Pittsburgh Cemeteries

Tag: Mausoleums

  • McCune Mausoleum, Allegheny Cemetery

    2013-08-18-Allegheny-Cemetery-McCune-02

    This extraordinarily tasteful Renaissance octagon (built in 1925) is so unusual that Father Pitt suspects it may be based on a historical model. He would be delighted if one of his readers could find the original and point it out to him. John Robison McCune III was a banker, head of one of the biggest banks in the city (Union National, which after being devoured by Integra and National City is now part of PNC).

    2013-08-18-Allegheny-Cemetery-McCune-01

    2013-08-18-Allegheny-Cemetery-McCune-03

    The interior is as elegant as the exterior. McCune took nothing of his private life with him to the grave—no Masonic or even religious symbols. His mausoleum, including the exceptionally fine window, is dedicated solely to beauty.

    2013-08-18-Allegheny-Cemetery-McCune-04

  • Stained Glass in the Shields Mausoleum, Homewood Cemetery

    2013-09-25-Homewood-Cemetery-Shields-02

    Mr. Shields decided to take his favorite pinup girl with him to the grave. A stout wooden beam apparently holding up the ceiling of the mausoleum stands in the way of the view of this window; Father Pitt has therefore stitched this picture together from two separate pictures, and the seam is obvious. But the window is unusual enough that we can tolerate a substandard photograph. —UPDATE: Old Pa Pitt has accidentally found out quite a bit more about this window. It is called “The Spirit of the Water Lily,” and it was designed by the famous stained-glass artist William Willet for the home of one of Pittsburgh’s rich industrialists, George I. Whitney. How it came to be in this mausoleum Father Pitt does not know. The design for the window was printed in the February, 1904, issue of the Booklovers Magazine, and we note that, if this drawing is accurate, the window is currently installed backwards:

    KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

  • Samuel S. Brown Mausoleum, Allegheny Cemetery

    A tasteful little fantasy-Gothic chapel with a statue of Hope (note her little anchor) standing guard at the top. 

  • Wilkins Mausoleum, Homewood Cemetery

    KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

    The Wilkins family took the word “mausoleum” quite seriously and attempted a scale model of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, which is probably the inspiration for more constructions in Pittsburgh than any other classical edifice.

    KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

  • Autumn in the Union Dale Cemetery

    Cemeteries in Pittsburgh have the advantage of Pittsburgh topography to make them picturesque. Add fall colors, and the picturesqueness is irresistible. The Union Dale Cemetery is the premier address for deceased residents of the old City of Allegheny.