Tag: Gothic Architecture

  • Columbarium, Union Dale Cemetery

    Columbarium

    Built in 1878, this was originally the receiving vault for the cemetery: if you died in the winter when it was impossible to dig, you would rest here until spring. Now it is a columbarium, a place where cremated remains are kept. It is a masterpiece of Victorian Gothic architecture.

    Strange as it seems, old Pa Pitt has never published pictures of this building before, although he has been accumulating them for years.

    Columbarium
    Date stone: 1878
    Ornamental detail
    Capital
    Columbarium
    Side view

    The pictures below are from November of 2021.

    Columbarium in November
    Columbarium
    Columbarium
  • Pollard Mausoleum, Calvary Cemetery

    Pollard Mausoleum

    A Gothic mausoleum that the jungle seems intent on reclaiming. Perhaps the groundskeepers had some agreement to let the family maintain the landscaping; at any rate, the landscaping is taking over. There was probably a pair of bronze doors in the front, but it has been filled in with concrete.

    Pollard mausoleum
    Pollard mausoleum
    Pollard mausoleum
  • Chapel, Homewood Cemetery

    Chapel

    Two different views of the chapel at the Homewood Cemetery, designed by Albert H. Spahr of MacClure & Spahr.

    Chapel in black and white
  • Thomas L. West Mausoleum, Homewood Cemetery

    Thomas L. West mausoleum

    A tiny Gothic mausoleum for one, or at the most two. It suggests “Gothic” with a shallow point at the top of the façade, with a kind of streamlined suggestion of buttresses, and with deco-uncial lettering for the name of the deceased.

    Thomas L. West mausoleum
  • Robb Monument, Allegheny Cemetery

    With bonus deer. This exceptionally grand monument is in the most romantic interpretation of the Gothic style. Although C. W. Robb lived until 1892, from the style Father Pitt is almost certain that this was put up when his wife Caroline Amelia died in 1869. C. W. married again; his second wife was nearly thirty years younger than he was, and lived until 1936. She shares a small headstone nearby with their daughter, who also died in 1936.

    For some reason, Father Pitt suspects that C. W. Robb may have been an organist.