The Art and Architecture of Death
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.
A splendid Egyptian mausoleum with a fine view of the Pyramids out the back window.
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.
This is the Lillian Russell who was widely considered the most beautiful woman in the world in the late 1800s and into the 1900s. Her fourth and last husband was Alexander Pollock Moore, who owned the Leader in Pittsburgh. When she died unexpectedly in 1922, he gave her this tiny but tasteful mausoleum; he was buried with her later, but her name is the one above the columns, and the epitaph is hers: “The world is better for her having lived.”
Mrs. Moore’s opinion as “Immigration Inspector” was that Europe was sending us its worthless dregs; she is sometimes blamed for the restrictive immigration policies that followed, but it is very likely that the Harding administration appointed her to reinforce and not to create anti-immigrant prejudice. She injured herself in a very minor way on the trip back, but died unexpectedly from complications.
The initials of both residents are rendered in bronze on the doors.
The simple stained glass has suffered some damage, which should be fairly easy to repair.
A tasteful mausoleum shaped like the stereotypical Egyptian temple, but without Egyptian decorative details. The nautical-themed stained glass inside is extraordinarily good, and the bronze doors are also very artistic.
Probably a stock model. It is curiously hard to pin down the style of this structure; old Pa Pitt will call it Romanesque, on account of the medievalish columns and the arched bronze doors. The stained glass inside is another standard catalogue item. The bronze doors bear reliefs of laurels and palms—symbols of victory in death.
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.
William H. Walker (1841-1904) had his portrait rendered in stained glass for the back of his mausoleum, which is the sort of thing you can do if you have the money to put up a large Ionic mausoleum like this one.
A huge and opulent Ionic mausoleum crowned by a cupola on which stands a figure of Hope shaking her fist at heaven. At least that is how it has always looked to old Pa Pitt. The Schreiners must have had quite a lot of money, but they have left few other obvious historical traces of themselves.
A Doric mausoleum with rusticated stone: a very common sort of design, but very dignified, and much more picturesque when we add autumn leaves. The stained glass inside is a standard design from the catalogue.
