Tag: Egyptian

  • 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
  • Kamin Family Mausoleum, West View Cemetery

    Kamin family mausoleum

    A splendid Egyptian mausoleum with a fine view of the Pyramids out the back window.

    Stained glass in the Kamin mausoleum
  • Shanor Column, Union Dale Cemetery

    Shanor column

    An odd mixture of styles: the base is a sort of medieval-classical fantasy, from which sprouts a column with an Egyptian-style lotus capital, and on that stands an allegorical figure of Hope.

    Hope
  • A. J. Sunstein Mausoleum, West View Cemetery

    A. J. Sunstein Mausoleum

    Considering that the Exodus is the central event in Israel’s sacred history, Egyptian Revival has always struck old Pa Pitt as an odd choice of styles for a Jewish cemetery. But with this particular mausoleum he can see the appeal. “You think you’re a god-king, Pharaoh? Well, how would you like to be a door handle for the rest of eternity? What do you think of that, Mr. Bricks-Without-Straw?”

    Bronze door handle with Pharaoh heads

    A thorough history of the Sunsteins and Speyers is in the Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania.

    More pictures of the Sunstein mausoleum.

  • Brown Pyramid, Homewood Cemetery

    Brown pyramid

    This pyramid, almost certainly the most-photographed mausoleum in the cemetery, was designed for William Harry Brown, banker and heir to a shipping empire, by Alden & Harlow, Andrew Carnegie’s favorite architects. It was built in 1898.

    Doorway to the Brown pyramid
    Brown pyramid