{"id":6700,"date":"2016-04-13T00:05:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-13T04:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/?p=6700"},"modified":"2016-04-14T15:17:31","modified_gmt":"2016-04-14T19:17:31","slug":"pittsburgh-from-the-sky-before-the-renaissance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2016\/04\/13\/pittsburgh-from-the-sky-before-the-renaissance\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh from the sky, before the Renaissance"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Oakland, <\/a>
Oakland, photographed on “one of the clearest days Pittsburgh has ever had,” according to The Pittsburgh Press. The picture was published Sept. 10, 1950. (Stewart Love\/The Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
The North Side and Allegheny General Hospital. Image published May 8, 1949. (Stewart Love\/The Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div>
\"Carnegie <\/a>
Carnegie Institute of Technology. (Stewart Love\/The Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
The Pittsburgh Press building. (Stewart Love\/The Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div>
\"Golden <\/a>
Golden Triangle. (Stewart Love\/The Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Phipps <\/a>
Phipps Conservatory. Image published Oct. 16, 1949. (Stewart Love\/The Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Hill <\/a>
Hill District. (Stewart Love\/The Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Oakland, <\/a>
Oakland, facing south. in the foreground is Forbes Field. (Stewart Love\/The Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Oakland, <\/a>
Oakland, facing southwest. (Stewart Love\/The Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"We're <\/a>
We’re not certain, but we believe this is Neville Island. (Stewart Love\/The Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Allentown <\/a>
Allentown and Mt. Washington. Image published May 29, 1949. (Stewart Love\/The Pittsburgh Press) (An earlier version incorrectly identified this as Knoxville and Mt. Washington.) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
The location depicted in this picture is a mystery. (Stewart Love\/The Pittsburgh Press) UPDATE: Reader Jeff Vingin has found the location. It’s Glenallen Drive in Whitehall. He sent a link: http:\/\/imgur.com\/7bpFHGt <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\nOne day in August of 1950, two automobiles rumbled shoulder-to-shoulder on the Boulevard of the Allies and prepared to embark on what The Pittsburgh Press dubbed \u201ca strange race\u201d through the city\u2019s streets.<\/p>\n

The event was a gimmick by the newspaper to convince drivers to slow down. Driving like a speed freak yielded no benefits, the Press declared. This competition between a vehicle traveling faster than posted limits and a second that was obeying traffic rules would provide proof.<\/p>\n

The fast driver was Stewart Love, a Press photographer who, at least on this day, sped past other vehicles, \u201csquealed around curves and violated every speed limit.\u201d Love finished the course a bare two minutes ahead of the \u201cslow\u201d driver who conformed to all rules of the road, thus confirming the newspaper\u2019s suspicions that careening through the city at breakneck speed did little other than raise everyone\u2019s blood pressure. Still, we like to think Love enjoyed the experience.<\/p>\n

Love was a technically skilled photographer who produced beautifully constructed pictures for Roto magazine from the mid-1940s until his retirement in 1979. And he may have been a bit of a daredevil.<\/p>\n

In addition to the \u201cstrange race” story, we found in our archives this picture<\/a> of Love leaning on the edge of the Gulf Building in 1956. By then his willingness to venture to high locations and climb into airplanes had earned him the title of the newspaper\u2019s \u201caerial\u201d photographer.<\/p>\n

Love produced some of his most spectacular work in 1949. In April of that year, the Press announced the publication of a series of \u201cpictures-from-the-sky\u201d showing the city from the vantage point of an airplane.<\/p>\n

Aerial photographs are routine today — we\u2019re accustomed to seeing Pittsburgh from all angles in postcards, television commercials, movies, Instagram feeds and Facebook posts. But in the late \u201840s, such photographs must certainly have been considered fresh and unusual. Indeed, Love\u2019s aerial pictures were published as full-page images, allowing readers to view them in great detail.<\/p>\n

The series launched Sunday, April 29, with a picture of Oakland and a brief description of the series. An illustrated logo attached to the weekly feature showed a photographer (presumably Love) clinging precariously to the tail of a small airplane while aiming a camera. The photographer\u2019s hat sails away in the wind.<\/p>\n

Throughout the summer, Press readers were treated to aerial views of the Golden Triangle, Oakland, Mount Washington, Morningside and the South Side. On a few occasions, Love ventured outside the city to photograph places like McKeesport and Duquesne.<\/p>\n

A portion of Love\u2019s work remains in the Post-Gazette archive as a collection of large format black-and-white negatives. We\u2019ve scanned those negatives and included them in this post, along with some other aerial images we found from that era.<\/p>\n

Love\u2019s pictures depict Pittsburgh before its Renaissance. The Point appears crowded and industrial, the North Side hemmed in by railroad tracks. Smoke from the J&L steel mill rises in the background of several images.<\/p>\n

We’re leading the post with a color picture of Oakland, shot by Love in 1950. The image is surprisingly sharp, vibrant and smog-free, considering it depicts one of the most heavily industrialized cities in the country. Trees sprout between university buildings, hospitals and houses. Lawns appear green and plush. The picture was shot, according to the Press, \u201con one of the clearest days Pittsburgh has ever had.\u201d<\/p>\n

Love, it seems, was more than just fearless. He also had a great sense of timing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stewart Love’s arial photographs show a crowded city with sometimes surprisingly clean air.<\/p>\n

Look at the picturesPittsburgh from the sky, before the Renaissance<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[945],"tags":[975,960,961,972,1029,1350,1046,1050],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Digs.aerialNorthSide.jpg?fit=1296%2C914&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":841,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2014\/03\/21\/pittsburgh-from-the-air\/","url_meta":{"origin":6700,"position":0},"title":"Pittsburgh from the air","date":"March 21, 2014","format":"gallery","excerpt":"Pittsburgh\u2019s skyline is one of the most photogenic in the 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