, topped with a chocolate sauce and I went for the Churros con chocolate with fried pastry sticks filled with caramel sauce, dipped in chocolate and paired with Mexican chocolate ice cream.  This was quite the feast for our first meal in the city.   The vibe and décor of the restaurant was really fun as well, with colourful Mexican themed sculpture and lanterns all about.

Another restaurant that we went to in Shadyside was Pasha Café & Lounge, a casual Mediterranean restaurant with a large, semi-enclosed outdoor patio and some lovely décor.  I was especially enamoured by the gorgeous Moroccan or Turkish mosaic lamps with the incredibly ornate colours and patterns that hung from the ceiling grouped together to form chandeliers throughout the restaurant.  We selected a table that was just beside the outdoor patio so that we could get the breeze from the open windows without having to deal with the sun that was still shining on a warm sunny late afternoon.

Reviews online raved about the Middle Eastern food at Pasha, and we tended to agree.  We started with breaded zucchini sticks and falafels with hummus.  I liked that each dish came with cucumber and tomatoes so that we didn’t need to separately order salad.  For mains, we ordered the lamb shish kabob and lamb chop which both came with rice, grilled peppers and grilled zucchini.  The lamb was so tender, perfectly seasoned and cooked medium rare.  We finished the meal with some chocolate baklava.

The only restaurant we frequented that was outside of the Shadyside district was Butterjoint, a casual restaurant that was just a few blocks away from the western border of that area, so still within walking distance of our hotel.  The menu was fairly eclectic with large and small sharing plates, soups, salads, burgers and sandwiches.  For appetizers we ordered a bluefish pate with crostini and cornichon pickles as well as the small plate size of pan-fried potato and cheddar perogies topped with caramelized onions and sour cream.  Our mains were a porkbelly Sammy for Rich which he had with a beer and a crispy chicken sandwich for me which I paired with a “shrub blackberry, raspberry soda” which was sweet and fizzy, just as I like my drinks.  Rich really wanted to try the vinegar pie since it is a Pennsylvania speciality. I had a small taste and thought it was as unappealing as it sounded but at least it came with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Butterjoint has an adjoining bakery which we passed by the next day and stopped in for a treat.  Once again wanting to try local specialities, Rich selected the Shoo-fly pie which consists of a pie crust with a filling mixture of flour, brown sugar, molasses, butter, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Not having the same need to try local favourites, I chose a millionaire’s square consisting of a shortbread base with layers of caramel and chocolate fudge which was more to my taste.

Our final eating experience in Pittsburgh was an impromptu lunch at Fujiya Ramen in Shadyside.  This was not in our original plans but intrigued us because there was always such a large lineup waiting to get into the place each time we passed by.  So even though we had dinner reservations for Butterjoint that night, when we walked by mid afternoon and saw that the place was empty, we decided to drop in to share a bowl of pork belly ramen and a plate of “Karage” (breaded) chicken pieces.  Both were really tasty, and I liked that the ramen came with more vegetables like broccoli than we would usually get in Toronto.  While we did not go to any extremely high-end or pricey restaurants in Pittsburgh, we still enjoyed all the meals that we had there and were glad that we stayed in Shadyside where there were such eclectic choices to pick from.