This statue, a flower-strewing mourner, shares the common fate of marble in city cemeteries, eroding into picturesque featurelessness. Catherine Kaiser died in 1865, and David in 1869; if they were buried in the Smithfield Cemetery, they would have been buried in the Troy Hill location (where the cemetery was located from 1860 to 1886) and moved here when the cemetery moved. The marble statue might date from that time, with a granite pedestal put under it when it was moved here.
This octagonal shaft includes a very unusual portrait head of the Rev. Mr. Walther, along with an open book on which there is an inscription that Father Pitt could not quite read. The date of birth appears to be 1784, but old Pa Pitt could not make out the date of death. The style of the monument is of the 1860s or so, and one suspects that this is one of the monuments moved here when the cemetery moved from Troy Hill. (The Smithfield Cemetery was originally downtown; it moved to Troy Hill in 1860 and to its final home in 1886—thus the name “Smithfield East End Cemetery,” to distinguish this location from its former locations.)
The Smithfield East End cemetery is very well maintained (it is now owned by the Homewood Cemetery across the street), but for some reason a couple of monuments on the far east side of it are overrun with vines. In this November picture, most of the leaves have fallen, and we can see more of the monument. The leaves that remain are picturesquely colorful.
A small but tasteful mid-twentieth-century mausoleum, probably a dealer’s stock model. The doors and the carved relief are pleasingly decorative; but there was something about mausoleums in this era that made them look a little like federal office buildings. Or perhaps we should say that there was something about federal office buildings that made them look like mausoleums.
The only Vorwerck mentioned in the cemetery records is Martha Vorwerck, who died in 1945. She was buried three days after her death, so (assuming this is her resting place) this mausoleum was probably put up while she was still alive.
A tasteful standard-model classical mausoleum, seen on an atmospherically misty morning. According to cemetery records, Wilhelmina S. Nickel was buried a few days after she died in 1928, so the mausoleum was probably put up for her while she was still alive.
