Pittsburgh Cemeteries

Tag: Sculpture

  • Crecencia Lutz Monument, St. Mary’s Cemetery, Ross Township

    This towering monument is in a style all its own. What shall we call it? Pittsburgh German Rococo? The inscription, cut by a local stonecutter (a tradition that survived among the Germans here decades longer than it did among English-speakers) quotes from Job: in the words of the King James Version, “Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass.“ The German translation of the first line would be more closely rendered as “Short are the days of man,” which is a more striking sentiment that seems tailor-made for an epitaph.

    The relief is a bit elementary, like something that would have been turned out by the second-best student in a community-college sculpture class. The overall composition, however, is unforgettable. The blackness of industry has only added to the impression that this monument is something colossal and important.

  • Georg Kirner Monument, Minersville Cemetery

    In  spite of the damaged statue, this is an unusually beautiful monument, and the inscriptions are very good examples of German stonecutting in Pittsburgh.

    Georg Kirner
    Born Hoeffingen, Baden,
    April 17, 1831.
    Died in Pittsburg
    May 12, 1872.

    The language does not seem to be standard German (note, for example, the spelling “Maÿ” rather than “Mai”). Is it some Alemannic dialect? Perhaps someone more familiar with German can help old Pa Pitt by identifying the dialect and translating the other inscriptions:

    So leb denn wohl so zieh dahin
    Die Erde wartet dein
    Geh in des Todes stille Ruhe-Kammerein
    Shlaf eine sanfte süse Ruh’
    Die Hand der Liebe deckt dich zu,

    In his transcription, Father Pitt has made the assumption that a horizontal line over an N or M doubles the letter.

    Jeh empfand an deiner Seite
    Lebensfroh der Erde Glück
    Jinner geh mir dein Geleite
    Einen frohen augenblick.

    The base of the statue is marked “Mein Gatte” (“My  Husband).” The statue is probably ordered from a monument-dealer’s catalogue, with the simple Gothic letters already on the base. They are not nearly as elegant as the beautiful lettering by the local stonecutter.

  • Sossong Angel, St. Joseph Cemetery

    “Sossong” is not a very common name, yet in this small cemetery in Glendale (Scott Township) there are at least four different Sossong family plots. It must have been a large interconnected group of cousins. This particular plot has a marble angel as its guardian, possibly erected in 1893 when Philipp Sossong died. The angel is well preserved, though the left hand and part of the scroll with the family name are missing.

    The Sossongs’ descendants still keep up this plot, and all the Sossongs buried here have relatively recent granite headstones, possibly to replace inscriptions that became illegible. One of them was a priest, Fr. William B. Sossong, who was born in 1891, but for whom no death date has been filled in.

    Old Pa Pitt liked this angel well enough to come twice in the same day and photograph it in two different lights. That is how dedicated he is to bringing you the finest possible illustrations.

  • Magdalena Pfeil Monument, South Side Cemetery

    A marble monument in what we might call folk-romantic style. The recording angel has been eroded by pollution and time, but it does not look as though it was ever a very skillful carving, Nevertheless, the whole effect of the monument is very pleasing.

    The epitaph (a poem commonly found on monuments of the era) reads:

    Dear mother, rest in quiet sleep,
    While friends in sorrow o’er thee weep,
    And here their heartfelt offerings bring
    And near thy grave thy requiem sing.

  • Winter Mausoleum, Allegheny Cemetery

    The composite picture above is more than 75 megapixels. Expect about 22 megabytes of data if you click on it.

    This is without a doubt the most spectacular Egyptian mausoleum in Pittsburgh. All the usual Egyptian elements are here, but the Winter mausoleum (1930)—whose colossal scale is hard to convey in a photograph—adds its own unique accessories. John Russell Pope, the famous beaux-arts architect, designed this mausoleum for banker Emil Winter—but “designed” is not really the right word here. The Woolworth mausoleum in Woodlawn, the Bronx, is nearly identical; Winter apparently saw it and told Pope “I want that,” and Pope gave it to him.

    Mr. Winter’s amazing sphinxes bear an expression that old Pa Pitt can only describe as “snooty.”

    2013-08-18-Allegheny-Cemetery-Winter-04The bronze door depicts Mr. Winter himself, large as life and in full Pharaonic regalia, about to set off for his journey into the afterlife. Even this is identical to the bronze door of the Woolworth mausoleum, except for the substitution of Mr. Winter’s face.

    2013-08-18-Allegheny-Cemetery-Winter-01Inside is a stained-glass window that reminds Father Pitt of cheap illustrated Sunday-school handouts, showing Mr. Winter properly enthroned. (It was devilishly hard to get a picture of this window, because the front doors are actually backed by a mesh screen. This was the best old Pa Pitt could do.)

    2013-08-18-Allegheny-Cemetery-Winter-03