Moorhead Mausoleum
Gothic
The Moorhead mausoleum’s architecture is uniquely funerary. It is unlikely that this type of architectural mish-mash would be found anywhere but a cemetery. The mausoleum, designed by Pittsburgh architect, Louis Morgenroth, in 1862, was the grandest tomb in Allegheny Cemetery for a number of decades. It was originally surrounded by a heavy stone wall, which has long since deteriorated.
>For this architectural folly, Morgenroth started with basic Gothic Revival forms (seen in the building’s arches and the quatrefoil above the entry), but he also used a number of Classical Revival elements (the columns and capitals). Capping his creation, in the words of one architecture critic, is “a dome from outer space”.
The brown sandstone structure was built for Kennedy Moorhead, one of the founders of Allegheny Cemetery. Moorhead was a Pennsylvania Canal operator, engineer, and president of the Monongahela Navigation Company, which canalized the Monongahela River. The Moorhead mausoleum’s crypts are underground and the surrounding family plot is peppered with the graves of generations of Moorheads.
Photos and text © Douglas Keister Visit Doug’s Author Page
[address cemetery=”Allegheny Cemetery” street=”4715 Penn Avenue” city=”Pittsburgh” state=”Pennsylvania” zip=”15224″]
