Saint Paul Cathedral is the

mother church Mother church or matrice is a term depicting the Christian Church as a mother in her functions of nourishing and protecting the believer. It may also refer to the primary church of a Christian denomination or diocese, i.e. a cathedral church, or ...

of the Diocese of Pittsburgh in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

. St. Paul parish was established in 1833.

History

The original St. Paul Church was dedicated in 1833. When the diocese was established in 1843 St. Paul Church was chosen as the cathedral. It burnt down in 1851, but was replaced with a larger building in 1855. The first two St. Paul Cathedrals were located on Grant Street downtown. As the downtown area was claimed by industries, the residential areas shifted to other areas of the city. St. Paul's property was sold to the industrialist

Henry Clay Frick Henry Clay Frick (December 19, 1849 – December 2, 1919) was an American industrialist, financier, and art patron. He founded the H. C. Frick & Company coke manufacturing company, was chairman of the Carnegie Steel Company and played a major ...

. The present

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

structure was designed by Egan and Prindeville of

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

and completed in 1906. They used

Cologne Cathedral Cologne Cathedral (, , officially , English: Cathedral Church of Saint Peter) is a cathedral in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia belonging to the Catholic Church. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne and of the administration of the Archd ...

as their inspiration. Philadelphia contractor Thomas Reilly built the new cathedral in the

Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...

neighborhood. A

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a Musical keyboard, keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single tone and pitch, the pipes are provide ...

was provided by

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie ( , ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the History of the iron and steel industry in the United States, American steel industry in the late ...

. The cathedral serves the spiritual needs of approximately 3,000 worshipers. It became a

contributing property In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic dist ...

in the

Schenley Farms Historic District The Schenley Farms Historic District, also referred to as the Schenley Farms–Oakland Civic District, is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places that is located in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, ...

on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1983. Andrew Carnegie provided the cathedral's first pipe organ, originally a circa 1895 W. W. Kimball, which served into the 1950s. Under organist and choirmaster Paul Koch's leadership, the cathedral contracted with

Aeolian-Skinner Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company, Inc. of Boston, Massachusetts was an American builder of a large number of pipe organs from its inception as the Skinner Organ Company in 1901 until its closure in 1972. Key figures were Ernest M. Skinner (1866–1 ...

to build a new large four-manual organ. This contract fell through upon the death of Aeolian-Skinner's president G. Donald Harrison, and after a tour of European organ manufacturers Koch selected Beckerath to manufacture the cathedral's new organ. Named "one of the monument organs of the continent", it was completed in 1962, and has undergone several major refurbishment projects since.

Gallery

File:Interior of Saint Paul Cathedral - Pittsburgh 01.jpg, Cathedral interior File:Interior of Saint Paul Cathedral - Pittsburgh 02.jpg, Pipe organ File:Interior of Saint Paul Cathedral - Pittsburgh 03.jpg, Altar and reredos File:Interior of Saint Paul Cathedral - Pittsburgh 06.jpg, Cathedra File:Interior of Saint Paul Cathedral - Pittsburgh 05.jpg, Ambo

References

External links

Official Cathedral Site

Diocese of Pittsburgh Official Site
{{NRHP Religious organizations established in 1834 Roman Catholic churches completed in 1906 Paul Pittsburgh Gothic Revival church buildings in Pennsylvania Roman Catholic churches in Pittsburgh Cathedrals in Pittsburgh Historic district contributing properties in Pennsylvania National Register of Historic Places in Pittsburgh 1834 establishments in Pennsylvania 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States

History

Gallery

See also

References

External links