Favorite Cemeteries (Pittsburgh, McKees Rocks, Troy: houses, live, wealthiest)

[Caladium]

Continuing a thought from another thread... one of Pittsburgh's best features is its cemeteries. I guess some people find them morbid, but I've always found old urban cemeteries to be fascinating. So many stories can be found in them, so many intriguing stones. I like to ponder the lives of all the people that have come and gone through a city's timespan.I even like the plants. Often someone's favorite rare rosebush will be planted beside them, and as the years pass it becomes one of the last examples of a particular variety that disappeared.

I see we have a few other cemetery fans here. Which are your favorites, and why? And.... any photos? You guys know how I love to see photos!

[PreservationPioneer]

I also love old cemeteries and graveyards. I like them because they don't change. Some stones are very old, and it's interesting to think about the people who lived back then. I also find it amazing to think about the fact that we have completely forgotten most of these people. The people who remembered them are long gone. It reminds you that life is short and nothing we do is likely to be remembered one hundred years from now, so just enjoy life!

Some of my favorite cemeteries are the ones on Troy Hill and Spring Hill. There are great views from up there, and they feel so isolated.

The little graveyard downtown always fascinates me as well. And of course Allegheny Cemetery, where Lillian Russell is buried!

This is the view from St. Mary's Cemetery in McKees Rocks:



This is the picture of a grave in the Troy Hill cemetery. So wrong, I know.



Lillian Russell's grave in Allegheny Cemetery ("The World is Better for Her Having Lived"):

[Goinback2011]

Allegheny Cemetery is spectacular, as are its buildings and history. It was begun as a cemetery when the location was still far away from the population center - the 1840's. This was considered the outskirts of Pittsburgh.

The buildings are pre civil war, as I recall, and the interior features are spectacular. The records kept are meticulous, even for those buried there without a marker.

Then there are the grounds themselves. Wow.

[Hopes]

LOVE cemeteries! The older, the better!

Allegheny is one of the best.

[Goinback2011]

I think this is the oldest of the gatehouses in Allegheny cemetery:

[stburr91]

I love Homewood Cemetery. It was founded in 1878, and is the final resting place of many of Pittsburgh's wealthiest residents.

I've gone there to take pictures many times, here are a few.

[PreservationPioneer]

Those are stunning, Stburr!

[hinsey86]

Wow what fantastic pictures......more!

[BrianTH]

Truly great pictures.

[Hopes]

stburr! That picture of father and child statue in the rain is fantastic. It looks like the statue is crying real tears!