Pittsburgh Cemeteries

The Art and Architecture of Death

Hays mausoleum

A modest rustic mausoleum with almost no ornamentation, but it nevertheless manages to look picturesque against its green hillside.

Art Deco was popular only for a few decades in the early and middle twentieth century, and it never became a very popular style for cemetery monuments. But among the wealthy residents of the Homewood Cemetery, a restrained and tasteful Art Deco was quite fashionable in the years from roughly 1930 to 1950. In many cases it takes the form of a streamlining and radical simplification of classical and Gothic styles. Some of these monuments look like pieces of sets from the world’s most somber RKO musical.