Madison Elementary School, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania
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Madison School was originally part of the Minersville Sub-district and is named for the former name of Milwaukee Street which it faces.
Architect Ulysses J.L. Peoples specialized in school architecture and earned commissions from a number of different sub-districts. He designed Larimer School, Wightman School, McCleary School, and probably Oakland School, in addition to Madison. His designs tend to involve incidents of extraordinary detailing, such as the entries here. Peoples, who worked for a time at D.H. Burnham & Company in Chicago, reportedly brought the, elaborate terra cotta forms to Pittsburgh, following their display at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Or perhaps they were modeled after fair displays. Peoples also made extensive use of terra cotta in the Moose Building, his best-known non-school commission.
The 1929 addition is by Pringle & Robling, architects who apparently associated for public school projects. They also designed an addition to Linden School as well as Lincoln School, a livelier version of the Deco approach seen at Madison.
Building Description
Madison Elementary School is located on a corner site leveled out of sloping terrain. The building is thus terraced high above street level at its southwest end, behind a stone retaining wall topped by an iron fence, and drops below street grade at the northeast end. A rectangular original building (1902) of very dirty brick is extended by an irregularly shaped addition (1929) of buff brick.
The original Madison School has two stories on a very high stone basement. It is five bays square with featured facades on the southwest and southeast. The main southwest facade has a slightly projecting center bay with brick quoining. First story windows are broad with simple brick flat arches. Second story windows are also oversize and have rounded arches with drip molds and surrounds enriched with projecting brick. All window sash is replacement. A strong watertable, a beltcourse, a frieze with circular openings, and a corbeled brick cornice divide the building horizontally. The roof is flat. The focal point of each facade is the entry framed with a rounded arch supported on plain stone columns. Tiered capitals, the inner edge of the arch, and an inner surround are richly ornamented in terra cotta featuring monkeys, snakes, cherubs, and a variety of other beasts and vaguely Romanesque decorative motifs. Some of this ornamentation is in deep relief; some is very flat.
The 1929 addition has simple blocky massing and understated Art Deco detailing, A portion of the first story has extra-height windows, while windows in a recessed second story have metal-grille spandrels below.
The Madison School interior has a central space framed with 4 tall Doric columns and ringed by classrooms. Circulation areas were apparently unified and rebuilt at the time of the addition and feature marble wainscoting, terrazzo floors, and stairs with metal balustrades. There is a third floor skylight in the original building. The addition has a modernized auditorium/cafeteria and a small second floor gym.
Madison School has lost its original hipped roof with a central skylight and a tall brick chimney. Architectural plans show decorative wood panels over the first story windows which either were not executed or have deteriorated and been replaced.
Southeast side (1986)
