The Life of JOHN CHISLETT SR.

John Chislett was the preeminent architect of Pittsburgh during his time. His careful planning and foresight formed the foundation for the present beauty of Allegheny Cemetery. He was not the first Pittsburgher to call himself an architect; that honor goes to John Behan, who had apparently been in practice as an architect and civil engineer since the early 1820s. But Chislett is the first architect of whom we really know something. He was an Englishman, who had been trained at Bath and who had been in Pittsburgh since the early 1830s. He was at home in the Greek Revival, and his Bank of Pittsburgh of c. 1835 and Courthouse of 1841 were polished works in that style. Very little of his work is left: Burke's Building of 1836, next to PPG Place on Fourth Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh, and the gateway of the Cemetery's Butler Street Entrance are the outstanding examples.