A particularly florid example of Victorian Romanesque, probably a memorial company’s stock model. The statue on the roof is also probably a stock model, but a good one, and the erosion of more than a century has softened her into a kind of antique mystery.
Leopold Vilsack was an early partner in Iron City Brewing, a wise investment that earned him this almost cartoonishly extravagant Romanesque mausoleum.
Just yesterday Father Pitt wrote that the Vandergrift mausoleum was probably a stock model. Here is the confirmation: the identical mausoleum, but with different bronze doors. After so many years of wandering in cemeteries, old Pa Pitt has developed an instinct for these things.
Probably a stock model. It is curiously hard to pin down the style of this structure; old Pa Pitt will call it Romanesque, on account of the medievalish columns and the arched bronze doors. The stained glass inside is another standard catalogue item. The bronze doors bear reliefs of laurels and palms—symbols of victory in death.
Doubtless a memorial company’s stock model, this small mausoleum is encrusted with floridly Victorian Romanesque details in a rather weighty German style. A good architect would have displayed more taste, but would a real architect have been able to provide so many details for the money?
