Pittsburgh's Downtown Churches: Today's Walking Tour

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Ernest Disney-Britton

St Benedict the Moor Catholic Church overlooking downtown Pittsburgh. 

PENNSYLVANIA---The development of houses of worship is the single most telling artistic marker for community history, and today I am taking a tour of downtown Pittsburgh in advance of the annual conference for Americans for the Arts. The conference begins on Friday, so today I am exploring this city founded in 1787, by using historic churches as my road-map. Downtown Pittsburgh is tight and compact, with quite a few skyscrapers and six historic churches. We are staying in the Cultural District, a 14-block area of downtown along the Allegheny River. It is packed with theaters and arts venues, but I'm just as excited to know that 60.57% of the people in Pittsburgh, PA are religious, meaning they affiliate with a religion: 38.44% are Catholic; 0.40% are LDS; 3.97% are another Christian faith; 1.37% in Pittsburgh, PA are Jewish; 0.83% are an eastern faith; 0.48% affilitates with Islam. [link]

Today, there are six remaining historic churches in the downtown area of Pittsburgh:

1. St. Mary of Mercy Roman Catholic Church (1936), Architect: William P. Hutchins; 
2. First Presbyterian Church (1903-05), Architect: Theophilus P. Chandler; 
3. Trinity Cathedral (1870-71), Architect: Gordon Lloyd;
4. Smithfield United Church (1925-26), Architect: Henry Hornbostel;
5. First Lutheran Church (1887-88), Architect: Andrew Peebles;
6.  Church of the Epiphany (Roman Catholic) 1902, Architect: Edward Stotz. 

Thanks to Americans for the Arts (and my own Arts Council), I am thrilled to be spending this time in Pittsbugh.