Thomas Carlton Strong
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Carlton Strong, as he was usually known, was one of our best ecclesiastical architects. If he had done nothing but Sacred Heart in Shadyside, he would be remembered as a great artist. He was not originally a church architect, however: he came to Pittsburgh after years of success in Buffalo and New York designing apartment buildings. In fact his first commission here was an apartment building: the Bellefield Dwellings in Oakland. His association with ecclesiastical architecture came about after a religious conversion.
We plan an extensive biography of Carlton Strong when we have the time, but meanwhile the biography in [Volume IV of *Pittsburgh of Today: Its Resources and People*](https://archive.org/details/pittsburghoftoda04harp/page/470/mode/2up), by Frank S. Harper (New York: The American Historical Society, Inc., 1931), is very good, and includes an extensive list of his works.
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**CARLTON STRONG**—After almost two decades of successful practice of architecture in Buffalo, New York, and in New York City, Mr. Strong removed to Pittsburgh. Here he occupies a leading position among the city’s architects, having become especially well known for the many fine church and school buildings he has designed and the erection of which he has supervised in the Greater Pittsburgh district.
Carlton Strong was born at Lockport, New York, March 23, 1869, a son of Howard and Julia Stillwell (Bowne) Strong. His parents were descendants of Norman-English families who settled, respectively, in New England, in 1630, and in New Jersey about 1640. His father was a well-known portrait painter. Mr. Strong attended private and public schools at Buffalo, New York, and the University of Ottawa, Province of Ontario, Canada. He studied architecture under the apprentice system, then prevailing, under the late Richard A. Waite, of Buffalo, architect for the Provincial Parliamentary Buildings at Toronto and well known as the introducer of the modern cantilever gallery construction in theaters. Mr. Strong commenced practice, July 9, 1888, at Buffalo, New York, first in association with Charles W. Bradley, the illustrator, and later with Ernest Wilby, under the name of Strong & Wilby. There he designed the first reinforced concrete building in America, now known as the Graystone Hotel, following Ernest L. Ransome’s initial experiments in California, and the Markeen Hotel, the first building having the modern long-span tile and tension-rod floor construction. In 1900 he moved to New York City and there designed several hotels, including the Orleans, West End Avenue, which was the first in New York with a top-floor dining room, and the Schuyler, on Forty-sixth Street, which was the first to be erected with reinforced gypsum floor construction and to be equipped with individual mechanical refrigeration. A third was the first in New York City to have running ice water on every floor, and a fourth introduced the modern dressing room between bedrooms and bathrooms.
The Bellefield Dwellings, erected during 1902-04, and other Pittsburgh work, led Mr. Strong, May I, 1906, to remove to Pittsburgh. However, he retained his New York office, until his work in that city was completed some two or three years later. The Bellefield Dwellings was the first large American multiple dwelling-house planned as separate dwellings with each dwelling having three outside walls and the fourth opening to a corridor in place of a street. It was the fourth to have individual mechanical refrigeration and the first to utilize the heat removed from refrigerators to supply hot feed-water to the boilers. It was one of the pioneer buildings to employ a one-pipe heating system that utilized the otherwise wasted exhaust steam from the engines, the modern type of electric elevator, the use of water-proofing in place of furring behind plastering, and other items that have since become commonplace practice. Beginning in Pittsburgh with the design of the original Duquesne light plant, erected in sixty days to save the lapsing of the franchise, and following with the Rittenhouse Hotel on North Highland Avenue, an effort to contribute to the social facilities of the city, Mr. Strong’s work has largely been expended in the opportunities that have come to him in the ever-growing needs of the Greater Pittsburgh. Mr. Strong has, for some years, practiced in association with Benet Kaiser, A. I. A., A. S. C. E., and Allan H. Neal. His offices are located in the Keystone Building.
