Pittsburgh Cemeteries

Tag: Classical Architecture

  • Varner Monument, South Side Cemetery

    This imposing Corinthian monument has stories to tell, and perhaps someone with more time than old Pa Pitt has on his hands will follow the hints and fill in the tales. The statue on top is of Thomas McClurg Varner, only son of Melchor Varner and his wife Matilda (McClurg) Varner; he died in 1879 when he was only nine years old. (Childhood mortality in the 1800s was worse among the poor, but it did not spare even the very rich.) The boy was probably named for Thomas McClurg, Matilda’s very rich father (he seems to have owned the land that is now the South Side), who died when Matilda was young, leaving his children a large inheritance.

    Matilda also had a brother named Thomas, after his father, who died when his nephew Thomas was very young, leaving a large inheritance to his sister “for her sole and separate use, and so that her said husband shall not have any control over or use of the same.” This suggests a fascinating story of family feuding, and perhaps a marriage that was considered unwise by Matilda’s family. It seems that Matilda was not happy with the conditions imposed on her use of the inheritance. Litigation on the younger Thomas’s will went all the way to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, whose 1875 decision was apparently considered an important precedent in the law of trusts.

    That decision was not the end of the story, however: ten years later, in 1885, we find the Pennsylvania General Assembly approving the second version of an act to set aside the trusts arising from the will of Thomas McClurg; or, in other words, to set aside that one decision of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. (The first version of the act apparently was incorrectly worded and therefore unconstitutional.)

    Whatever tensions there may have been between Varners and McClurgs, the Varner family stayed together: Melchor and Matilda are buried here with their son, and another Thomas Varner—probably Melchor’s father of that name.

    With these hints and references, someone interested in South Side history should be able to do a little historical detective work and fill in the rest of the story. And if anyone who does so will leave some of the information in the comments, Father Pitt will be very grateful.

  • John A. Kaercher Mausoleum, Allegheny Cemetery

    Built in about 1860, this is one of the first wave half-underground mausoleums in the Alegheny Cemetery. It probably had bronze doors originally, but it is easier to keep a brick wall from being stolen. The angel on top is an unusual detail for this type of mausoleum.

  • Davis Mausoleum, Homewood Cemetery

    One is tempted to describe this peculiar construction as “Doric Romanesque.” The rusticated stone and ponderous style cry out for Romanesque details, but instead we get smooth Doric columns and a smooth arch that seems to belong to another structure altogether. In fact, Father Pitt, who seldom passes a negative judgment on anyone’s mausoleum, is compelled by sheer honesty to say that he does not regard this design as a success. It is a cacophony rather than a harmony of disparate ideas. The bronze doors, however, are splendid, and no one can take that away from them.

  • Bindley Mausoleum, Allegheny Cemetery

    A scale model of the Pantheon in Rome, the Bindley mausoleum suggests that Mr. Bindley must have been somebody awfully important. Actually, he is remembered most for being entombed in this elegant mausoleum.

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    More pictures of the Bindley mausoleum.

  • Wharton Mausoleum, Allegheny Cemetery

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    The cemetery site dates this to about 1860; it is one of the early half-underground mausoleums in the cemetery. The simple classical lines are enlivened by just a bit of ornate scrolling on the roof. The cemetery lists the original plot owner as Oliverette Wharton, a resident of East Birmingham (now the section of the South Side between 17th and 24th Streets).