Pittsburgh Cemeteries

Tag: Mausoleums

  • Wilder Mausoleum, South Side Cemetery

    Father Pitt hopes the Wilder family (who are doubtless kind and indulgent people) will forgive him for saying that this is without a doubt the ugliest mausoleum in the greater Pittsburgh metropolitan area. It looks like a thing built by a contractor who had never built, or perhaps even seen, a mausoleum before, and thought of it as a sort of garage for coffins. But it is distinctive. There is nothing else in the South Side Cemetery that looks remotely like it; and, since it occupies a prominent plot at the intersection of two drives in the cemetery, there is no missing it.

  • Frank-Klee Mausoleum, West View Cemetery

    A simple Doric mausoleum with extra space for a large family. The stained glass inside is very good, except that (in Father Pitt’s opinion) the wreath-and-swag decoration rather spoils the effect of the naturalistic forest and stream.

  • Flower Mausoleum, Allegheny Cemetery

    This mausoleum from the early 1920s is an interesting and unusual design: a little bit Egyptian in shape, but without Egyptian details. The gorgeous stained glass inside is full of nautical references, which must refer in some way to the William S. Flower who is recorded as the first burial here in 1924. Does anyone know their significance? A Dr. William S. Flower was a dentist here in the early twentieth century, but Father Pitt cannot guess what sailing ships, hourglasses, and classical dolphins have to do with dentistry.

  • Falk Mausoleum, West View Cemetery

    An attractive modernist mausoleum, probably from after the Second World War, that combines simplicity of form with enough (simplified) decorative detail to avoid monotony. The stained glass inside is pretty, if not particularly inspired.

  • Hartley-Given Mausoleum, Allegheny Cemetery

    A typical Egyptian temple, except perhaps that it is rather grander than usual. It was built in 1913, and we can see the elements that almost invariably mark the Egyptianness of the style: the sloping sides and the lotus columns. Over the entrance we almost always find a winged sun disk or scarab entwined by serpents.

    The picture above is huge if you click on it: there’s plenty of detail to appreciate, but be aware that clicking on it will cost you about twelve and a half megabytes.