PHLF Awards Waverly Presbyterian Church a Historic Landmark Plaque

Waverly Presbyterian Church, which stands prominently at the corner of Forbes and South Braddock avenues at the border of Regent Square, has been awarded a Historic Plaque designation from Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.

The church, designed by the architectural firm of Ingham & Boyd, was constructed about 1928-30. The firm was established in Pittsburgh in 1911 when Charles T. Ingham and William Boyd Jr. merged their talents to create some of western Pennsylvania’s finest buildings, including Buhl Planetarium, Westinghouse High School and the garden community of Chatham Village on Mt. Washington.

PHLF Trustee Cynthia Underwood, vice-chair of the Historic Plaque Designation Committee, announced that Waverly and 15 other Historic Landmark Plaque awardees that were chosen at the committee’s meeting last month. The 16 plaques recognize some 47 structures.

For the first time, the committee also considered plaque applications from counties surrounding Allegheny, especially if the applicant site had some connection to the Greater Pittsburgh region—through property ownership or through the work of a distinguished Pittsburgh architect.

PHLF created the Historic Landmark Plaque program in 1968 to identify architecturally significant structures and designed landscapes throughout the Pittsburgh region. An Historic Landmark Plaque does not protect a building from alteration or demolition.

To date, 562 plaques have been awarded to significant buildings, districts, landscapes and structures throughout Allegheny County and now Westmoreland County that are 50 years old or more.

The 15 other “Historic Landmark” sites recognized with Waverly Presbyterian, in chronological building order, are:

1. Chalfant house, 89 Locust St., Etna, c. 1850
2. 4841 Ellsworth Ave., house (Alexander M. Guthrie), Shadyside, c. 1870
3. Fourth Avenue National Register Historic District (Boundary Increase), Downtown, c.1871-1934 (Forbes Avenue south side between Smithfield and Wood streets; and extending along Wood Street to Fifth Avenue).
4. Allegheny City Electric Light Plant—1895 Building, 822 Riversea Rd., Central Northside, David Hunter Jr., engineer
5. Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad Coraopolis Station, Neville Avenue and Mill Street, Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, 1895
6. West End Branch, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, 47 Wabash Ave., West End, Alden & Harlow, 1899
7. Wylie Avenue Branch, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (now First Muslim Mosque of Pittsburgh), 1911 Wylie Ave., Hill District, Alden & Harlow, 1899
8. St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church complex, 5801 Hampton St., Highland Park, Carpenter & Crocker, 1905-09
9. St. James Terrace, 5300-5312 St. James Terrace, Shadyside, John E. Born, builder, 1915
10. Schenley Apartments, (now Schenley Quadrangle, University of Pittsburgh), 3959 Forbes Ave., and 4000 Fifth Ave., Oakland, Henry Hornbostel with Rutan, Russell & Wood, 1922-23
11. First United Methodist Church of McKeesport, Cornell Street and Versailles Avenue, Charles W. Bolton & Son (Philadelphia), 1924-25
12. Joseph Vokral house, 1919 Woodside Rd., Shaler Township, Quentin S. Beck, 1936
13. Mr. & Mrs. Jack Landis house, 2717 Mount Royal Rd., Squirrel Hill, Peter Berndtson and Cornelia Brierly, 1947
14. Miller–Cole house, 629 Oakhill Lane, Greensburg, Westmoreland County, Peter Berndtson and Cornelia Brierly, 1950-52
15. Mr. & Mrs. David Giles house, 1 Saxman Drive, Latrobe, Westmoreland County, Peter Berndtson and Cornelia Brierly, 1952