620 Smithfield Street
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

The following excerpts are from a history published in 1932 celebrating the official opening of the current Smithfield Church in October 1927:

"The new German Evangelical Protestant Church is a most modern structure, modern in construction because it is a steel skeleton building with veneer walls, and modern in plan because its requirements forced the church level to be about thirty feet above the sidewalk and because it was built on a downtown city property with all sorts of restrictions and a party wall on one side. . . .

"The use of a steel skeleton frame brought about possibilities in the arrangement of the plan that could not have been obtained if masonry construction had been resorted to.
. . .

"The basement contains a gymnasium which is provided with a small stage, a movie booth and a gallery, two bowling alleys underneath the slope of the gallery, and dressing rooms for both boys and girls.

"About five feet above the sidewalk level is the spacious Sunday School chapel. On the first floor are also to be found the Pastor's office, the Secretary's office, the Church Council room, the kitchen with modern equipment, and several committee rooms.

" The main entrance on Smithfield Street leads to the Sunday School and to a broad flight of comfortable stairs which in turn lead to the church level, about twenty-five feet above the Sunday School. . . .

"The church proper is a very lofty, extremely well lit room, about sixty-eight feet high, with a shallow but highly decorated chancel, the chancel being emphasized particularly by a beautiful rose window. An ample balcony at the back end of the church has been incorporated into the tower structure. [The German inscription above the rose window reads, "Glory to God in the Highest." A matching inscription at the back of the sanctuary reads, "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God."]

"The tower, which is the main ecclesiastical expression on the exterior of the church, contains the automatic elevator and a spiral staircase leading to a group of small, useful rooms in the body of the tower itself. The belfry, with its swinging bells exposed to view, does much to give the tower a churchly appearance;

"and the tower is terminated by an octagon shaped lantern which in turn is surmounted by a tall slender spire of steel and cast aluminum. . . . [This was the first use anywhere of aluminum in building architecture.]

"The four-inch veneer of limestone and artificial stone, called pre-cast stone, applied to the steel skeleton allowed the greatest possible room for church purposes, for these walls are from nine to twelve inches thick. . . .

"The style of the exterior is not historic, and its details are not of any definite period, but they were chosen to fit their respective positions. The use of artificial stone allowed considerable profuseness of ornament . . . . The application of this ornament in fixed panels surrounded by a smooth limestone ashlar is truly a modern decorative adaptation of materials and construction . . . . [Regrettably, the artificial stone is failing, 80 years after construction. The building's entire exterior needs attention and is now encased in netting to prevent pieces of the facade from falling to the sidewalks while the congregation raises sufficient funds for restoration.]

"The interior of the church has been embellished by plaster ornament for which all the possibilities of plaster staff construction have been considered and used. . . . [The] two side walls are embellished by pictorial stained glass windows, occupying over sixty percent of the wall area . . . ."

"The architect is likewise most desirous to have his design carried out in a substantial and artistic manner. These duties are prerogatives first of all of the contractors, in this case the S.M. Siesel Company, and their construction superintendent. The architect, as well, must have a qualified representative at the building site to be certain that his own ideas of design are correctly interpreted. The architect, in this instance, selected his able lieutenant, Mr. Henry C. Brockman, a man of untiring zeal, to perform the duties of architectural superintendent."

The architect, unnamed in this passage but previously identified in this history from which we are quoting, was the noted Pittsburgh architect, Henry Hornbostel. Hornbostel's work included much of the Carnegie Mellon University campus as well as buildings on the University of Pittsburgh's "old campus," Temple B'nai Israel – used today by Reform Congregation Rodef Shalom, Emory College buildings, and the New York State Education Building in Albany.

The laying of the cornerstone in 1926.

See also: Smithfield's stained glass windows