Tag: Classical Architecture

  • Hemphill Mausoleum, Homewood Cemetery

    Hemphill mausoleum with fall leaves

    A classic Ionic temple with rusticated walls.

    Hemphill mausoleum
  • Rook Monument, Allegheny Cemetery

    Recording angel

    An elaborately Victorian column with a recording angel at the top and statues of Hope and Faith on the lavish base. (We notice the absence of Charity, perhaps because the Rooks decided to take their money with them in the form of this monument.)

    Rook monument from the right
    From the hill opposite
    Recording angel against blue sky
    Recording angel
    Recording angel and capital
    Capital
    Cherub on the capital
    Hope
    Hope with her anchor.
    Faith
    Faith with her cross.
    Rook monument

    Note how the shadow of the angel is moving across the Lewis-Elliott monument behind it. If we wait just a few minutes…

    Shadow of the angel

    Perfect.

  • Daniel O’Neill Monument, Allegheny Cemetery

    Close-up of the face on the Daniel O’Neill portrait statue

    An editor’s work is never done. Here is Daniel O’Neill, owner and editor of the Dispatch, still at work 145 years after his death in 1877. Though he died at the young age of 47, he had already built the Dispatch into Pittsburgh’s most respected newspaper, a position it held until the great newspaper massacre of the early 1920s, when paper shortages and rising costs forced hundreds or thousands of papers across the country out of business. Before that there had been at least a dozen English dailies in Pittsburgh, not to mention three in German and several in other languages.

    From the hill opposite

    The monument itself is a harmoniously eclectic mix of styles in the Victorian manner: classical elements dominate, but Mr. O’Neill’s desk rests on an Egyptian pedestal.

    From the front
    Daniel O’Neill hard at work
    The full statue
    Inscription on the monument
    Face, three-quarters view
  • William J. Burns Mausoleum, Calvary Cemetery

    William J. Burns mausoleum

    A fine temple of the “modern Ionic” order (Ionic columns with the volutes at the four corners) with a large statue of Christ standing above the pediment. It has not escaped festooning with artificial flowers.

    William J. Burns mausoleum
  • McCluen Mausoleum, Homewood Cemetery

    McCluen mausoleum

    A Renaissance idea of a classical temple, with columns in the “modern Ionic” style—that is, with the volutes on the corners of the capitals. The rusticated stone of the walls makes a pleasing contrast with the smooth columns, doorframe, and pediment.

    McCluen Mausoleum