Emmanuel Episcopal Church (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)

Emmanuel Episcopal Church
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
City of Pittsburgh Historic Structure
Pittsburgh Landmark – PHLF
Emmanuel Episcopal Church
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Location	957 W. North Ave., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Coordinates	40°27′11″N 80°1′10″W / 40.45306°N 80.01944°W / 40.45306; -80.01944
Area	0.5 acres (0.20 ha)
Built	1886
Architect	Henry Hobson Richardson
Architectural style	Romanesque Revival, Richardsonian Romanesque
NRHP reference No.	74001737[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	May 3, 1974
Designated NHL	February 16, 2000[4]
Designated CPHS	February 22, 1977[2]
Designated PHLF	1968[3]

Emmanuel Episcopal Church is a church in the North Side neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Located at 957 West North Avenue at the corner of Allegheny Avenue, its 1886 building is known for its architectural features and was one of the last designs by Henry Hobson Richardson. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2000.^[4][5] An active parish of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, it is known for offering a Sunday evening service of Jazz Vespers.

Though brick was selected for reasons of economy, the brickwork is one of the church's most striking features. Unlike most of Richardson's buildings, Emmanuel Episcopal's wall surfaces have fairly plain surfaces. They do not have a rough surface, moldings, belt courses or other projections to break up the planes or produce shadow lines, though the bricks do project from the main wall surface just below the eave line in two steps of different dimension to give a pleasing string course effect. Stone is used only as sills for the windows, and springing from the three entrance arches and where the foundation is exposed.

This simplicity is relieved, in part, by patterning the brickwork. Of particular note, the repetitive triangular pattern at the roofline is called “mousetooth.” The brick patterning gives the impression of finely woven fabric. The sharply incised windows and doors produce dramatic voids.

One of the best-known features of Emmanuel Episcopal Church is a mistake. The lower section of the western wall is intended to slope inward as it rises—an architectural feature called battering. Instead, the wall bows outward, a shape it began to take shortly after construction. Richardson having died a month after the building's dedication, the church hired his former employees, Longfellow, Alden & Harlow, to fix the problem. They were unable to pinpoint the cause. However, when the firm added the parish house to the far side of the church, the wall's slope stopped increasing.