The Newtown Pentacle

Altissima quaeque flumina minimo sono labi

Archive for November 30th, 2023

Heinz Chapel

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Thursday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

That’s the Heinz Memorial Chapel pictured above, which offers 57 varieties of interdenominational religious services and…

Actually, it’s a ‘sacred space’ dedicated to and built by the Heinz family of Pittsburgh. The Heinz Chapel opened in 1938, at a ceremony led by the son of Henry John Heinz, founder of the H.J. Heinz Company.

Now simply branded as ‘Heinz,’ the company are the purveyors of various preserved vegetables and condiments, which includes their category defining Tomato Ketchup. The scion died in 1919, and his three children carried on with his desire to memorialize their grandmother Anna Margaretha Heinz after he passed on.

The Heinz family is still quite prominent in Pittsburgh, through their philanthropic Heinz Endowments fund, and for serving in the endless sea of Politics. If there was a Batman here, he’d secretly be a Heinz, rather than a Wayne.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

It was rather late in the day when I arrived at the Heinz Chapel, which unfortunately severely limited my time there to a ‘run and gun’ sort of visit. They roll up the sidewalks in Pittsburgh pretty early, I should mention. This was about 4 in the afternoon.

Luckily, the person who was serving as the attendant allowed me usage of the lavatory, which had become something of an urgent need, and I then had just a literal minute to grab a shot of the chapel itself before she would be turning off the lights and locking the doors.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

As I said about St. Paul cathedral – wow.

This is a spot which I’m definitely going to revisit soon, as I’d love to capture some of the abundant detail within the chapel from behind the lens.

Back tomorrow with something different, at this – your Newtown Pentacle.


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In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.

Written by Mitch Waxman

November 30, 2023 at 11:00 am