Pittsburgh says goodbye to the Penn Avenue "butthole window"

Pittsburgh has its share of suggestive landmarks, from the "Titty Sphinx" mausoleum in Allegheny Cemetery to the phallic Cathedral of Learning in Oakland. Now, many in the city are mourning the demise of one such landmark in Bloomfield, the so-called "butthole window."

The iris-like adornment in a circular porthole window made a doctor's office located at 4520 Penn Ave. into a bright spot for commuters on one of the city's busiest streets. The building was recently torn down, and many took to social media with cheeky messages mourning the unexpected sphincter. Feeds were filled with photos of the now-former site, as well as of a makeshift tombstone outside the rubble that reads "RIP BUTTHOLE WINDOW," and comes complete with fake flowers and candles. "I was just happy to hear how many others called it butthole window too," reads one Instagram post from Workshop PGH, which runs a brick-and-mortar shop at 5131 Penn Ave.

The responses make it clear how many lives butthole window touched. Even Pittsburgh City Paper staffers shared their stories, with graphic designer Jeff Schreckengost revealing that he always called it the "cat ass." News editor Colin Williams says he sent it to the Instagram account @secretbuttholes and "they were like 'someone sends us this at least once a month.'"

"That little window is really having its moment," Erin Cridlebaugh, a local artistic cartographer and small business owner, tells City Paper.

Cridlebaugh, who owns Squirrel Hill Design and Craft, says she has driven by the butthole window an average of "1-2 times a day for the past 3 years," adding, "It’s one of the offbeat if-you-know-you-know Pittsburgh landmarks that I love to feature in my work." Those wanting a keepsake of the landmark can purchase a sticker or magnet featuring a butthole window design by Cridlebaugh.

As for what will become of the former butthole window site, a 2019 story in The Bulletin, a publication by the Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation, says that a local developer plans to build a hotel there.

While butthole window may be gone, Cridlebaugh believes it will endure both in her art and in the memories of so many rubbernecking locals with an eye for inadvertent anuses.

"For me, and I think a lot of other Pittsburghers, it was something that made me chuckle to myself whenever I’d notice it," says Cridlebaugh. "Such a silly thing that this one round window has a circular curtain inside that falls in just the right way that just screams 'butthole window.' I like to think that my work featuring landmarks like these encourages people to slow down and pay more attention to their surroundings."