Pittsburgh Cemeteries

Author: Father Pitt

  • Wilkins Stump, Allegheny Cemetery

    A huge rustic stump, probably the second-largest in Pittsburgh (without measuring, Father Pitt would say the Gilchrist stump in the Homewood Cemetery is probably taller). It is surrounded by graves of the Wilkins family, and each sawed-off branch is made to represent one dead Wilkins—a metaphor that old Pa Pitt thinks at least verges on tasteless, if it does not merrily dance on the grave of taste.

    Whatever we think of its artistic merit, it does at least imitate the natural form of a stump with some success, and it is one of the few monuments in the cemetery that actually bear the name of the creator: W. C. Brown, signed in small plain letters on one of the roots.

  • Frick Family Plot, Homewood Cemetery

    One might expect Henry Clay Frick to rest in a huge mausoleum, but in fact when he went to see Mr. Carnegie in hell he was buried in a modest grave overlooked by a large but very plain classical monument. The rest of his family is also buried here—even Helen and Childs, who refused to speak to each other after the reading of their father’s will, are buried in the same plot, although almost as far apart as possible.

    The graves in this plot all match, except for the monument to Childs and his wife, which is entirely different. All the matching graves have places for flower urns, and when Father Pitt visited, someone had left artificial roses for Henry and Adelaide.

  • McAlister Mausoleum, Homewood Cemetery

    A particularly splendid Egyptian temple; it would be rather ordinary but for the broad porch that wraps around three sides, making it magnificent.

  • Louis Beinhauer Sr. Monument, Smithfield East End Cemetery

    Mr. Beinhauer stands with his hand on a rustic stump in a pose reminiscent of advertisements for men’s ready-made clothing in the Pittsburgh German newspapers he might have read.

  • Werner Monument, Smithfield East End Cemetery

    Many Werners are buried in this plot, but the statue of what could easily be a fourteen-year-old girl is probably a portrait of Stella D. Werner, who died at not quite fifteen years old in 1890. That is about the right date for this style of monument.