This weekend, I will be making a trip to the neighborhood of Troy Hill, a history-rich neighborhood located just on the North Side of Pittsburgh. As a place that offers countless places to visit and appreciate, I will aim to explore several renowned locations in this town. My possibilities include touring many of the famous "art houses" in Troy Hill: including the Darkhouse Lighthouse, Ms. Christopher's, and the Kunzhaus. There is also the Penn Brewery restaurant that I plan on visiting during lunchtime. Saint Anthony's Chapel is also on the list for my expedition, being one of the more famous buildings in town.
Originally founded by Pennsylvania Vice-President David Redick in 1788, Troy Hill was first given the name "New Troy" in the early 19th-century. Throughout the time of the Industrial Revolution, it began to be settled by Germans, who worked in the factories and railroads close to the Allegheny River. The immigration rate and the population of Troy Hill spiked around this time, which prompted the need for a schoolhouse to be built for the children. Now demolished and turned into a community park, the schoolhouse of Troy Hill endured approximately over a century of constant name-changes and refurbishments: in many cases, it was completely demolished and rebuilt. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_Hill_(Pittsburgh)]
The famous Saint Anthony's Chapel evidently houses the second-largest collection of Catholic and religious relics in the whole world: the first largest, of course, being the Vatican. Evidently having served as a resource for the Kunzhaus created by Robert Kuśmirowski, the church contains nearly 5,000 historical relics. Such relics include, but are not at all limited to, segments of the True Cross, remains of famous priests, and countless sculptures and paintings. (https://pghshrines.org/about-st-anthony-chapel)
Originally built in the early 1880s, Kunzhaus was named after Fredolin Kunz, an immigrant from Switzerland who lived at the house with his wife, a German woman named Katherina. The couple lived in the house for nearly six decades until Fredolin sold it in 1948. Robert Kuśmirowski was contacted by the proprietors of the Rialto Street Art Houses of Troy Hill to completely redesign the house. Having a passionate sense of history, Kuśmirowski took it as an opportunity to reflect the lives of the house's former tenants (https://www.troyhillarthouses.com/kunzhaus-statement).
Created by renowned artist Mark Dion, Ms. Christopher's House is meant to be a representation of a central idea that he incorporates into all of his works. That is, he aimed for the house to be representative of the ways that certain ideologies, practices, and beliefs influence our understanding of the world around us. According to Dion himself, he claims that his purpose as an artist “is to go against the grain of dominant culture, to challenge perception and convention.” (https://www.troyhillarthouses.com/lahuetteroyal-1)
The Darkhouse Lighthouse is one of the most recent additions to the famous Troy Hill art houses and was collaboratively envisioned by artists Lenka Clayton and Phillip Andrew Lewis. It still functions as a regular lighthouse, but is located inside a decrepit row house at 1913 Tours Street in Pittsburgh. Reaching up at a total of four stories, the lighthouse is supposed to act as a sort of optical illusion, confusing viewers with its unique structure. (https://www.troyhillarthouses.com/darkhouselighthouse)