A tasteful standard-model classical mausoleum, seen on an atmospherically misty morning. According to cemetery records, Wilhelmina S. Nickel was buried a few days after she died in 1928, so the mausoleum was probably put up for her while she was still alive.
At first glance this mausoleum gives one the impression that it is nothing more than a big box of dead Snyders. But the tasteful details and fine proportions reward a longer look. It is plain with the plainness of elegance, not with the plainness of efficiency. Next to it stands the Porter angel.
Dr. Clark, whose practice was clearly quite successful, took his professional credentials with him to the grave. The Doric mausoleum would be ordinary but for the arched doorway, which is unusual on classical mausoleums in Pittsburgh.
A stock “rustic” mausoleum, looking a bit like something out of The Flintstones. It was probably more impressive with a bronze door, but as a feature of the landscape, it has a certain picturesque charm.
Edward Manning Bigelow (1850-1916), far-sighted city planner, gave us Schenley Park and Highland Park, great patches of green forest and field right in the middle of the city. They were on the edges of the city in Bigelow’s time, but he saw where the city was headed. For that we owe him immense gratitude; and if the expense of this elegant Doric mausoleum indicates that he managed to cash in some of the gratitude we owe him while he was still alive, we do not begrudge him his prosperity.
