Louis Arnett Sargent Bellinger was Pittsburgh’s only Black licensed and practicing professional architect for more than 25 years. The Hill District resident designed and contributed to the construction of some of the city’s most historically significant buildings, including the Central Amusement Park, Greenlee Field, and the Pythian Temple (New Grenada Theater).

Bellinger was a South Carolina native who came from a family of builders and entrepreneurs. He was born in 1891 in Sumter, South Carolina, a city about 50 miles east of Columbia, the state capital. The Bellingers had deep ties to the Low Country and the Charleston area. That’s where Louis was raised and went to school.

He was one of 10 children of carpenter and self-employed contractor George Bellinger and his wife, Florence. Many Bellingers, by blood and marriage, worked in the building trades as carpenters and masons.

Before the Civil War, some Bellingers had been enslaved by the Middleton family. Their Charleston plantation is now a National Historic Landmark and some Bellingers use the Middleton name. Their ranks in South Carolina include religious and civic leaders, entrepreneurs, educators and at least one politician (and former Tuskegee Airman) — Earl M. Middleton, who was a state legislator in South Carolina.