Pittsburgh Cemeteries

Author: Father Pitt

  • Winter Brothers Obelisk, St. Peter’s Cemetery (Arlington)

    This is an absolutely immense pointy thing; one site claims it’s a hundred feet tall. That is surprising enough in a little German Catholic cemetery in the middle of a city neighborhood, but the bigger surprise is that nobody is buried here. According to this page, the Winter Bros., Bavarian immigrants who founded a successful brewery on the South Side, bought this plot in 1889 and put up this towering obelisk, and then went and died somewhere else. Each of the three brothers has his name inscribed on one side of the obelisk: Michael, Wolfgang, and Alois.

  • Rohrkaste Monument, St. Paul’s Lutheran Cemetery, Mount Oliver

    A particularly fine shrouded-urn monument, with the U. S. Steel Tower in the distance.

    It appears that the Rohrkastes had six children, all of whom died before their father, though half lived into adulthood.

  • Berg and Etzel Obelisks, Smithfield East End Cemetery

    Two identical obelisks side by side suggest that the families were related, or associated in some other way. The Berg obelisk probably dates from the late nineteenth century; perhaps 1886, when the cemetery opened, since the oldest Berg stone here is from 1876, which means that it would have been moved from the cemetery’s previous location in Troy Hill. The Etzel obelisk was probably put up at the same time, though Father Pitt was unable to find any individual Etzel stones as old as the obelisk obviously is. The style of these obelisks is restrained, with simple bases enlivened by classical foliage ornament.

  • Reinhold Monument, Smithfield East End Cemetery

    A massive and ostentatious pile of classicism, with a curious florid R for the name Reinhold that ought to look out of place but actually harmonizes very well. It is pleasing to note that as late as 1987 the Reinholds had the money and the persistence to procure a stone matching the earlier ones in the plot.

  • Laub Cross, Smithfield East End Cemetery

    A cross of lilies, making a fine symbol of Jesus’ redemptive death (the cross) and resurrection (the lilies). It was probably put up about 1918, when Hermann Laub was buried in this plot.