Pittsburgh: 1941

This looks like the "South Side" of Pittsburgh and if I am not mistaken, this is an orthodox church which is now the private home and studio of the owner of the number one Pittsburgh chain of hair salons and spas.

Pittsburgh has a lot of onion-dome ethnic churches all over town. The 1941 City Directory lists a Wm. James Confectionery at 7314 Tioga Street, which is where Point Breeze meets Homewood meets nothing original still standing. This would be east of downtown.

Not only can I relate to DSS since we don't get a lot of rain in West Texas, but I'm just amazed at how it's coming *straight down*. (Huge gusts of wind aren't sucking her umbrella inside out, and the rain isn't coming in sideways and raising welts on her skin!)

P.S. Not that I'm complaining...I love it here, and my glasses usually protect my eyes from the infrequent SIDEWAYS rainstorms!

It's 103 degrees on my front porch (yes, that's in the shade), my part of Arizona hasn't seen rain in 3 or 4 months. Guess whats going on my desktop. Thanks.

DSS

Canada Dry Spur ("the cola drink with Canada Dry quality") was Canada Dry's attempt at entering the cola wars. By this time of course the company was owned by P.D. Saylor and Associates and the only connection with Canada was the name.

I agree with others here about the evocative quality of this photo. Staring at this for a few moments I swear I can hear the rain coming down!

The person walking with the umbrella really makes the photograph work. You can almost feel the rain..

This photo immediately brings forth the smell of rain, the hiss of car tires as they pass and the drip drip drip of rainwater off the eaves of the porch.

... in the background? Is that another church? Looks Orthodox. Perhaps someone familiar with Pittsburgh will know.

This is a beautiful picture. John Vachon's photos did not have the pathos and personal drama of Dorothea Lange's work, but more than any other American photographer, he has left an invaluable scrapbook of the vernacular American landscape. He is my favorite photographer.