About Interment and Funeral Services

Interment, Burial and Funeral Service Information and Assistance for Families in Pittsburgh

When planning to arrange a burial knowing about interment and funeral services is likely to save you time and ease the emotional process. Cemeteries and funeral homes in Pittsburgh serve families by helping them plan for and arrange funerals, burials, interments, and inurnments. Families in Allegheny County and Southwestern Pennsylvania frequently contact Rome Monument for advice and assistance regarding interment and funeral services for both traditional ground burials and cremation commitals performed in crematorium chapels.  We help married couples, grandparents, parents and children alike during the process of preplanning for funerals and burials, at-need planning for burials, burial rites, cemetery graveside prayer rituals, final committal services, interments, and inurnments. Understanding basic burial issues is important to ensuring satisfactory arrangements are in place. We have answers and are happy to guide you on how to purchase cemetery burial plots in your area. Call us at 724-770-0100 or click here to ask us about your burial or funeral options.

A few definitions are helpful:

• Burial — Placing of remains in an underground chamber, usually in a cemetery; also called ground burial interment.
• Inter — To bury human remains in the earth in a grave or tomb.
• Interment — Burial or final placement of remains.
• Inurnment — Placement of cremated human remains in an urn and a placement of the urn in a niche, crypt, grave or other suitable location in a cemetery.

Since 1934, Rome Monument has been a reliable source for people who have questions about cemetery burial options and funeral procedures. We help familys in their time of need and help them at their time of their loss. Call us at 724-770-0100 or click here to ask us about your burial or funeral options.  Click here for a list of select funeral homes in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, Beaver County, Butler County, Fayette County, Greene County, Lawrence County, Washington County and Westmoreland County Pennsylvania with website addresses, phone numbers and street addresses.

Services provided by funeral homes don’t usually include burying, interring, or inurning. These are separate services the cemetery itself provides and charges for. Cemetery costs are usually in addition to funeral home costs, and can be significant.

In addition to the plot price paid to the cemetery for the “right of interment,” or lawn crypt, mausoleum or niche, cemeteries charge a separate fee for grave opening and closing services (interment or inurnment when an urn is buried), which include digging and filling the grave, use of a casket-lowering device, and may include associated permitting and recordkeeping costs, tenting services, and other items or services. Similar opening and closing fees apply to interment in a mausoleum or inurnment in a columbarium or a wall niche.

Interment, Mausoleum Entombment and Cremation Inurment Fees, Costs and Prices in Pittsburgh

• Interment (opening and closing) fees in the case of ground burial can range from $1,000 to $1,800. This covers opening and closing the grave, setup, leveling, the lowering device, preparation and reseeding the space, repairing surrounding damage, and restoration of the site’s original condition.
• Entombment prices for mausoleum burial fees can range from $600 to $800. This covers use of a casket lift, opening and sealing the chamber, and installing lettering or nameplate.
• Inurnment prices for cremation burial in a niche or grave can range from $600 to $1,000 and covers placement of the urn and installation of lettering or nameplate.

Recommendations for Burial Planning:

When planning for your own final resting place or to bury your family members, please consider the following recommendations.

• Drive around Pittsburgh or your neighborhood to find a cemetery that suits your desires and requirements.
   
• Determine which cemeteries in Pittsburgh are associated with your religious affiliation.
   
• If you want to plan a burial in a Catholic cemetery in Pittsburgh, visit the Catholic Cemeteries Association of the Diocese of Pittsburgh web site for a list of cemeteries. The The Catholic Cemeteries Association of the Diocese of Pittsburgh offer families who elect to pre-plan for their burial plots and cemetery needs numerous financing and payment choices. They have plans that have an interest-free feature and some which have no interest at all. The Catholic Cemeteries Association offers a free planning guide that contains helpful information about Catholic burial and funeral traditions, social security benefits, veterans' benefits, living wills, powers of attorney, wills and other issues that can cause complications at the time of death. This booklet with information about Catholic burial and funeral options, is available free of charge. Click here to request this burial planning guide.
   
