Leopold Vilsack was an early partner in Iron City Brewing, a wise investment that earned him this almost cartoonishly extravagant Romanesque mausoleum.
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Leopold Vilsack Mausoleum, St. Mary’s Cemetery
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W. R. Fischer Mausoleum, Allegheny Cemetery
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.
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Vandergrift Mausoleum, Allegheny Cemetery
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.
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Henry Mausoleum, Allegheny Cemetery
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?
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Williams Mausoleum, South Side Cemetery
Old Pa Pitt is going to call this style Romanesque because of the medieval columns, rusticated stone, and rounded lintel; but it is perhaps a bit of a mixed metaphor in style. Like most of the mausoleums in the unguarded South Side Cemetery, it has lost its bronze doors, which have been replaced with ugly concrete blocks.
