One of the least-known works of Frank Vittor, this memorial sits in the improbably hilly West End Park. It is an ornament to its neighborhood (in spite of some clumsy restoration), and it ought to be better known by Pittsburghers from elsewhere.
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World War I Memorial, West End Park
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Edward Manning Bigelow
Giuseppe Moretti’s statue of Edward Manning Bigelow stands at the entrance to Schenley Park in Oakland. It was Mr. Bigelow’s persuasive ability that gave us Schenley Park, which was created from the land that had belonged to Mary Schenley, heir to the O’Hara glass fortune; she had left Pittsburgh and was living in England, where Mr. Bigelow went to see her. He fought hard for a park here, a woodland oasis in the middle of the rapidly expanding city, though powerful interests wanted the land for more urban development. Mr. Bigelow also planned several of the broad boulevards that meander through the eastern part of the city: Beechwood Boulevard, Washington Boulevard, and Grant Boulevard, which after his death was renamed Bigelow Boulevard.
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St. Michael the Archangel Church, Munhall
This Slovak church is no longer used, but the building is still kept in good condition.
The Romanesque façade, with its colorful inlays, is something extraordinary even in a region of extraordinary churches.
The relief of Ss. Cyril and Methodius, apostles to the Slavs, shows more than a little Art Deco influence.
Until a few years ago, the tower held up a fine statue of St. Joseph the Worker, one of the last major works of the great Frank Vittor. It has been moved to St. Maximilian Kolbe parish, where you can see it at eye level.
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George Washington Memorial, Allegheny Commons
Sculptor Edward Ludwig Albert Pausch designed this equestrian statue, which was unveiled to great fanfare in 1891. It depicts young Colonel Washington, aged 23, as he appeared when he visited the future site of Pittsburgh and nearly drowned himself in the Allegheny. This is apparently known as Pausch’s masterpiece.
If you enlarge the photo above, you will notice that, at the upper right, the name of the Smith Granite Company comes before the sculptor’s name in the signature.
The monument was commissioned by the Junior Order of the United American Mechanics.
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“Sacrifice,” by Allen George Newman, in Brighton Heights
A splendid allegorical World War I memorial. Our all-American hero casts off the robes of comfort and offers his sword to whoever needs defending (in Pittsburgh, old Pa Pitt supposes, it is more proper to say “whoever needs defended”). Allen George Newman had a considerable reputation in his day, and this memorial must have cost the neighborhood a good bit of money. Note that the dates of the war are given as 1917-1919; although we commonly take the Armistice in 1918 as the end of the war, it was not technically over until the Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919.
The pictures in this article have been donated to Wikimedia Commons under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication, so no permission is needed to use them for any purpose whatsoever.
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James Scott Negley Monument in Allegheny Cemetery—with an Announcement
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.
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Graver Monument in Allegheny Cemetery
A fine sculpture from 1887 that looks as fresh now as it did when it was put up.
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Daniel O’Neill Monument, Allegheny Cemetery
Mr. Daniel O’Neill was editor of the Dispatch, which he built into Pittsburgh’s most respectable newspaper, a position it maintained until it fell victim to the great newspaper massacre of 1923, when spiraling paper costs forced countless newspapers across the country out of business. It seems that a newspaperman’s work is quite literally never done: this statue of Mr. O’Neill hard at work still looks as fresh as it did when it was put up in 1877. Note the Egyptian-style lotus-blossom pedestal that supports his desk.
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Mary L. Lippincott Monument in Allegheny Cemetery
The sculptor, Isaac Broome, was very well regarded in his day (this monument dates from 1867), and his works may be found in a number of American museums. Old Pa Pitt is not sure what the wand represents, and would be delighted if someone would enlighten him.
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The Charles Avery Memorial in Allegheny Cemetery
Unfortunately this memorial was executed in soft stone that has decayed considerably over the last century and a half. It’s still impressive, though, and the erosion gives one the sense of confronting the distant past face to face.
Avery was a notable abolitionist who founded the Allegheny Institute and Mission Church, later Avery College, whose mission was to provide an education meeting the highest standards for free black students of both sexes. (The rumor had it that it was also a stop on the Underground Railroad, which is quite likely, given Avery’s strong feelings about slavery.) Avery’s monument is decorated with allegorical sculptures whose mutilation over the years makes their meaning hard to interpret. This blindfolded woman has lost her right hand and whatever she was holding in it. Was she Justice?
This young mother, again, has lost part of her right hand, and probably some allegorical attribute with it.
This mutilated relief may depict Avery College in the background; though it survived till about 1970 in Dutchtown, Father Pitt has not found a picture of the building. The headless figure at right has the rotund torso of the Rev. Charles Avery; the other figures seem to be some of the Negro citizens who benefited from his work. Father Pitt is not sure what the ship has to do with the story; Avery was not one of those colonizationists who believed in sending Africans back to Africa. He believed that education would make the Negro an equal citizen in the United States. He did, however, sponsor missions to Africa, and perhaps the ship represents those.
