Pittsburgh Cemeteries

Tag: Columns

  • Thomas Ridgeway Holmes Monument, Allegheny Cemetery

    Thomas Ridgeway Holmes was born in 1816  and died in 1859, and that is the sum of what Father Pitt knows about him. He has no presence on the Internet, as far as Google can tell—except an occasional reference to this monument. But he must have been rather wealthy: his monument suggests that he dealt in shipping and in geared and belted machines of some sort—a sawmill, perhaps? The reliefs are eroded, but it looks like a circular saw to the left of the second picture below. Is the hexagon a ship’s wheel? Then perhaps his business was shipbuilding, and it all fits together.

  • Rook Column, Allegheny Cemetery

    An elaborate Corinthian column erected in 1881 for Alexander Rook, an editor of the late lamented Dispatch. The recording angel is a particularly good one, and figures of hope and faith flank the column.

  • Kerr Column, Allegheny Cemetery

    This curious column combines classical and Gothic ideas to create something not quite like any of the other dozens of columns in the cemetery. It remembers Andrew Lennox Kerr (1789-1839) and Jane Kerr (1785-1880). From the style of the column, and the fact that the inscriptions for Andrew and Jane seem to have been cut at the same time, we can guess that the column was put up after Jane Kerr died in 1880.

  • J. W. Porter Column, Sewickley Cemetery

    A splendid Corinthian column with a…hat. James W. Porter died in 1901, so we may take that as about the date of this monument.

  • Lowen Monument, Chartiers Cemetery

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    Similar in general appearance to many marble monuments of the 1870s, but the urn on top of a round column is unusual and a bit odd.

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