Pittsburgh Cemeteries

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.

This fine Byzantine monument has inscriptions in what looks to old Pa Pitt like Ukrainian. He would be delighted to have a translation in the comments. There are inscriptions on both sides, and here they are in high resolution:

An easily identified work of the Master of the Robinson Run Reliefs, whose trademarks are all present:

• thistle decoration flanked by flowers

• fan patterns in the corners

• curled tail on the top of the lower-case g in age

• “IN” in all capitals, “memory of” in all lower case, name in all upper case.

Interestingly, there is a Henry Huls buried in the Peters Creek Baptist Church Cemetery, whose tombstone is also by the Master of the Robinson Run Reliefs. We therefore know of at least three cemeteries in which this fine craftsman worked.

The inscription:

This picture was taken in 2015.

A monument for a girl who died at the age of fourteen. The weathered and damaged angel is probably much more picturesque in this condition than it was when it was new.

The base includes a photograph that is badly faded, but with the help of modern image-editing software we can restore a recognizable image.

This is almost the archetype of the Slavic tombstone, with a fine folk-art crucifix to decorate it. With the help of Google, Wiktionary, and other Internet resources, we translate the Polish inscription thus:

HERE LIES
MARIAN
FABISZEWSKI
DIED MARCH 14, 1924.
—
Say a Hail Mary for Me

Google Translate identifies the inscription as Croatian. The translation would be something like this: “Here lies my husband Michael Paczak Dubos. Born 29 Apr 1874. Died 15 Mar 1927.” The Byzantine cross is used by both Russian Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic Christians, but in Pittsburgh the Byzantine Catholics make an especially big deal of it.

Visitors from all over the world come to St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Cemetery to pay homage to one resident: Andy Warhol, son of Andrew and Julia Warhola (whose monument we see in the background). They come bearing gifts, and it is rare to find the otherwise unassuming monument undecorated. Campbell’s Soup cans are de rigeur, of course, but people who know something about Andy also bring rosaries. Andy Warhol was, in his own strange way, a devout Byzantine Catholic to the end of his life.

This Byzantine cemetery in Castle Shannon is near the Washington Junction station, where the Blue and Silver Lines meet. It is not at all hard to find Warhol’s grave in the cemetery. Just look for the cameras, and they will point the way.

It would have delighted Warhol to know that, as he rests in peace, his eternal slumber is livestreamed to the whole world.

The old Bethel Cemetery is full of Gillfillans (or Gilfillans), whose memorials are in all styles from the early settlers’ handmade tombstones to elaborate marble monuments from the middle 1800s.

IN
memory of
SARAH GILLFILLAN
Who departed this Life
March the 2nd 1818 aged
20 years.

IN Memory of
ALEXANDER GILLFILLAN
Who departed this Life
Agust the 11th 1821 in the 27th
year of his age.

SACRED
to the memory of
ALEX’R GILLFILLAN
who departed this life
Sep. 6th, 1836
in the 91st year of his
AGE.

PVT 4 CO 2 PA BN
WASHINGTON COUNTY MILITIA
REVOLUTIONARY WAR
1745–1836

SACRED
TO THE MEMORY OF
MARTHA, Wife of
ALEXANDER GILFILLAN
who departed this life
February 19th, 1840
In the 81st year of her age.

JOHN GILLFILLAN
BORN JUNE 21, 1784
DIED JUNE 20, 1859.

—

“For if we believe that Jesus died
and rose again, even so them also
which sleep in Jesus will God bring
with him.”

ALEXANDER
SON OF
JOHN & MARGARET
GILLFILLAN
Who died in Philada.
Dec. 7, 1845
Reinterred in this place
Jan 1, 1846
in the 26 year of his age.
Resident[?] of Jefferson Medical
College Philadelphia

IN MEMORY OF
JOHN SON OF
ANDREW B. AND ANN GILFILLAN
WHO VOLUNTEERED IN THE SERVICE
OF HIS COUNTRY SEPT. 1861.
IN CO. E. 101ST REGT. PA. VOL.
WAS WOUNDED AT THE
BATTLE OF FAIR OAKS
AND DIED JULY 1ST
1862,
AGED 23 YEARS
AND 11 DAYS.

These pictures were taken in 2015.