A very respectable between-the-wars mausoleum, with the flatter top that had become fashionable on classical mausoleums in the early twentieth century. This one is made of expensive polished granite.
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Charles E. Golden Mausoleum, Chartiers Cemetery
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Becker Monument, Mount Lebanon Cemetery
A beautiful abstract classical memorial that reminds old Pa Pitt of middle-twentieth-century cartoons of heaven. The most recent inscription remembers Marian Becker Cummins, who died in 2017 at the age of 101.
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Carnahan Monument, Mount Lebanon Cemetery
The Carnahan family has been prominent in the near South Hills for a long time, and this plot, with its chunky rusticated monument, is lovingly maintained with a garden of ornamental grasses.
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Henry Monument, Chartiers Cemetery
A massive chunk of Ionic classicism that certainly does its job of making the Henry family plot easy to find. The large volutes on top cleverly echo the Ionic volutes of the capitals of the columns. The monument probably dates from 1902, when John Henry was buried here. The individual tombstones look like children’s toy models of the main monument.
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Gross Mausoleum, Chartiers Cemetery
The last gasp of the Egyptian style, much simplified but unmistakable in its shape and of course in its winged sun disk. The concrete panel in front is well made, and its inscription nicely matched to the Egyptian style, but we can tell that it is later and replaced original bronze doors. In fact we can know exactly what those doors looked like, because this is a duplicate of the Oliver Mausoleum in the Highwood Cemetery, where the doors are still intact (or were when we took the picture). This one, however, includes a pair of appropriate lotus vases, which may never have been installed at the Oliver mausoleum.
