Pittsburgh Cemeteries

Category: Allegheny Cemetery

  • Schusler Family Plot, Allegheny Cemetery

    There are some forgotten corners of the Allegheny Cemetery that look as though they might have originally been small graveyards later absorbed into the cemetery. The Schusler plot is in one of those corners. The plot is marked by an obelisk, probably erected in 1872; but a monument to an eighteen-year-old daughter (whose statue is sadly mutilated) is scarcely less grand.

    Religion filled her soul with peace
    Upon a dying bed.
    Let faith look up. Let sorrow cease
    She lives with Christ o’erhead.
    We miss thee from our home, Maggie,
    We miss thee from thy place.
    A shadow o’er our life is cast,
    We miss thy smiling face.

  • Scaife Mausoleum, Allegheny Cemetery

    The Scaifes are intertwined with the Mellons, making them very rich. This mausoleum was built for them in 1914, and it is still in use: billionaire news mogul Richard Mellon Scaife, who patterned his life after the movie Citizen Kane, is its most recent resident, having been laid to rest here in 2014.

    The stained-glass angel inside is very good; Father Pitt regrets that he does not know the artist.

  • Receiving Vault, Allegheny Cemetery

    This Receiving Vault was built in 1906 after the old one, which was in a different location, was taken down. According to the cemetery’s Web site, this design by Peter Charles Reniers’ Sons more or less duplicated the design of the original Receiving Vault by John Chislett, the architect who laid out the cemetery in the 1840s.

  • Heeren Monument, Allegheny Cemetery

    Gustav Heeren died in 1885, and that is probably the date of this curious monument, which seems determined to confront us with everything that is excessive about Victorian romanticism. The sculpture itself is a work of some skill, but it is very “romantic” in the sense in which old Pa Pitt once defined the term: “The essence of the romantic style in cemetery monuments, Father Pitt has decided, is the peculiar combination of realism in details with unlikeliness in composition.” Among the many odd things: the sculpture is a bronze that appears to have been painted black, perhaps in an attempt to arrest corrosion.

  • Allegheny Soldiers’ Memorial, Allegheny Cemetery

    This memorial, designed by architect Brandon Smith, was put up in 1937. The bronze eagles are by Bradley Warren. The picture above is very large if you click on it, so don’t click if you’re on a metered connection.