The Art and Architecture of Death
Founded in 1861, this cemetery includes a towering Civil War memorial, some interesting monuments, and a fine Baroque burial vault from 1874.
A marble obelisk for a family of early settlers in the Chartiers Valley, where the family has taken full advantage of all the surfaces offered for inscription. The cemetery opened in 1861, so it is probable that family members who died before then have not been interred here, but are remembered here as part of family tradition.
A typical zinc monument in most respects, except that it bears no inscriptions other than the name “STEWART” on the base. Instead, the various Stewarts have individual stone markers. Since one of the attractions of a zinc monument was that it could bear a number of inscriptions, thus saving the expense of individual markers, we suspect that there may have been a Stewart family argument over the Stewart family plot.
William Sheraden was the founder of the Sheraden borough that later became the Sheraden neighborhood of Pittsburgh. We have featured this monument before, but not with such fine fall colors in the background.
A matched pair of monuments in a late version of the romantic style that was popular in the middle 1800s. August Abbott was born in Saxony, but his inscription is in English, suggesting that his family—unlike many German immigrant families—Americanized in one generation.
The monuments are signed by the stonecutters, and the signatures are different.
Boggs & Lindsey, if we read correctly.
Alex. Boggs—again if we read correctly. Perhaps Lindsey retired or died.
This truly monumental monument is the tallest private memorial in the cemetery; only the Civil War monument is taller. It is nevertheless a monument-dealer’s stock item; an identical monument can be found in Allegheny Cemetery. It marks the family plot of the Gormleys, whose patriarch was named James for several generations, until the last James Gormley was finally buried under the epitaph “THE LAST OF THE LINE.”
With ancient trees and artistic landscapes, cemeteries are very good places to enjoy the delights of fall.
A unique Victorian interpretation of the Baroque style—unique in Pittsburgh, at any rate, as far as old Pa Pitt knows. The date of the mausoleum is 1874, which is the year of the first interment there.
The front probably had bronze doors, now stolen. This plaque, however, should last a good long time. It records that the first interment was David C. Steen, who died the year the mausoleum was built (according to the date over the door). He was probably the son of David and Mary Dickson Steen, who may have built this extravagant vault in mourning for their 21-year-old son.
It would be interesting to know how the Reeds and the rest came to be in this vault.
These were families who were no strangers to tragedy. Of eleven names recorded here, six—a majority—died before the age of thirty.
A fine zinc monument with only one panel inscribed, for Caroline Grimm. She died in middle age; perhaps her husband remarried and is buried elsewhere. As is usually the case with zinc monuments, it looks almost as fresh as the day it was erected.
A typical marble obelisk of the Civil War era. The inscriptions are eroded into near illegibility, but one legible death date is 1840. Since the cemetery is not that old, the monument was probably put up in the 1860s, and previously deceased family members were honored on it then.
