{"nrhp_refnum":"81000525","name":"St. Boniface Roman Catholic Church","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"East St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Pittsburgh","county":"Allegheny County","state":"PA","lat":40.46706199000005,"lon":-79.99999160699997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1981-11-17","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Engineering","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"St. Boniface Roman Catholic Church is a masonry church with an attached rectory on East Street in the East Street Valley of Pittsburgh's North Side, Allegheny County. The church was completed in 1926 and is accompanied by an 1884 school and church building.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the church is a leading example of the Byzanto-Romanesque style of early 20th-century eclecticism in the Pittsburgh region. Its construction is noteworthy for having no structural steel and for its extensive Guastavino tile vaulting and dome, which the nomination describes as a spectacular use of the system in Pittsburgh. The church is also presented as a focal point of the community's German-American Catholic history.","narrative":"Built in 1926 on East Street in Pittsburgh's North Side, St. Boniface is a stone and tile church designed by local architect Albert Francis Link of the firm Link, Weber, and Bowers. The parish grew from an 1884 mission of St. Mary's Church and served a German-American Catholic community in the area known as Dutchtown. The building is a cruciform church in the Byzanto-Romanesque style, with a dome rising 92 feet above a crossing, limestone facing, and a red barrel tile roof. It has no structural steel and is virtually fireproof, its barrel vaults and dome built in the Guastavino tile system, faced with Akoustolith tile. Its interior includes Mueller art tile floors, stained glass windows, and a Kimball pipe organ. The nomination regards the church as a major example of early twentieth-century Medieval Revival design in the region, and as the Pittsburgh-area building with the most striking use of Guastavino tile. The church was threatened by planned construction of Interstate 279.","period_of_significance":"1900-","architect_builder":"Albert Francis Link (architect), Link, Weber, and Bowers (firm)","architectural_style":"Byzanto-Romanesque / Byzantine with Romanesque and Art Deco elements","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Nomination notes the church was threatened by planned construction of I-279 and that the congregation has struggled to retain it.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:32.506541-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/81000525.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/81000525/2bffe28c59-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/81000525/2bffe28c59-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Lee Paxton","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St.BonifaceRomanCatholicChurch.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Lee Paxton</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St.BonifaceRomanCatholicChurch.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71997738","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Boniface_Roman_Catholic_Church_(Pittsburgh)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7587337"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/allegheny-county/st-boniface-roman-catholic-church-81000525/"}