
Another fine Egyptian temple, with all the requisite signifiers—lotus columns, sloping sides, winged scarab over the entrance.



Like the Huhn pyramid in the Allegheny Cemetery (but on a much larger scale), this is a classical interpretation of the Egyptian pyramid, with proportions more like those of the Pyramid of Cestius along the Appian Way than like those of a true Egyptian pyramid. It is striking enough that it appears in much of the Homewood Cemetery’s publicity. It was designed by Alden & Harlow and built for William Harry Brown, banker and heir to a shipping empire, in 1898. Mr. Brown’s firm was the largest shipper of coal on the rivers, which obviously made him quite a pile of money.



A fine example of the Egyptian style that was very popular among Masons in the early twentieth century. George Mesta owned a machine shop in Homestead. It was (and this is not an exaggeration) a mile long. His wife Perle (also buried here) ultimately made more of a mark on the world after George died in 1925: she moved to Washington and became the city’s top hostess. President Truman made her ambassador to Luxembourg, where she navigated the minefield of American-Luxembourgeois relations with aplomb.
The picture above was from 2014. Below, three pictures from 2022.


