Albright United Methodist Church
Albright United Methodist Church is a former church building at 486 S. Graham Street, where Bloomfield, Shadyside, and Friendship meet in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was designed by Chancey W. Hodgdon and built in 1905–1906 in an Eclectic style that blends Richardson Romanesque with Gothic Revival touches. The church sits in a small two-building complex connected by a walkway, and the main structure is made of rough Cleveland bluestone. Inside, 39 stained-glass windows from S.S. Marshall and Bros create the largest collection of their work in Pittsburgh.
The congregation began as Zion Church of Pittsburgh of the Evangelical Association in 1843 and was formally organized in 1845. It originally worshiped in downtown buildings and moved east as the city grew. In 1905 the church bought land on S. Graham Street, and construction was completed in 1906. The church was later renamed First Evangelical United Brethren Church, and then Albright United Methodist Church, which is its current name.
The church was nominated for City Historic Landmark status in 2015. The owner, the Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, opposed landmarking and planned to sell the property for redevelopment. After a slow process, a 2018 court ruling overturned an earlier decision, and a fresh nomination in 2018 failed.
By 2021 the building was vacant and deteriorating as developers considered redevelopment. In 2022 a local group, Friends of Albright, continued to push for preserving the building and finding a way to reuse it for the community.
Chancey W. Hodgdon’s work on Albright is one of his best‑known Pittsburgh projects, combining heavy stone massing with Gothic details and decorative stained glass. The building is a two-structure complex—the church and the parsonage—linked by a short walkway. It remains an important piece of Pittsburgh’s architectural history.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 03:14 (CET).