Tag: Hope

  • Laughlin Monument, Allegheny Cemetery

    Laughlin monument

    The earliest Laughlin buried here died in 1882, but old Pa Pitt would guess that the family monument might be about a decade later. It is a sober classical base with a statue of Hope carrying the compact portable anchor she sometimes travels with.

    Hope with her anchor
    Laughlin monument
  • Aull–Martin Monument, Homewood Cemetery

    Statue

    A granite monument with a crumbling marble statue on top; it was probably allegorical, but one of the arms would have held the key to the allegory, and both are gone. If old Pa Pitt had to guess, he would suggest that this was a statue of Hope, with the left arm holding up an anchor and the right pointing heavenward. This is certainly a good demonstration of the different aging properties of the two kinds of stone.

    The statue may date from 1878, the year the cemetery opened, when the first Martin was buried here; old Pa Pitt suspects that the base is later, replacing an earlier base that had been damaged or become illegible. The individual gravestones in front of the monument are matching in style, and look like the style of the early twentieth century, though they include dates back to 1878. Father Pitt’s guess is that the original base bore inscriptions for all the Martins and Aulls buried up to the time of its replacement.

    Aull-Martin Monument
    Statue, full-length
    Face of the statue
  • Rook Monument, Allegheny Cemetery

    Recording angel

    An elaborately Victorian column with a recording angel at the top and statues of Hope and Faith on the lavish base. (We notice the absence of Charity, perhaps because the Rooks decided to take their money with them in the form of this monument.)

    Rook monument from the right
    From the hill opposite
    Recording angel against blue sky
    Recording angel
    Recording angel and capital
    Capital
    Cherub on the capital
    Hope
    Hope with her anchor.
    Faith
    Faith with her cross.
    Rook monument

    Note how the shadow of the angel is moving across the Lewis-Elliott monument behind it. If we wait just a few minutes…

    Shadow of the angel

    Perfect.

  • Friday Mausoleum, Calvary Cemetery

    Friday mausoleum

    Everything seems a bit louder and more obvious in a Catholic cemetery. Here the name of the family is very large; the cross decorations are big (you would not find crosses at all on a Doric mausoleum in a Protestant cemetery), and even the cornices are fat and obvious. We should also mention artificial flowers even on the most expensive mausoleums, because nothing can discourage the faithful from leaving artificial flowers.

    The shape of this particular mausoleum is interesting. The details are classical and the decorations are Christian, but the shape is much more like the shape of the Egyptian temples Masons liked to build for themselves. We almost never find the Egyptian style in a Catholic cemetery, but we find echoes of it in the forms of some mausoleums.

    Statues of Hope (with anchor) and Faith (with book) guard the entrance. Faith has grown a good crop of shield lichens.

    Hope
    Faith
    Friday mausoleum
    Friday mausoleum

    Obviously old Pa Pitt likes this mausoleum. He took quite a few more pictures, but most of them are variations on the same themes. These should be just about enough to convey a good impression of the style and decorations.

  • Schreiner Mausoleum, Union Dale Cemetery

    Schreiner mausoleum

    A large and luxurious classical structure with a prominent cupola topped by a statue of Hope shaking her fist at heaven. At least that is how old Pa Pitt always reads the statue: it is certainly Hope (the anchor is her ID card), and Father Pitt doesn’t know what else to make of the raised-fist salute.

    Statue of Hope
    Monogram

    Ornate monograms flank the entrance arch.