Simple modernist elegance enlivened by bronze doors and decorative etching around the doorframe.
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Maeder Mausoleum, Smithfield East End Cemetery
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Andrew Jackman Mausoleum, St. Mary’s Cemetery
One of the most elegant Ionic mausoleums in the city, this one is notable for its perfectly balanced classical details and its tastefully ornate bronze doors.
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Soffel Mausoleum, Mount Lebanon Cemetery
The polished Doric columns seem almost out of place on this otherwise rustic mausoleum. The effect is like the effect of a mixed metaphor: it draws attention to itself, though you understand what it means.
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Gross Mausoleum, Chartiers Cemetery
The last gasp of the Egyptian style, much simplified but unmistakable in its shape and of course in its winged sun disk. The concrete panel in front is well made, and its inscription nicely matched to the Egyptian style, but we can tell that it is later and replaced original bronze doors. In fact we can know exactly what those doors looked like, because this is a duplicate of the Oliver Mausoleum in the Highwood Cemetery, where the doors are still intact (or were when we took the picture). This one, however, includes a pair of appropriate lotus vases, which may never have been installed at the Oliver mausoleum.
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Harry Leary Family Mausoleum, Mount Lebanon Cemetery
Not many families chose modern architecture for their private mausoleums, but for their clients with modern tastes, a few companies did make up-to-date modernistic mausoleums like this one, a plain cube with an off-center door. The cartoon outline of a stained-glass window on the left is an odd concession to the popular notion that a funerary monument ought to have some sort of decoration. (There is also real stained glass inside, and a rusting iron bench to sit on and contemplate mortality.)
