Pittsburgh Cemeteries

Tag: Mausoleums

  • Shale Mausoleum, McKeesport and Versailles Cemetery

    Without the date 1926 on the front, we might be forgiven for supposing this rustic stone vault to be a relic of the Neolithic era. The date, however, is a bit of a mystery: cemetery records list burials here as early as 1889 (and as recent as 1990). Perhaps 1926 is the date of a major reconstruction of the front, and the stonework to either side is earlier.

    This mausoleum once had urns flanking the entrance (probably dating from the 1926 construction, if we accept that some of the stonework is earlier), but only the bases remain. The base on the right-hand side is nearly obliterated by the advancing years. Like many mausoleums in this cemetery, it is half underground; and the slope of the drive in front gives us a good indication of the kind of landscape the architects had to deal with.

  • J. Denny O’Neil Mausoleum, McKeesport and Versailles Cemetery

    An unusual mausoleum in this unusual cemetery—unusual because its restrained modern-classical style would look at home in other Pittsburgh-area cemeteries, whereas most of the mausoleums here are noticeably different from any standard Pittsburgh style. Cemetery records list a James D. O’Neil (who must be the “J. Denny” of the inscription) as the first interment here; he died in 1915, so that is probably about the date of this mausoleum.

  • Hartman Mausoleum, McKeesport and Versailles Cemetery

    Another unusual design from this cemetery. We shall call the style Romanesque because of the prominent round arch and the rusticated stone, but once again the architect has refused to meet our expectations of the Romanesque in the details. You will find nothing quite like it in the Pittsburgh city cemeteries. According to cemetery records, this mausoleum received its first burial in 1883—a few years before the Allegheny County Courthouse opened the floodgates of the Romanesque revival in the Pittsburgh area.

  • Guthrie Mausoleum, McKeesport and Versailles Cemetery

    Here is a mausoleum not quite like anything else Father Pitt has seen in this area. For lack of a better term, he will call the style Romanesque, but there are odd bits of whimsy that suggest a local architect who cared little for any main stream of architectural thought.

    Many of the mausoleums in the McKeesport and Versailles Cemetery are half-sunk into the hillside—a style that had gone out of favor in most Pittsburgh cemeteries, but remained popular here well into the twentieth century, probably because the vertical landscape nearly demands it.

  • Soles Mausoleum, McKeesport and Versailles Cemetery

    A good example of the character of the mausoleums in this fascinating cemetery. They seem determined to surprise us with their disregard of standard forms. Here, for example, we have Doric columns; but the rest of the structure is hardly classical, and indeed it is hard to assign it any particular style at all. Yet it is a pleasing design, and its picturesque hillside location is also in its favor.