The Art and Architecture of Death
The West View Cemetery is notable for a number of tasteful modernist mausoleums. On this one, note how the etched decoration is repeated in the bronze doors. The landscaping in front is very unusual, and in fact almost unique in Pittsburgh, where cemetery groundskeepers usually expect to be able to mow right up to the steps of a mausoleum.
An attractive modernist mausoleum, probably from after the Second World War, that combines simplicity of form with enough (simplified) decorative detail to avoid monotony. The stained glass inside is pretty, if not particularly inspired.
A very tasteful example of mid-twentieth-century modernism in a fine fall landscape.
Simple modernist elegance enlivened by bronze doors and decorative etching around the doorframe.
Not many families chose modern architecture for their private mausoleums, but for their clients with modern tastes, a few companies did make up-to-date modernistic mausoleums like this one, a plain cube with an off-center door. The cartoon outline of a stained-glass window on the left is an odd concession to the popular notion that a funerary monument ought to have some sort of decoration. (There is also real stained glass inside, and a rusting iron bench to sit on and contemplate mortality.)
Here is the very last gasp of the Egyptian style. The mausoleum is thoroughly modern and simple, but still has the shape and winged sun disk to show that it is meant to be Egyptian.
An unusual mausoleum in this unusual cemetery—unusual because its restrained modern-classical style would look at home in other Pittsburgh-area cemeteries, whereas most of the mausoleums here are noticeably different from any standard Pittsburgh style. Cemetery records list a James D. O’Neil (who must be the “J. Denny” of the inscription) as the first interment here; he died in 1915, so that is probably about the date of this mausoleum.
