Pittsburgh: An Urban Portrait - A Review
By
James Wudarczyk - 2005

Franklin Toker, Pittsburgh: An Urban Portrait, University Park and London: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1986.

Although written in 1986, Franklin Toker’s Pittsburgh: An Urban Portrait remains a major work in documenting Pittsburgh’s architecture. Toker’s approach to the subject remains unique in that he designed the book as a giant walking tour of the city and immediate surrounding areas. A pioneer in site identification, Toker wrote the book because the city was unstudied.

Members of the Lawrenceville Historical Society and other parties interested in neighborhood architecture will be most interested in pages 199 through 204 since this section of the study deals with the Lawrenceville community. The author deals mainly with site identification. So while Toker does an exceptional job of listing the large number of places with unique historical and architectural value, the descriptions are little more than a few lines accompanying each site. Nonetheless, the reader will not be disappointed in the material.

While studying Lawrenceville, the author gives attention to Doughboy Square, Pennsylvania National Bank, Pittsburgh Brewing, Lawrence Square Apartments, St. John the Baptist Church, 3600 Penn Avenue, Cinderella Apartments, St. Augustine Church, Carnegie Library, Brown House, Allegheny Arsenal, Pittsburgh National Bank, Allegheny Cemetery, and alludes to several industrial sites.

Since Toker was the first to tackle the project of exploring Pittsburgh via means of a walking tour, his book will remain of great value to present and future historians, especially considering the fact that we never know when a historical site may be lost or altered.