Source:Old-landmark
"Old landmark on Northside tumbling down: St. Mary's cemetery chapel unable any longer to withstand ravages of time: Frequently desecrated: Abandoned 21 years, it has been used for boxing and chicken fights." Pittsburgh Post, Nov. 17, 1912, fourth section, p. 6. Newspapers.com 86387889.
One of the old landmarks of the Northside which has withstood the ravages of time for more than half century [sic] is crumbling. The old St. Mary's German Catholic cemetery chapel, surmounting the highest crest on Nunnery hill, which for more than two score and ten years has been a landmark for all of Greater Pittsburgh, being visible on clear days from the East End and Mt. Washington, will soon disappear.
For 21 years the chapel has been abandoned and since then it has been desecrated on more than one occasion by the promoters of boxing matches and chicken fights, who stole into the abandoned chapel and used it for purposes different from those for which it had been solemnly dedicated.
Even today, with doors and windows gone, half of one wall fallen down and only a remnant of the floor intact, its secluded location in the midst of the abandoned graveyard, far from the nearest habitation, makes it attractive, it is said, to youths desiring a place for a Sunday afternoon poker or crap game. All about it, in the seven acres that comprise the old St. Mary's cemetery, are toppling gravestones and sections of monuments and fences among the yawning holes from which bodies have been removed to other resting places.
The old desire to be buried as near heaven as possible was amply satisfied at St. Mary's cemetery. The crest of Nunnery hill is one of the first places the sun reaches and last places it leaves in Allegheny county.
The chapel was built on the supreme crest of the hill. It was much larger than chapels usually are, more nearly resembling a church of a small town. The seating capacity was about 300. It was built of brick, with highly pitched roof and high arched windows. Beneath the chapel was a vaulted burial place for [ . . . ].
[About 15 years?] ago the community was [shaken?] by the report that a thief had broken into this crypt and stolen the [ . . . ] from the caskets within. The miscreant was eventually run down and served a term of imprisonment.
Father Anselm, of St. Mary's Church, Northside, has carefully compiled a brief historical sketch of St. Mary's chapel for The Post. He says:
"The first Catholic cemetery of Pittsburgh was old St. Mary's in Penn avenue. After the Redemptorist Fathers had taken charge of the German Catholics and had built St. Philomena's Church they also bought a piece of ground on Troy Hill for a burial place.
"At the time St. Mary's Church on the Northside was built Father Striebel, its zealous pastor, also bought four acres on Nunnery Hill. This new cemetery was blessed on the 10th of September, 1854, and on the same day the first burial took place—namely, that of Mrs. Elizabeth Steiner.
"In the course of time three more acres were added and the second successor of Rev. John Striebel, Rev. Father Schell, built a cemetery chapel with a vaulted burial place underneath for the deceased pastors. His successor, Rev. P. Celestin, O. S. B., had this chapel solemnly blessed by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Domenec on Sunday, November 6, 1870.
"From this time for over 20 years divine service was occasionally held in the chapel, especially every year on All Souls' day, November 1.
"The beautiful high location of the cemetery and its chapel could be seen from far-off East End and Mount Oliver, and it was therefore naturally the pride of the whole congregation.
"With sorrow, therefore, did the congregation receive the news, when in the year 1890 the city council of Allegheny condemned the place for a burial ground. The congregation was compelled to look for a new cemetery.
"The pastor at that time, Rev. P. Leander, O. S. B., now archabbot of St. Vincent's, bought 17 acres in Ross township on December 18, 1890, and blessed the new cemetery June 21, 1891. Since that time the old cemetery and chapel on Nunnery Hill has fallen a natural prey to time."
The All Souls' day service to which Father Anselm refers used to be a noted occasion for parishioners of St. Mary's. Practically the entire congregation would make a pilgrimage to the cemetery. Solemn high mass would be held in the chapel and the voices of singing would ring out over the bleak November headstones in the cemetery.
At one time an effort was made by Catholics residing on Nunnery and adjoining hills to have the chapel converted into a church, where masses would be celebrated regularly. The proposition was not received favorably in the parish, however, and the edifice remained always a cemetery chapel, used mainly for burial ceremonies.