Pittsburgh Cemeteries

Tag: Classical Architecture

  • Louis Knoepp Monument, St. Paul’s Cemetery (Mount Oliver)

    Either Louis Knoepp made quite a bit of money in a short time (he died at forty), or he had a rich family who remembered him fondly. This monument towers over everything else in this little Lutheran cemetery; in scale it resembles some of the grander monuments in the Allegheny or Union Dale cemeteries. The statue on top, however, is not of the first quality; in fact, its proportions are a bit odd. The head is large and broad, and the neck is unnaturally thick.

    The style of the base is a bit hard to describe; it is classical with elements of Gothic.

    As if it were not enough to be more magnificent than anything else in the cemetery, the monument is also surrounded by an elegant stone wall to separate Mr. Knoepp from the riffraff around him.

  • Frick Family Plot, Homewood Cemetery

    One might expect Henry Clay Frick to rest in a huge mausoleum, but in fact when he went to see Mr. Carnegie in hell he was buried in a modest grave overlooked by a large but very plain classical monument. The rest of his family is also buried here—even Helen and Childs, who refused to speak to each other after the reading of their father’s will, are buried in the same plot, although almost as far apart as possible.

    The graves in this plot all match, except for the monument to Childs and his wife, which is entirely different. All the matching graves have places for flower urns, and when Father Pitt visited, someone had left artificial roses for Henry and Adelaide.

  • Lillian Russell Moore Mausoleum, Allegheny Cemetery

    Probably the most famous beauty in American history, Lillian Russell married four times. Her fourth marriage was to Alexander Pollock Moore, publisher of the Leader in Pittsburgh, and it seems to have been a happy union. When Lillian died in 1922, her mourning husband put up this mausoleum, with the simple epitaph “The world is better for her having lived.” Mr. Moore later went on to be ambassador to Spain and then to Peru, but when he finally joined his wife, she still got top billing. His initials on the door are the only external indication that Mr. Moore is buried here, too.

  • Clark Mausoleum, Homewood Cemetery

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    A standard Ionic temple, though the inset porch is a somewhat unusual touch.

  • Clemson Mausoleum, Homewood Cemetery

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    A Doric temple of particularly fine proportions, taking advantage of its hillside position to make an even more splendid impression.