Father Pitt would guess that this mausoleum might have originally had a bronze door, which was replaced by the stone in front. If that is so, the replacement is very well and very expensively done, though it does not really match the style of the mausoleum. It is much more delicate than one would expect from a rugged rustic mausoleum like this: the inscription, in particular, clashes with the lettering on the lintel.
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R. T. Carothers Mausoleum, McKeesport and Versailles Cemetery
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Redfern Mausoleum, McKeesport and Versailles Cemetery
Old Pa Pitt loves McKeesport with an unreasoning love. It was once the second city of Allegheny County, and it was the center of its own distinct Mon Valley metropolitan area that was quite different from Pittsburgh culturally, The city had its own traditions, and—what is relevant here—its own architects and artisans. The mausoleums in the McKeesport and Versailles Cemetery, a small but splendid rural cemetery just outside downtown McKeesport, are quite different in style from the ones in Pittsburgh cemeteries.
Here, for example we have a mausoleum that Father Pitt must confess he cannot really classify. It has the sloping sides and general shape of an Egyptian mausoleum; it has rusticated stone that suggests Romanesque architecture, and columns with medieval capitals; and it has a Chippendale open pediment that suggests the baroque. Yet in this curious mishmash there is no disharmony. It looks the way it ought to look. Father Pitt does not know whether this was the design of a local architect or a mausoleum from a dealer’s stock catalogue, but he does know that he has never seen anything like it in Pittsburgh.
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A. E. Succop Mausoleum, Homewood Cemetery
August Ernest Succop was interred here in 1931, but if Father Pitt had to guess, he would say that Mr. Succop had this mausoleum built for himself yeas before that. It has the correctly Doric style of the first part of the twentieth century. A good stained-glass window of the risen Christ is inside.
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Taylor-Langfitt Mausoleum, Highwood Cemetery
Father Pitt does not know the date of this mausoleum, but the style and the dates of other burials in the same area suggest the 1890s. It is a small thing compared to some of the magnificent mausoleums in the Union Dale Cemetery nearby, but it is in very good taste: the classical style is rich without ostentation, the bronze doors are well matched to the style of the whole, and the Boston ivy adds a romantically picturesque touch.
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Myers Mausoleum, Allegheny Cemetery
This simple Doric temple received its first burial in 1896. Inside is a fine window of an angel bearing lilies and laying a victor’s wreath at the grave.