• If you would like to plan a burial in a cemetery with excellent aesthetics, consider purchasing a burial plot or cremation space at one of the largest and oldest burial grounds in Pittsburgh, Allegheny Cemetery. The Calvary Catholic Cemetery, a 20 acre cemetery in the Hazelwood area of Pittsburgh is also a good choice.  It includes two beautiful chapel mausoleums. The historic and extremely scenic Monongahela Cemetery, established in 1863 in Monongahela City, Pennsylvania occupies 160 acres. Families who choose this cemetery for a burial drive on tree-lined paved roads which trace green rolling hills up to a hilltop chapel designed by architect F. P. Keller in 1894 and built in 1895. Many families who decide to purchase a plot in the Monongahela Cemetery consider it a peaceful resting place with a tranquil serenity. Because of cemetery's beautiful landscape design and pristine grounds, the cemetery was named to the National Register of Historic Places in June of 2002. The Monongahela Cemetery marked it's 150th anniversary in 2013.
   
• Get a good understandng of rules and regulations governing cemeteries in Pittsburgh by calling 724-770-0100.
   
• Call 724-770-0100 to ask for a list of all the cemeteries in your area. We can even provide you with the names of someone to speak with at each cemetery.
   
• Try to decide if you want to purchase a single, double, quadruple or family plot.
   
• Contact cemeteries that you are interested in and ask for maps of their grounds.
   
• Ask that the cemetery provide you with a list of all costs associated with purchasing a burial plot in writing.
   
• Before purchasing the plot or plots, call 724-770-0100 to get our advice on the purchase.
   
• View Monuments and Headstones In Pittsburgh Cemeteries Designed, Built and Installed by Rome Monument in the Photo Gallery >
   
• Cemeteries and Memorial Parks in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County and Southwestern PA Popular With Families for Interments and Burials >

Catholic Interment and Burial Information in Pittsburgh

We are also very familiar with the policies and practices of the The Catholic Cemeteries Association of the Diocese of Pittsburgh and can answer most questions about this organization and their procedures for interments, ground burials, mausoleum entombment services, cremations, funerals and green burials.  The Catholic Cemeteries Association of the Diocese of Pittsburgh provides a booklet with useful information about Catholic burial and funeral traditions, social security benefits, veterans' benefits, living wills, powers of attorney, wills and other issues that can be problematic when somebody passes away. Click here to request the planning guide.

How to Purchase a Burial Plot for a Grave for a Pet in Pittsburgh:

• While most families in Pittsburgh bury their companion animals such as dogs and cats on their own property, usually in their backyard, more and more cemeteries in Pittsburgh are offering burial options for both humans and pets.
• One example is the Jefferson Memorial Cemetery which offers pet owners the opportunity to purchase a single burial plot for their pet or they can purchase property within the Garden of Faithful Friends so that they can be buried near their pet. Prices for burying a pet in its own plot start at $350 and go up to over $1,000.00 depending on the animal’s size.
• Both pets and humans must be buried in caskets or alternative containers.
• Hillcrest Memorial Park in Hermitage, Pa., which is about 70 miles north of Pittsburgh has a section in the cemetery that permits the burial of pets and humans together.
• Peaceful Pastures Pet Cemetery, which is owned and operated by Beinhauer Family Funeral Homes, is located next to the Beinhauer’s human cemetery, Woodruff Memorial Park which is located about 12 miles southwest of Pittsburgh.
• Rome Monument sells pet memorials which are appropriate for pet cemeteries in Pittsburgh.

Flowers

Additionally, we know of some great florists in the Pittsburgh area and are always happy to recommend a local shop that sells beautiful arrangements and cut flowers.

Angie's List

Another way for families in Pittsburgh in get information about funeral homes in Pittsburgh is a website called Angie's List. Contact information for funeral homes in the Pittsburgh area are listed along with reviews.

Guide to Finding a Good Funeral Home

For more basic information about finding a good funeral home, visit www.everplans.com.

Better Business Bureau

The BBB lists accredited funeral homes in the Pittsburgh area.

Contact Rome Monument

Rome Monument welcomes the opportunity to help you understand how to purchase cemetery interment services in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. Given the many issues involved in selecting and purchasing a cemetery plot and arranging a funeral, it’s a very good idea to understand interment issues, options, and costs in advance. And if you need help, just call us at 724-770-0100 and one of our cemetery specialists will help you get the answers you need to plan and manage your funeral, burial, and interment prudently and effectively.  Click here to ask us about your burial or funeral options.