A partial and characteristic list of Mr. Strong’s work includes the following: Churches—Sacred Heart Church, East End, Pittsburgh; Our Mother of Sorrows Church, Westmont, Johnstown, Pennsylvania; St. Joseph’s Parish Church, New Kensington, Pennsylvania; Ursuline Academy Chapel, Pittsburgh; Sacred Heart Parish Church, Jeannette, Pennsylvania; Chapel, Mount Gallitzin Academy, Baden, Pennsylvania; Combination School and Chapel Building for Parish of Nativity, North Side, Pittsburgh; St. Michael’s Church, Braddock, Pennsylvania; Greek-Rite Church of the Holy Ghost, North Side, Pittsburgh; and Greek-Rite Church of St. Mary, McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania. Schools—St. James’ School, West End, Pittsburgh; McKelvy Grade School, Pittsburgh; School Building for Sisters of Mercy, Pittsburgh; St. Joseph’s School, New Kensington, Pennsylvania; St. Justin’s School, Mt. Washington, Pittsburgh; St. Titus’ School and Chapel, Woodlawn, Pennsylvania; St. Leonard’s School, Monessen, Pennsylvania; Holy Trinity Parish School, McKeesport, Pennsylvania; St. George’s Parish School, Auditorium and Social Rooms, South Side, Pittsburgh. Rectories—Presbytery for St. Paul’s Cathedral Parish, Pittsburgh; Chaplain’s Residence, Mt. Gallitzin Academy, Baden, Pennsylvania; St. James’ Rectory, West End, Pittsburgh; and St. Barnabas, Rectory, Rankin, Pennsylvania. Convents—St. Lawrence Convent, Pittsburgh; St. Leonard’s Convent, Monessen, Pennsylvania; Mother House for Sisters of St. Francis, Castle Shannon, Pennsylvania; and St. Catherine’s Convent, Beechview, Pittsburgh. Institutional Buildings—Seton Hill College Dormitories and Physical Education Building, Greensburg, Pennsylvania; Dormitory Building for Sisters of Mercy, Pittsburgh; St. Vincent’s Seminary Dormitory, Beatty, Pennsylvania.
He is a member or fellow of many technical and scientific societies, including the following: American Institute of Architects and its Pittsburgh Chapter; American Society of Civil Engineers; Engineers’ Society of Western Pennsylvania; Pittsburgh Architectural Club; Royal Society of Arts; American Association for the Advancement of Science; American Geographical Society; Sons of the American Revolution; New England Historic Genealogical Society; and a number of others. Known widely as a student, he is much consulted in such special subjects as medieval history, ecclesiology, Christian symbolism, liturgical usage, period decorations, costumes and color schemes, as well as also in matters of building design and practice, properties of materials, engineering and related subjects. His interest in the liturgical revival has led to his being frequently consulted by American and foreign ecclesiastics in matters of church furnishment and decoration and many foreign and domestic metal and textile fabricators, sculptors, needle and color workers have worked and are working under his direction. In his religious views, after passing through Puritanism and the various stages of Anglicanism, Mr. Strong, after some activity in schemes for promoting the recovery of the reunion of Christendom, became, about 1911, a member of the Catholic Church. During these years, and since, he has been an occasional contributor to the critical and irenical literature that was set in motion by the so-called Oxford movement.
Mr. Strong married, in 1894, Maude Alice Davis, of Buffalo, New York. Mr. and Mrs. Strong make their home at No. 4731 Bayard Street, Pittsburgh.
[](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/The_Bellefield%2C_Oakland%2C_Pittsburgh%2C_2021-08-30%2C_01.jpg)
##### Bellefield Dwellings, Oakland
[](https://fatherpitt.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/2014-03-14-sacred-heart-01.jpg)
##### Sacred Heart Church, Shadyside
[](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/St._Mary%E2%80%99s_Ukrainian_Greek_Catholic_Church%2C_McKees_Rocks_Bottoms%2C_2023-11-11%2C_04.jpg)
##### St. Mary’s Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, McKees Rocks