Pittsburgh Cemeteries

The Art and Architecture of Death

South Side Cemetery

A rural cemetery on rolling hills in Carrick, with many interesting mausoleums and monuments.


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Lina B. Nickel mourner

A family plot of matching graves that is missing one important tenant, or at least the inscription for him.

Nickel family plot

Lina B. Nickel

Lina B. Nickel, who died in 1916 at the age of 29 or 30, is buried here under an inscription identifying her as “MY WIFE.” But the matching headstone is blank, suggesting that Mr. Nickel (whose name was almost certainly William; see below) is not buried here. A husband in mourning might think that of course he would never marry again and would be buried next to his late wife when he died, but a year or two or five go by, and he begins to take a more realistic view of the rest of his life. Or it is quite possible that the whole matching set was ordered when the two sons died in 1912.

Mourner

A standard flower-dropping mourner. The wrists are always a weak point in this design.

William and John Nickel

Two young sons, William Jr. and John, died in 1912, very probably of the same childhood disease. From the name William Jr. we can deduce the father’s name.

Angel

This angel might also have been dropping flowers, as we can guess from its downward gaze and the eroded bouquet.

Face and wings

Hugh H. Wallace stump

A stump with scroll inscription marking the grave of a member of the Improved Order of Heptasophs, which probably entitled him to this stump.

Inscription

A sumptuous stump with peeled bark for the inscription and a bonus fern. Joseph Abraham died in 1861; his wife Mary Ann died in 1879, and the stump probably dates from then or later.

This still-splendid Gothic headstone has eroded to the point where the name is illegible, at least in this light. We can just make out “Hier ruhet in Gott” as the first line, and at the bottom a birth date of 1829 (or perhaps 1828) and a death date of 1880. On the base is an epitaph that might almost be legible in different light.

Golden winter sun illuminates the Sunshine mausoleum in the South Side Cemetery.

A large rustic mausoleum with medievalish columns. Like most mausoleums in this cemetery, it has lost its bronze doors, but unlike the others it has not been closed off with concrete blocks. It probably provides shelter for occasional homeless guests, and if old Pa Pitt had a mausoleum he would approve of that use.

An elegantly simple cube with rusticated stone blocks to add texture and shading. Unlike most of the mausoleums in this cemetery, this one has kept its bronze doors. One wonders whether the designer intended the shallow stepped roof as a subtle recollection of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.

A modest rustic temple with Doric columns. Like most mausoleums in the South Side Cemetery, it has lost its bronze doors, and the gap has been filled with concrete blocks.

Old Pa Pitt always wonders how much snickering there was at the monument dealer’s when this order came in. This is a typical Victorian obelisk with the dangerous pointy end heavily shrouded. Behind it is the even taller Adams obelisk.

This statue of a wreath-bearing mourner looks more contemplative as she weathers into abstraction.