Pure Art Deco is relatively rare in our cemeteries, but here is a fine example from the 1930s. The best Art Deco is as pure and balanced in form as the best classical architecture, and Father Pitt would rate this monument as very good Art Deco indeed.
An Art Deco construction that reminds Father Pitt more than a little of the style he calls “American Fascist,” which was more usually applied to federal office buildings than to private mausoleums.
An unusual style Father Pitt might call “Deco Romanesque.” The shape and tasteful restraint of the design are more in line with the Renaissance style, but the arch is trimmed with Romanesque details.
A slim and elegant Art Deco stele with a lily-bearing angel, this monument is a bit of a puzzle. The style is of the 1930s or thereabouts, but the two people commemorated both died in the 1860s, before the Homewood Cemetery existed. One can only presume that their descendants made a pile of money and decided to remember them properly.
This exceptionally extravagant mausoleum, probably the grandest (certainly the tallest) in Calvary Cemetery, is a sort of late-Art-Deco interpretation of Gothic architecture. The door is beautiful, and small reliefs near the top document what must have been an eventful life in Pittsburgh business.
