“If cities were alive,
rivers would be their arteries. Since
time immemorial, rivers have been the lifeblood of civilization. The greatest cities in the world: Rome,
London, Paris, Moscow-all are built on rivers. In Pittsburgh, we owe the
existence of our own city to its three rivers: The Allegheny, Monongahela, and
Ohio.”
“And the embers never
fade in your city by the lake, the place where you were born.”
-The Smashing Pumpkins
Hello! My
name is Faith Cotter and I’ve lived on both sides of the river in Pittsburgh,
from Brookline to East Liberty and plenty of neighborhoods in between. This
city is in my blood—my great uncle helped to build it when he worked in the
steel mills, and my father was an employee of St. Paul’s Cathedral in Oakland
from the 1970s to the early 2000s. He says that the best view of the city is
from the belfry of St. Paul’s, though apparently, the pigeons enjoy that view
as well.
Despite its
history, as well as my own, I was well into adulthood before I fully appreciated
the hidden beauty of Pittsburgh. It took seeing this town through the eyes of
someone who did not grow up here to be captivated by dignified sculptures of lions
atop a bridge with chipped paint, and the tiny churches dwarfed by skyscrapers
on either side of the century-old stone.
This blog
will detail some of my favorite Pittsburgh haunts (literally), blending my love
of architecture and history using multiple modes of storytelling: text, images,
and video.
I hope you
enjoy walking in the footsteps of the past with me.
Photos and text by Faith Cotter
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