This is a particularly splendid Ionic mausoleum. Its richness of texture makes most other classical mausoleums seem half-finished by comparison. It appears to be an exact duplicate of the Fownes mausoleum in the Homewood Cemetery, but with the addition of an extra set of steps in the front to take into account the hillside site.
The bronze doors are cast in an interesting pattern.
An unusual mausoleum in this unusual cemetery—unusual because its restrained modern-classical style would look at home in other Pittsburgh-area cemeteries, whereas most of the mausoleums here are noticeably different from any standard Pittsburgh style. Cemetery records list a James D. O’Neil (who must be the “J. Denny” of the inscription) as the first interment here; he died in 1915, so that is probably about the date of this mausoleum.
August Ernest Succop was interred here in 1931, but if Father Pitt had to guess, he would say that Mr. Succop had this mausoleum built for himself yeas before that. It has the correctly Doric style of the first part of the twentieth century. A good stained-glass window of the risen Christ is inside.
Father Pitt does not know the date of this mausoleum, but the style and the dates of other burials in the same area suggest the 1890s. It is a small thing compared to some of the magnificent mausoleums in the Union Dale Cemetery nearby, but it is in very good taste: the classical style is rich without ostentation, the bronze doors are well matched to the style of the whole, and the Boston ivy adds a romantically picturesque touch.