Scheduling A Burial at the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies:

• To schedule a burial at the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies, located southwest of Pittsburgh in Bridgeville, PA , please contact the National Cemetery Scheduling Office by following the instructions listed here http://www.cem.va.gov/cem/burial_benefits/need.asp or fax all discharge documentation to the National Cemetery Scheduling Office at 1-866-900-6417 and follow-up with a phone call to 1-800-535-1117. 
• The 292 acre National Cemetery of the Alleghenies situated approximately 20 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, was dedicated in 2005 by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs' National Cemetery Administration. This cemetery has space available to accommodate casketed and cremated remains. It is one of the newest cemeteries in the National Cemetery system.

Burials at Allegheny Cemetery:

• The Allegheny Cemetery located in the Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pittsburgh, offers the people of western Pittsburgh a wide choice of burial and memorialization options.
• For assistance with a burial call 412-682-1624.

Burials at The Homewood Cemetery:

• At the 204 acre non-denominational, non-sectarian Homewood Cemetery, located near the center of Allegheny County, accomodates every form of legal burial including: traditional burial in a single in-ground lot or a double depth lawn crypt. Inurnment, with placement of cremated remains in an urn garden or family lot is also accommodated.
• For assistance with a burial at the Homewood Cemetery, please call 412-421-1822.
• Their staff will help you choose from the wide range of burial options, and price ranges offered.

Cemetery Arrangements and Purchasing Burial Space at Jefferson Memorial Cemetery:

• To make cemetery arrangements and to purchase burial space at the Jefferson Memorial Cemetery and Funeral Home in Pittsburgh, visit http://www.jeffersonmemorial.biz/burial.php or call 412-655-4500.
• Incorporated in 1929, the Jefferson Memorial Cemetery and Funeral Home is still owned and operated as a family enterprise.

How To Choose a Burial Plan at Plum Creek Cemetery:

• Plum Creek Cemetery provides many customized burial options including graveside and chapel services, and various plot and foundation sizes.
• Visit http://www.plumcreekcemetery.com/burial.htm for  burial interment prices, cremation interment prices and lot/plot burial site prices.
• To make burial arrangements call 412-793-7666. 
• At the Plum Creek Cemetery, as of October, 2015, the price for a plot was $1,000 each, depending upon the number of plots, and in all sections within the cemetery.
• For rules and regulations at the cemetery, click here.

Cemetery Arrangements at Union Dale Cemetery:

• The Union Dale Cemetery in Pittsburgh is a 96 acre hilltop family cemetery incorporated in 1846.
• The nonprofit cemetery offers attractive lots for traditional burial as well as cremated remains.
• This charming burial ground consistently ranks among the best cemeteries in terms of maintenance and appearance in the Pittsburgh area.
• To start the process of making cemetery arrangements at Union Dale visit http://www.uniondalecemetery.org/services.php.
• To get specific information about cemetery arrangements call (412) 321-0774.

How to Arrange a Burial at Penn Forest Natural Burial Park:

• The 32 acre Penn Forest Natural Burial Park, which opened in 2011, is located 13 miles northeast of downtown Pittsburgh in Penn Hills.
• It was Pennsylvania's first “green burial only” cemetery.
• Penn Forest offers plots for full body and cremated remains burial along with cremated remains scattering sites. 
• To make burial arrangements at the Penn Forest Natural Burial Park, visit http://www.pennforestcemetery.com/arrange-an-immediate-green-burial/ or call 412-977-2207 and ask to speak to Pete McQuillin. Pete can schedule a time for your family can visit the cemetery to select a plot/lot and make arrangements for a burial and graveside service.
• Green burials are becoming increasingly popular with Pittsburghers. This type of burial is a process that involves burial without formaldehyde-based embalming, metal caskets, or concrete burial vaults.
• Click here to watch a YouTube video overview of the Penn Forest Natural Burial Park and learn more about green burial.
• For information on burial lot (Interment Rights) pricing, body burial fees, cremated remains burial fees and cremated remains scattering fees, visit http://www.pennforestcemetery.com/pricing.

Cemetery Arrangements and Burial Plots at The McKeesport and Versailles Cemetery:

• The McKeesport and Versailles Cemetery in McKeesport, Pennsylvania is a non-profit perpetual care cemetery owned by the lot owners.
• Burial plots, mausoleum crypts and niches are available for sale.
• For prices and more information visit www.mckeesportcemetery.com or call 412-672-1176.