
A very restrained style of Art Deco makes this a mausoleum that stands out without being ostentatious.
Art Deco was popular only for a few decades in the early and middle twentieth century, and it never became a very popular style for cemetery monuments. But among the wealthy residents of the Homewood Cemetery, a restrained and tasteful Art Deco was quite fashionable in the years from roughly 1930 to 1950. In many cases it takes the form of a streamlining and radical simplification of classical and Gothic styles. Some of these monuments look like pieces of sets from the world’s most somber RKO musical.
A Gothic Moderne design unique in Pittsburgh, as far as old Pa Pitt knows. The mausoleum is hard to photograph unless the light is exactly right; in sunlight, the polished white stone reflects so brightly that a digital camera simply registers a blank white pentagon. You never have to think about turning on the hot water in your house, and that is because of Edwin Ruud, a friend of George Westinghouse, who invented the automatic water heater.