This is the very attractive result of modernizing an obelisk by applying Art Deco style to it. The earliest burial in this plot seems to be from 1925, which is probably about the date of the monument.
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Wood Shaft, Allegheny Cemetery
In this section of the Allegheny Cemetery are several circular burial plots, in which there is usually a prominent central monument—like an obelisk—with a number of graves orbiting it, all inside a stone ring. The Wood plot includes this somewhat elaborate shaft, which originally supported an urn at the top; the urn has fallen, and old Pa Pitt sure is glad he wasn’t there when it happened.
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Sebastian Mueller Mausoleum, Homewood Cemetery
A standard Egyptian temple with a stained-glass view of the Pyramids. Mr. Mueller was buried here in 1938, but the mausoleum was probably built while he was still alive. Note the pristine bronze doors, by the way: much of the bronze in the Homewood Cemetery is regularly cleaned and not allowed to turn green.
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Kaiser Monument, Smithfield East End Cemetery
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.
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Reverend Charles Walther Monument, Smithfield East End Cemetery
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.)
