St. Mary's Cemetery

On an unseasonably warm fall afternoon, I took a walk through St. Mary Cemetery in the Bloomfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh. It is one of the Catholic cemeteries in Pittsburgh, having been purchased in 1848 after St. Patrick's and St. Paul's Churches' burial grounds filled up. Those bodies were eventually moved to these 44 acres of lawn and gentle hills right next door to the new Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, which opened in 2008. (The red brick behind this brilliant yellow linden tree is the back wall of the faculty building across the street from the main hospital building.)

The Burke family--father Michael (1847-1910), mother Bridget (184701927), son John (1873-1902), and daughters Mary (1878-1881) and Mary (1887-1888)--are interred on a hillside that appears to be eroding. You can see the garage where I used to park as a resident in the background.

There are grand mausoleums like this one, to the Vilsack family, as well as headstones that have fallen over and sunk into the ground (below left). There were not many Eastern European names that I could find; they were mostly Irish, with some Italian ones noticeable. Some of the Irish markers note the county in Ireland in which the deceased had been born before they emigrated to the United States.

I saw two of these textured crosses (middle), in different parts of the cemetery. More recent gravestones sometimes have portraits, and St. Jude here appears to have a cowlick. Or maybe a tongue of fire.

There's a whole section on a hill for priests, pictured above, with big beautiful headstones. This big one is for the Reverend Charles S. Maguire, born in Ireland in 1768 and immigrated to Pittsburgh to serve as pastor of Old St. Patrick's Church in April 1820. He then founded St. Paul's Church (now Cathedral) in 1829 and served until his death in 1833. In a different, flat section of the cemetery are the graves of the Little Sisters of the Poor. The crosses have mostly (been) broken off the older headstones. The newer deaths are marked on a large granite stone.

I don't have pictures, but I did notice some interesting punctuation: Mary. Elizabeth. The periods marked the sudden ends of their short lives (I believe they were children when they died). Then there was "Our darling May / May Singer died Mar. 31, 1891 in her 12, year." Her parents outlived her by 30 years.

The headstone below had a lot of history on it: In addition to the IHS Christian cross on the top and "U.S.N." in relief, it reads: "Frances P. DeLowry / born Apr. 1, 1893 / enlisted in U.S. Navy Oct. 19, 1910 / killed in battle / at Vera Cruz, Mexico / Apr 22, 1914." Below that must be a brother who not only served but survived two tours of duty: "Richard J. DeLowry / Oct. 26, 1896 / Aug. 10, 1973 / W.W.I Navy--W.W.II Army."

This is clearly still an active cemetery, as you can see by the big new stones above. Sometimes the style or condition of the marker is newer than I would expect from the dates, or there are flowers or other mementoes for someone it is unlikely to still be remembered, such as the marker on the left: "Wife and children / Ellie G. / wife of Michael Sisk. / died March 14, 1881; / aged 23 yrs. & 4 mos. / eternal rest grant her Lord." The Gothic tower on the right is damaged but still interesting.

It was a pleasant walk that didn't afford much aerobic exercise, as I kept getting distracted to investigate the grave markers rather than keep moving to get my heartrate up. Another day I will come back to explore Allegheny Cemetery next door.