Pittsburgh Cemeteries

The Art and Architecture of Death

Frank-Klee Mausoleum

The extra width gives the mausoleum room for more inmates, but it does not seem to have been worked into the design well. It looks as though the Franks and Klees ordered a standard Doric temple, quite correct in its proportions, and then as an afterthought added wings.

The stained glass is very pretty.

Stained glass in the Frank-Klee mausoleum

Stained-glass menorah in the Weil mausoleum

A simplified Doric mausoleum in the style of the early to middle twentieth century. The stained-glass menorah is doubtless a standard catalogue item, but it is well executed.

Weil mausoleum

Schwartz-Black Monument

Here is a family plot that seems laid out for ancestor-worshiping rituals. The massive classical monument dominates the plot from the rear; in front of it is a classical altar where the descendants could kneel and offer their sacrifices. The older members of the family are named Schwartz; at about the time of the First World War, the younger ones adopted the easy Americanization of Black.

Andrews mausoleum

A richly detailed example of Renaissance classicism, with rusticated blocks, arched entrance, “modern Ionic” columns (that is, Ionic columns with volutes at the four corners of the capitals), and flanking urns.

Schreiner mausoleum

A large and luxurious classical structure with a prominent cupola topped by a statue of Hope shaking her fist at heaven. At least that is how old Pa Pitt always reads the statue: it is certainly Hope (the anchor is her ID card), and Father Pitt doesn’t know what else to make of the raised-fist salute.

Statue of Hope

Monogram

Ornate monograms flank the entrance arch.

Hemphill mausoleum

A simple but elegant Ionic mausoleum, seen here with the much more extravagant Brown pyramid in the background.

Robert Carson mausoleum

A simplified Doric mausoleum without entablature or any of the usual fiddly bits. It dates from 1885, but one could be forgiven for supposing it a twentieth-century modernist’s interpretation of classical style.

Fownes mausoleum

A rich-looking Ionic façade with a Victorian profusion of details, including rusticated stone blocks. It seems to have been a stock model; an exact duplicate was built for the Wilson family in the Union Dale Cemetery.

Sheraden monument

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.

Baum monument

This unusual round Doric temple, unlike a closed mausoleum, invites cemetery visitors to step up and under the roof. There the names of the Baum family members interred here are inscribed in an open stone book on a lectern.

Names in a book

Baum monuemtn