Architect Louis Stevens, who had designed the Worthington mansion in Squirrel Hill (now part of Temple Sinai), also designed this splendid mausoleum for Mr. Worthington to move into after his demise. It is one of the most spectacular mausoleums in the Homewood Cemetery; and, unlike most Gothic mausoleums in Pittsburgh, it takes its inspiration more from castles than from churches.
The mausoleum is approached by a stairway that is a work of art in itself.
“Angel of the Resurrection” was the sculptor’s name for this bronze angel. Henry Kirke Brown was the sculptor, and he was one of the first Americans to cast his own full-size bronzes. When his statue of De Witt Clinton was unveiled in 1855, it was reported to be the first full-length statue cast in bronze by an American; this angel, however, is older, though a little less than life size (if angels have a life size). By some reckonings, then, this is the first large bronze statue cast in America. It was cast in about 1850, since George Hogg died in 1849.
Some winter views of this domed mausoleum that takes obvious inspiration from the Pantheon in Rome.
A rusty and unmarked but elaborately filigreed cross marks somebody’s grave in St. Mary’s Cemetery.
Iron baron Alexander McBurney Byers (1827–1900) and his family are buried in a mausoleum very closely modeled after the Temple of Hephaestus in Athens.
