Historical Structures

Penn Avenue Gatehouse
This ensemble in buff-grey Freeport and Massilon, Ohio sandstone is all in harmony despite different construction dates and architects. Only the mansard roof on the Lodge is a little out of keeping. Into this century, the Lodge had a rather thinly framed wooden Gothic porch. The 1926 addition to the Office Building, imitating the 1870 detail perfectly without and partly within, shows respect for Mid-Victorian architecture most unusual at the time. The Funeral Entrance that bypasses Chislett's gateway is just east of the Office Building and offers better clearance. The Bayard "Mansion House" once faced this entrance from an uphill site within the grounds.

 

Butler St. Gatehouse

 

By 1885 the Penn Avenue way into the Cemetery was considered the main entrance, with Butler Street for exit only, and a monumental gateway and other entrance features were needed. Henry Moser, designer of the 1970 Office Bulding, submitted a design that was not accepted, and a competition was announced for the architectural work. The eleborate wrought-iron grillwork was excluded from the competition, and who designed it is not known. In all, 16 designs by 14 offices were submitted, including ones by local architects William Kaufmann, Edward M. Butz, J.F. Mackenzie, Frenderick C. Sauer, Richard Nevin & Company, and Henry Moser.

 

Fountain

 

Outside, the entrance road approaches a fountain that sends up a number of small, quiet sprays within view of a subsidiary gate flanked by pinnacled piers that look like giant chess pieces. This fountain, dedicated in 1982, recalls a much more elaborate Mid-Victorian fountain of cast iron, and uses the original's curb and vases. It imparts a touch of life to the point from which the Cemetery roads radiate, one to the service buildings near Butler Street, others to the burial section

 

Soldier's Memorial

The County provided free burials for about 3,000 veterans over a 28-year period. There are no raised monuments.  Built of limestone and of rubble excavated from a quarry within the Cemetery, this pleasant compromise between Classical and Modernistic is typical of its time. Bronze cannons of the Civil War period stand before it; these were restored with the help of the Allegheny Cemetery Historical Association.

 

 

Arsenal Monument, 1928
This monument replaces an earlier marble obelisk to the memory of 43 young women buried here, some of the approximately 78 young workers killed at the nearby Allegheny Arsenal by an explosion. The accident of September 17, 1862 was the worst industrial accident associated with the Civil War.