Author: Father Pitt

  • Purpura Monument, Calvary Cemetery

    Purpura monument

    A classical gateway with fluted Doric columns frames a Sacred Heart statue. Tablets for two branches of the Purpura family flank the gateway. This is one of those curious combinations we often see in Catholic cemeteries: ostentatiously classical taste applied to traditional Catholic religious symbolism.

  • Patterson Mausoleum, Calvary Cemetery

    Patterson mausoleum

    A simplified Doric temple, on its way from the correct classicism of the nineteenth century to the more austere simplicity of the twentieth. As with many other mausoleums, this one has lost its bronze door, and the gap has been filled with concrete.

  • Steel Mausoleum, Homewood Cemetery

    Steel mausoleum

    A classically austere cube with some decorative trim, fine bronze doors, and a subtle shallow arch over the family name. The stained glass in the back is attractive.

    Stained glass
  • McKeown Mausoleum, Calvary Cemetery

    McKeown mausoleum

    A Romanesque cube with an unusual apse in the back. The decorations in relief are particularly fine. The effect would have been better with bronze doors, but bronze doors tend to go missing, and their place has been taken by concrete.

    Blind arch
    McKeown moausolem
  • Louis A. Behr Mausoleum, West View Cemetery

    Louis A. Behr mausoleum, West View Cemetery

    Art Deco details make a composition that is at once simple and rich. Note how the bronze doors echo the vertical lines of the stone.