The old building is large enough that it was probably erected for commercial use, but couldn’t have been anything major—a small factory, perhaps, or maybe it served as a distribution point for products we’ll never know.

In the hundred-and-twenty years or so that it’s been standing—we’re just guessing here—the structure’s original orange bricks have been chipped and scarred, graffiti-tagged and painted-over countless times. Along the way, the building’s large windows were filled-in alternately with cinderblock and plywood. These after-market additions have gone through their own battered histories. They now exist as equal partners with complex lives with more in common with the original material than not.

While this anonymous building on a side street in Mt. Oliver is likely on no one’s radar as an important site among Pittsburgh’s many architectural treasures, it’s a legit rock star to wall enthusiasts. You couldn’t find a better example of pure wall than a middle-height section of interlocking rectangles, rich oranges, purples, reds, and pinks. For those who would travel halfway around the world for such an experience, the Taj Mahal of wall perfection is right up on the hilltop.

It’s been so long since we checked in with The Over-the-Wall Club that the group’s collected bounty runneth over in the most satisfying and thrilling of ways. If you want walls—I’m talkin’ extraordinary, centuries-in-the-making, once-in-a-lifetime walls—we’ve got ’em. Walls that can be stared into to unlock the mysteries of time and space. Walls so beautiful they could be placed in the finest of modern art museums and connoisseurs would ooh and ahh with great gusto. Walls with so much to say they’re not merely worth any old thousand words, but deliver messages to change lives and alter history.

But wait! There’s more! There sure is. We had so many great walls that we’ll have a follow-up where we actually go, you know, over the wall as a counter to today’s experience of going into the wall. Sure, that sounds like a lot of mumbo-jumbo from some dumbo—and it is!—but trust me on this one: you’ll want to be here on this journey of growth and discovery, speculation and fantasy. We’ll see you on the other side.