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Louis Arnett Stuart Bellinger (September 29, 1891, in
Louis Arnett Stuart Bellinger (September 29, 1891, in Sumter, South Carolina
Sumter ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Sumter County, South Carolina, United States. Known as the Sumter Metropolitan Statistical Area, the namesake county adjoins Clarendon and Lee to form the core of Sumter-Lee-Clarendon Tri-county (o ...
– February 3, 1946, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
) was an American architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
responsible for the design of significant buildings in and near Pittsburgh.
Life and work
Bellinger earned abachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...
in architecture from Howard University in 1914. Upon graduation, he moved to Philadelphia, and then shortly afterward taught mathematics in Florida and at Allen University in South Carolina. He served in the U.S. Army in 1917, training at Fort Des Moines. In 1919 Bellinger relocated to Pittsburgh with his wife Ethel, who taught music (initially privately and eventually at the Robert L. Vann Elementary School).
In the early and mid-1920s, Bellinger worked in the office of the City Architect of Pittsburgh, designing buildings including a police station, service buildings in city parks, and most notably, a baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
field called Central Park
Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...
. In 1926, he established a private practice, and among his first designs that year was the African Methodist Episcopal Book Concern at 716 S. 19th. St., Philadelphia (now demolished). At the time, he was one of fewer than sixty African-American architects
African-American architects are those in the architectural profession who are members of the African diaspora in the United States.
Their work in the more distant past was often overlooked or outright erased from the historical records due to ...
.
In the late 1920s and 1930s, Bellinger created many important buildings in Pittsburgh, including the New Granada Theater
The New Granada Theater at 2007 Centre Avenue in the Hill District neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was built in 1927 and 1928. This Art Deco theater was designed by architect Louis Arnett Stuart Bellinger, and originally was a Pythian T ...
in the Hill District
The Hill District is a grouping of historically African American neighborhoods in the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Beginning in the years leading up to World War I, "the Hill" was the cultural center of black life in the city and a major cent ...
, originally designed for the Knights of Pythias
The Knights of Pythias is a fraternal organization and secret society founded in Washington, D.C., on . The Knights of Pythias is the first fraternal organization to receive a charter under an act of the United States Congress. It was founded ...
. This building still stands and was added to the List of City of Pittsburgh historic designations
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
on October 8, 2004, the List of Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation Historic Landmarks in 2007, and the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
on December 27, 2010. In 1931, Bellinger designed Greenlee Field
Greenlee Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, was one of few black-built and black-owned major league baseball field in the United States.
The field was the dream of Gus Greenlee, owner of the Pittsburgh Crawfords. In 1931, constru ...
for Gus Greenlee, used by Negro league baseball
The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be ...
teams. Other Pittsburgh designs by Bellinger include his and Ethel's duplex at 530 Francis St., apartment complexes on Centre Ave. and Wylie Ave., and remodelings of churches in Wilkinsburg
Wilkinsburg is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. The borough has a population of 15,930 as of the 2010 census. Wilkinsburg is part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. The borough was named for John Wilkins Jr., a United States Army ...
and East Liberty.
In 1932, Bellinger ran as a Republican for United States Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
. The only black candidate (of five) on Pennsylvania's 32nd congressional district
Pennsylvania's 32nd congressional district was one of Pennsylvania's districts of the United States House of Representatives.
Geography
The district was located on the north side of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the area formerly known as Alleghe ...
ballot, he was not elected.
In the late 1930s, Bellinger folded his private practice and for several years worked for the city as a building inspector. In 1945 and 1946, he created several new designs and remodels of public and private buildings.
Bellinger died of a cerebral hemorrhage
Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...
on February 3, 1946. He is buried in Allegheny Cemetery.
Albert M. Tanner notes Bellinger's importance: "References to Louis A. S. Bellinger are found in ''Negro Artists: An Illustrated Review of Their Achievements'' (New York: Harmon Foundation, 1935), Theresa Dickason Cederholm, ''Afro-American Artists: A Bio-bibliographical Directory'' (Boston Public Library, 1973), and ''Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975'' (Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1999). A detailed account of his life and work appears in ''African-American Architects: A Biographical Dictionary 1865-1945'' (New York: Routledge, 2004)."
References
* Albert M. Tannler: "Pittsburgh's African-American Architect Louis Bellinger and the New Granada Theater." Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. May 7, 2006. http://www.phlf.org/education-department/pittsburghs-african-american-architect-louis-bellinger-and-the-new-granada-theater/Resources