A Ginkgo biloba has just dropped its leaves in the Union Dale Cemetery. Ginkgo biloba is an odd tree in almost every respect, and this is one of its odd habits. Most trees lose their leaves over the course of a few days, but a Ginkgo loses them in a surprisingly short time, almost all at once. If there is not much wind, the result is a rich golden carpet with the tree at the center of it.
Many more pictures of gorgeous monuments and fall leaves are at Father Pitt’s Pittsburgh Cemeteries site.
A view from Division 1 of the Union Dale Cemetery. Of the great cemeteries in the city, only the Union Dale Cemetery is divided into sections by major thoroughfares running through it.
The congregation began as a house meeting in 1793 and was officially founded in 1812. The current church, which replaced an earlier log church, was built in 1843 and restored after a fire in 1944. Families of early settlers are buried in the churchyard.
Father Pitt has never run across “Nazarene” as a male given name before. The stonecutter made some very elegant letters, but “May the 1th” was as wrong in 1839 as it is today.
These pictures are made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication, so no permission is needed to use them for any purpose whatsoever.
A doe browsing in the Allegheny Cemetery, a rural landscape smack in the middle of the city. Deer in the great cemeteries have a pretty soft life, but deer are found in almost every city neighborhood with even a small patch of woods. This picture has been donated to Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication, so no permission is needed to use it for any purpose whatsoever.
Wandering through the Allegheny Cemetery this morning, old Pa Pitt happened upon a doe with her three fawns. The deer were wary at first, but Father Pitt persuaded them that he was no threat, and then they happily posed for these pictures.
General James Scott Negley was an important figure in the Union Army, but perhaps his greatest claim to undying memory is that his sister married Thomas Mellon, guaranteeing that the Negleys would be intertwined with the richest family on earth. This picture has been donated to Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication, so no permission is needed to use it for any purpose whatsoever.
And now, an announcement. It cannot have escaped regular readers that old Pa Pitt loves to wander through cemeteries with a camera. The reason is simple: our best cemeteries are great outdoor art museums filled with imperishable masterpieces of architecture and sculpture, and great thought was put into laying them out in a picturesque manner.
Lest his readers begin to suspect, however, that he has a morbid obsession with death, Father Pitt has decided to create a separate site devoted to nothing but Pittsburgh cemeteries. There you will find many of the cemetery pictures that have been published here, and new pictures as well that have never been seen anywhere else. Occasional cemetery pictures will still appear here, but Father Pitt’s main site will perhaps maintain a healthier balance between life and death now that he is free to take as many cemetery pictures as he wants without worrying that he seems too morose.
Cemeteries in Pittsburgh are littered with obelisks. Let us agree that, in this post-Freudian era, we have no need of the facile explanation that occurs to the snickering schoolchild in each one of us, and admit that a lofty obelisk can be a grand symbol of heavenward aspiration.
A fine sculpture from 1887 that looks as fresh now as it did when it was put up.
