Pittsburgh Cemeteries

Tag: Classical Architecture

  • Morris Mausoleum, Homewood Cemetery

    A vigorous sculpture with a swirling upward motion appropriately illustrates the quotation from 1 Thessalonians 4:14. The quotation itself, however, is ungrammatically mangled in the inscription. The full verse is this: “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.” The stonecutter, doubtless believing he had detected the King James translators in a solecism, inscribed, “They which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him.” But the translators were right and the stonecutter was wrong; he has made nonsense of the verse.

    George W. Morris, the first occupant of this mausoleum, died in 1899; it may have been put up for him some years before that.

    Father Pitt assumes that the base of the sculpture is supposed to represent a cloudy whirlwind, but it could also be a pile of dirty laundry.

  • Darlington Mausoleum, Allegheny Cemetery

    Another variation on the miniature Doric temple; it is not extraordinary, but try to get such a perfectly correct classical mausoleum today. Harry Darlington, Sr., the earliest burial here, died in 1914; this mausoleum was probably built no later than that, and quite likely years earlier, as it was common for rich plot owners to prepare their mausoleums while they were still in the prime of middle age.

  • Byers Mausoleum, Allegheny Cemetery

    If you want to be remembered as a man of taste, you should be entombed in the Parthenon, or something very like it. This is very similar, but not identical, to the Eaton mausoleum in the Homewood Cemetery. Both are very correct Doric temples, bearing an even stronger resemblance to the Temple of Hephaestus in Athens than to the Parthenon. Alexander McBurney Byers was a titan of the iron industry, which you would never guess from this pristine white temple.

    Another picture of the Byers mausoleum.

  • Meyran Mausoleum, Homewood Cemetery

    Here is another Doric temple, not extraordinary but in good taste. One of the best things about it is the site: the mausoleum sits in front of tall evergreens that make a deep green curtain behind it. According to cemetery records, Charles Meyran, the earliest occupant, was buried in 1891.

  • Thomas Noble and Sarah Coleman Miller Monument, Allegheny Cemetery

    Sarah Coleman Miller is marked as “Founder of Womens Hospital of Pittsburgh.” If this is a predecessor of Magee-Womens, it is interesting to note that the institution still cannot afford an apostrophe after all these years.

    The monument itself is unique, a romantic impression of a classical arch. The details are classical, but the arrangement of them is entirely fantastic, like a half-remembered dream of an ancient temple.