A good example of the standard-issue rustic mausoleum of the early to middle twentieth century, and a good example of the fate of many mausoleums in smaller cemeteries. The doors are gone; they were probably bronze, and doubtless were sold for scrap by the thieves. Whatever glass there was in the back is also gone. The mausoleum is now open to the elements; but, of course, it is so solidly constructed that it can probably remain that way for centuries.
This must have been one of the earliest interments in the cemetery, which opened in 1849, the year Henry Donnelly died. It is certainly grand, and more than a little mysterious—perhaps the most striking in-ground mausoleum in Pittsburgh. In the early and middle nineteenth century, these mausoleums cut into a hillside were the usual resting places of the rich; they are always referred to as “mausoleums,” anyway, but perhaps they would more properly be called tombs, reserving “mausoleum” for a free-standing building. They fell out of favor by the 1870s or so, and proper mausoleums came into fashion.
Alfred E. Hunt was a pioneer in the aluminum business; he founded the company that became Alcoa and made aluminum a useful commodity rather than a laboratory curiosity. Oddly, although Hunt died in 1899, his mausoleum was not built until 1930. Father Pitt does not know the reason for the long delay. Inside this simple Ionic structure is a beautiful patterned stained-glass window.
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A curious combination of the Egyptian and the Romanesque. The doorway and sloping sides suggest the Egyptian style; the botanical ornaments and rusticated stone suggest Romanesque. Inside is a stained-glass window with symbols of Christian victory.
An unusual Romanesque mausoleum—particularly unusual in being half-sunk into a hill. The rusticated stone, round arch, and leafy ornament, however, are all standard marks of the Romanesque style.
