ALL I NEED IS MY PASSPORT

October 2023

Homewood Cemetery was established in 1878 from William Wilkins’ 650-acre estate, called Homewood.

This is the final resting grounds of the robber barons of the Pittsburgh Golden Age, as well as noted politicians, artists, sports figures, scientists, and others.

Section 14 of the cemetery sits atop a hill and houses the largest plots and, thus, the richest people.

This Doric temple mausoleum was built for James Ross Mellon, who died in 1934. The sculpture in front, “Motherless” by George A. Lawson (1897), actually doesn’t memorialize any particular dead Mellon; it was a piece of garden statuary that James Ross Mellon liked, but his heirs didn’t want in their garden.

This pyramid mausoleum was designed by Alden & Harlow for William Harry Brown.  It was erected in 1898-1899. The building was inspired by the Great Pyramids, which Brown and his family had visited.  The Brown money came from coal.

This polished granite mausoleum is for the candy bar maker David L. Clark. The Dodds Granite Company of New York erected the ten-crypt mausoleum in 1928. Due to the deplorable environmental conditions of the time, the Dodd company suggested granite for the exterior as the smoke and dirt would not penetrate the polished surface, and it could be easily cleaned.

This stone marks the grave of Anne Farley Walton Whetzel, who was a Millon. Why this particular piece of art, I have no idea, nor did a considerable amount of research reveal. Look for all the heads peeking out.

The Wilkins Mausoleum is patterned after the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. This site dates to 1882. Wilkins was a surgeon’s mate in the Revolutionary War. He later served as the president of the Bank of Pennsylvania.

Unlike most other old cemeteries from this era, there is very little statuary on the grounds. This is why the Schoonmaker monument stood out to me. It is graced by a sculpture by Jakob Otto Schweizer.

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October 2023

Standing on the grass of Carnegie Mellon, you can see the University of Pittsburgh’s (Pitt) Cathedral of Learning. The 42-story Late Gothic Revival Cathedral is the tallest educational building in the Western Hemisphere and the second-tallest university building in the world.

The entrance to the Margaret Morrison Building, which houses the School of Architecture and Design at Carnegie Mellon University.

Originally a life insurance building, the above is now the Steelworkers Union Building. Designed by Curtis and Davis, with structural engineers Worthington, Skilling, Helle & Jackson, it features a load-bearing steel diagrid exoskeleton, which was highly unusual at the time and helped pioneer the use of diagrids and framed tube construction.

The Buhl Building was built in 1913 in the Italianate style and is faced with multi-colored terra cotta tiles.

On July 19, 1855, Dollar Bank opened for business as “The Pittsburgh Dollar Savings Institution”. For $1, anyone could open a savings account. The first day’s deposits totaled $53. Opened in April 1871, the building was designed by Isaac H. Hobbs & Sons of Philadelphia.

The Benedum–Trees Building was originally called the Machesney Building until 1913 when Machesney sold it for $10 million to Joe Trees and Michael Late Benedum, who made their fortune in oil. The building was designed by Thomas H. Scott,

A row of houses on the 19th century Mexican War Streets primarily consists of Victorian architecture, with some Craftsman and Georgian.  The area changed its name around the time of the Mexican-American war. A number of the streets are named after battles and generals of the war.

This is one of many houses on Sampsonia Way, which are part of the The City of Asylum Exiled Writer and Artist Residency Program. The program provides a long-term residency for literary writers and other artists who are in exile from their home countries and under threat of persecution because of their work.

Randyland is the type of place that always pulls me in.  A creation of local artist Randy Gilson, this house and yard have helped to revitalize this neighborhood.

This small sample shows that Pittsburgh is filled with every type of architecture you can imagine.