Designed by Albert H. Spahr of MacClure & Spahr, one of Pittsburgh’s busier architectural firms, this Gothic chapel is timeless. It was built in 1923, but it would not look out of place in a medieval English village.
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Chapel, Homewood Cemetery
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Shields Mausoleum, Edgeworth
On a back street in Edgeworth, right next to the Shields Chapel, sits what looks like a Gothic church; but it is actually the mausoleum of the Shields family, one of the largest Gothic mausoleums in the Pittsburgh area. It has room for thirty-six interments, and it is big enough that the Grace Anglican congregation used it for services until the Shields Chapel became available. It is very rare in the Pittsburgh area for a family to build a mausoleum on its own property, but apparently no mere cemetery was good enough for the Shields family.
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Frederick Mesta Mausoleum, Homewood Cemetery
A cube-shaped 1920s mausoleum (Mesta died in 1929) with fine Gothic details. The stained glass is notable for the clever effect that produces the rays of the setting sun.
We suspect that Frederick was a brother of George Mesta, whose Egyptian mausoleum is nearby. Frederick’s name appears on a 1911 patent that “relates to the turning of metal in connection with a rolling mill,” so he was apparently also in the metalworking business.
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Butler Street Entrance, Allegheny Cemetery
The original entrance gate was designed by John Chislett, who laid out the cemetery; the Administration Building with its clock tower was added in 1870 and expanded in the 1920s. Through it all, the keepers of the cemetery made sure that each new addition formed part of a harmonious whole—which is a difficult thing to do over the course of eight decades of changing fashions.
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Edwin Ruud Mausoleum, Homewood Cemetery
A Gothic Moderne design unique in Pittsburgh, as far as old Pa Pitt knows. The mausoleum is hard to photograph unless the light is exactly right; in sunlight, the polished white stone reflects so brightly that a digital camera simply registers a blank white pentagon. You never have to think about turning on the hot water in your house, and that is because of Edwin Ruud, a friend of George Westinghouse, who invented the automatic water heater.
