In the news again!

Frederick G. Scheibler is in the news again! With lots of great photos!

Over here.


Check out all that stained glass!

Parkstone Dwellings, 6937-6943 Penn Avenue

What a treat! Today I get to show you the romantic, whimsical Parkstone Dwellings!

I'm thinking it like this: The Parkstone Dwellings!!! 

Many people who have never even heard of Frederick Scheibler know of "that building in the East End that looks like it has Oriental rugs hanging over the side."

The Parkstone Dwellings, an absolutely amazing Historic Landmark on Penn Avenue, are a true testament to Scheibler's imagination. The building is magical from the inside out. 

First of all, there are four side-by-side front entries, ornamented with concrete toad stools and stained glass twining-roses. The four separate doors make these homes dwellings instead of apartments--as Aurand writes, they are "private beyond the first stoop."

He compares the roof's multiple, delicate folds to origami. There is also, apparently, a random and fully sculpted seagull perched on the southeast corner of the facade.

See how the chimney stands at the center of the house. Martin Aurand explains that the fireplace flues have to jut at odd angles over the entrances to make this design decision possible.

Click to enlarge this!

And the rounded windows look like turrets!

One day several years ago, I saw that there was an estate sale in the garden of the Parkstone Dwellings. I made a beeline for it. I begged for a tour and, since there was a vacant dwelling at that time, got to go inside. 

I felt like I was absolutely bewitched. It was stunning. And best of all, the architecture seems playful for the sake of playfulness. After basking in the Parkstone Dwellings, I know I could never, ever live in a boring cookie-cutter home.

What you'll see now are the dreadfully bad photos I managed to snap with the only camera I had when I stumbled upon that estate sale--my free-with-the-plan LG Cosmos cell phone camera. Here goes.

This is one of the tile mosaics that, from Penn Avenue, looks like a regal rug draped over the balcony. The tiles were reportedly arranged and assembled by Scheibler himself, because he just couldn't trust anyone else to do it.

The "rugs" were reportedly requested by Harry Rubins and his sister Rose Rubins, who commissioned the home. They lost the home at sheriff's sale just ten years after it was built.

Front door with stained glass

The massive fireplace just inside the front door. You can't see the mosaic detail in this photo but the interior mosaics depict panthers and kingfishers.

Living room, paneled with Laguna mahogany

Art glass again. Look to the left!

Living room, looking into the dining room. Amazing art glass details.

Dining room

My friend Ken in the bedroom, with window seat. 

Ken again in the shower, which had body sprayers! 

Second bathroom

Hallway ceiling painted to look like sky. This is a recent detail, but large murals are historically appropriate in houses like this.

Fireplace detail from Martin Aurand's The Progessive Architecture of Frederick G. Scheibler, Jr.

The Parkstone Dwellings were somewhat later work, designed in 1922. 

It's hard to articulate the thrill that Scheibler's architecture gives me, but this building leaves me breathless. It's one thing to appreciate art. But this is art you can go inside, and live inside--art that stands and survives time and weather for a century or more. My heart flutters with both love and longing, to be inside it, to look at it, to photograph it, to smell it, and to lay my hand against the walls and try to absorb the decades of history that unfolded inside it. 

I hope I get to go inside the Parkstone Dwellings again one day.

Update! May 3, 2015: Article and photos published

Click over here to read an article in the Tribune-Review about Scheibler's work in Pittsburgh.

It comes with these and other great photos:

Linwood Apartments, 6801 McPherson Boulevard

It's a beautiful day for a dog walk! And, I had to restrain myself from putting an exclamation point in the title of this post. Porter and I visited the! Linwood! Apartments! One of my favorites, since they are so similar to my apartment building, the Old Heidelberg.

The Linwood Apartments were designed at the same time as the very-similar Whitehall Apartments, which we looked at here. Like the Old Heidelberg, it has a T-shaped design but only 6 units. Aurand's book tells me that the maid's quarters differ from those of the Old Heidelberg. Like the Old Heidelberg, the individual apartment entry doors have art glass windows and the interiors have wood trim, window seats and build-in cupboards.

I absolutely love them.

Click to enlarge this! 

Can you spot Porter the Beagle in this photo?

A pergola joins the two sides of the Linnwood Apartments.

Entry, today.

An older photo in Martin Aurand's book shows a stained glass motif in the front door and domed lamps flanking the entry.

Today, you can see stained glass windows on the second floor balconies, just like the Old Heidelberg and Whitehall Apartments. Photos in Aurand's book show gorgeous French doors, which must have come out. (I feel so late to the party.) These tapered wood posts are straight out of the Old Heidelberg. 

A peek inside a dining room. Look at the ceiling!

The realtor who sold the building (for $465,000) in 2013 writes:

"Each front to back unit is 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, and has 2 ornate fireplaces, 1 with a brass hood/marble surround and the other with tile.  All floors are hardwood.  Lots of beautiful woodwork.  In the main hall, skylights shine light down through stained glass.  Each apartment door features a detailed stained art glass panel. 

Pergola is located at the front of the building.  Each unit has a front porch almost big enough to be a bedroom, with the the top two floors’ porches being enclosed.  The roof is clay tile.  The foundation features massive blocks of sandstone and enormous I-beams built to last.  The exterior walls are very thick brick with stucco overtop."

Porter is irrationally happy to see me again. 

Exciting update! September 17, 2014: I found interior shots! It looks almost JUST like the Heidelberg.

See what I mean? It's gorgeous!

View from the dining room, through the foyer and into the living room, with balcony yonder.

Living room

The tile on the lower right of this photo shows that this is the spot in the dining room where the Old Heidelberg has a window seat. I'm not sure whether a window seat was removed from or never existed here. I noticed the outlet, of which the Heidelberg has very few!

So lovely! This is where the Old Heidelberg has French doors. 

Stained glass windows in the main bedroom

Update! April 27, 2015The Linwood Apartments are for sale again, at an asking price of $720,000. The listing offers some more interior shots.