Penn & Liberty Avenues (Commercial Buildings), McCormick Building, 635 Liberty Avenue, Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, PA

Written data includes sketches & photocopies of maps & photographs.
Significance: The McCormick Building at 635 Liberty Avenue was significant as part of a row of buildings erected at the end of the 19th century, that housed Pittsburgh's commission merchants, who provided foodstuffs for the downtown and shipped grain, produce, and provisions to points within the trade territory of the city. The building was the work of a well-known Pittsburgh architect, John P. Brennan, who also designed the adjacent McAlister Building, at 633 Liberty Avenue, accounting for design similarities of photographs before 633 was altered to be a part of 631. The design of both buildings showed the immediate incorporation into Pittsburgh's commercial architectural vocabulary of the rusticated masonry, and large openings of Henry Hobson Richardson's work. Though much altered -a story with the gabled roof having been removed, and the base having been altered -the building by its lot size, and scale recalled the type of business that made Liberty Avenue the food basket of Pittsburgh at the end of the century.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: FN-202
Survey number: HABS PA-5152-A
Building/structure dates: 1894 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: 1908 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1953 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: before 1985 Demolished