Millionaires Row
The eternal addresses of some of the San Francisco Bay Area’s most prominent citizens may be found at Mountain View Cemetery’s Millionaires Row. The two lanes that make up Millionaires Row offer spectacular vistas and architectural wonders. The eclecticism of late nineteenth and early twentieth century architecture is quite evident here. Among the grand mausolea one can find examples of Romanesque Revival, Egyptian Revival, Classical Revival, Gothic Revival, Tholos forms and “uniquely funerary” styles.
Read More»Palmer Monument
Architects McKim, Mead, and White, designed this temple to shade the twin sarcophagi of Potter Palmer (1826-1902), and his wife Bertha. Sixteen massive ionic columns ring the structure and a line of antifixes stand at attention along the roofline. Both sarcophagi are embellished with flowery garlands and down-turned torches, symbolizing life extinguished.
If all of this seems a bit excessive, remember, it was part of the job for wealthy late nineteenth century Americans to display their wealth in a big way. Potter Palmer’s fortune began with a store he opened on Lake Street in central Chicago. He instituted the practice of the “money back guarantee”. He even allowed people to take an item home on approval, try it out, and bring it back if they weren’t happy.
Eventually, he sold his store to Marshall Field and ventured into real estate. He bought Chicago’s State Street, widened it and lined it with new buildings. The gem of his State Street collection of buildings was the Palmer House, a luxurious hotel, which he presented to his young bride, Bertha Honore, as a wedding present.
Much of State Street, including the Palmer House, was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Undaunted, Palmer borrowed money and rebuilt the street complete with a new and even more impressive Palmer House Hotel. He built a castle for Bertha on Lake Shore Avenue, where she held court as Queen of Chicago society and collected French Impressionist paintings, which she later donated to the Chicago Art Institute.
Text and photo © Douglas Keister Visit Doug’s Author Page
[address cemetery=”Graceland Cemetery” street=”4001 North Clark Street” city=”Chicago” state=”Illinois” zip=”60613″]
Letchworth Mausoleum
The July 12th, 1872 issue of the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser & Journal noted, “Josiah Letchworth has erected what will be, when finished, the most elegant mausoleum in the country. The outside walls are of Medina and Connecticut brown sandstone. The inside walls and ceiling are of the most beautiful varieties of Italian and Egyptian marble finished in elegant and appropriate style.”
Apparently, Josiah was overcome with grief when, Mary (1839-1868), his bride of only three years, passed away while touring Switzerland. He spent close to $100,000 on this Classical Revival mausoleum. The centerpiece of the interior is a statue of his bride.
On the interior back wall of the mausoleum is an inscription which is as much a tribute to the run-on sentence as it is to Mary: “In memory of whom this monument and mausoleum have been erected by her husband whose unbounding love could not bind to earth the immortal spirit of her who was its most cherished object whose presence made earth a paradise, whose virtues, accomplishments and nobility of heart while they won the homage they deserved were excelled by a living Christian faith which even in her death taught the heart to say, ‘even so father, for so it seemed good in thy sight’”. Whew! Josiah sure must have loved his Mary.
Text and photo © Douglas Keister Visit Doug’s Author Page
[address cemetery=”Forest Lawn Cemetery” street=”1411 Delaware Avenue” city=”Buffalo” state=”New York” zip=”14209″]
Niblo Mausoleum
Lions are, as everyone knows, ferocious beasts. The one guarding the Gothic Revival Niblo mausoleum seems to be toothless and rather forlorn. The Niblo mausoleum, comfortably nestled into the hillside and overlooking a small pond along Dale Avenue, is the picture of serenity and peace, but its history is anything but serene.
William “Billy” Niblo (1789-1878) took full advantage of his cemetery plot and liberally interpreted the idea that cemeteries were for the living. He hosted elaborate parties on the grounds in front of his mausoleum. These parties were an extension of his famous restaurant and theater complex on lower Broadway known as “Niblo’s Garden”. The Garden became well known as the site for plays he staged, featuring risque extravaganzas with bare legged dancers. One of his productions included three hundred babies marching and crawling across a stage. Perhaps the lion is a refugee from one of Niblo’s productions and that is why he looks so tired.
Text and photo © Douglas Keister Visit Doug’s Author Page
[address cemetery=”Green-Wood Cemetery” street=”Willow Avenue” city=”Brooklyn” state=”New York” zip=”11218″]
Tse Mausoleum
Next to the Tse mausoleum in Linden (a suburb of Newark), New Jersey, stands the monument to young Raymond Tse. Raymond, a 16 year old Chinese-American boy, longed for a Mercedes when he grew up. Unfortunately, he died unexpectedly of pneumonia in 1983, while in Hong Kong as a foreign exchange student.
Read More»Feltman Mausoleum
The archangel Michael, sword at the ready, tops the domed cupola of Charles Feltman’s temple mausoleum. Corinthian columns, cherubs, statuary, urns, you name it, the Feltman mausoleum could easily serve as a primer for any student of classical architecture. Most municipalities would be happy to have a building as ornate as this to decorate their town square, but this building serves to celebrate just one man.
Feltman, a pie maker/baker, had a push cart on New York’s Coney Island. The pies he was selling weren’t doing so well and he just couldn’t seem to compete with the inns on Coney Island that were selling hot dishes. Feltman pondered long and hard and thought back to his youth. He remembered a long, slightly curved sausage, known as a dachshund sausage, that the butcher’s guild in Frankfurt, Germany, had popularized. A light bulb went off in his head and he abandoned the pie business and concentrated on selling frankfurter sandwiches. His cart was quite small and he only had room for his little frankfurter sandwich and two condiments, mustard and sauerkraut. His simple idea was an instant success and shortly thereafter he opened Feltman’s German Beer Garden, complete with carousel where he continued to sell his money making sausages.
Feltman wasn’t the only person immortalized in American folklore because of these slender little sausages. In 1913, Feltman hired Nathan Handwerker to help him, for the princely sum of $11.00/week. A few years down the road, two frankfurter aficionados, Jimmy Durante and Eddie Condon, irritated that Feltman had raised his price to 10 cents, convinced Nathan to open his own operation and sell them for 5 cents. Nathan promoted his frankfurters (made to his wife Ida’s recipe) by offering them free to any of the doctors at the nearby Coney Island Hospital on the condition that the docs ate them while standing next to his stand in their hospital whites and wearing their stethoscopes. Another triumph for capitalism and for Nathan whose frankfurters and other meat products continue to thrive to this day.
And then there is the story of Harry Stevens, who was a concessionaire at New York baseball games. Supposedly his vendors would call out, “Get your red-hot dachshund sausages!” and…..well, you figure out the rest.
Text and photo © Douglas Keister Visit Doug’s Author Page
[address cemetery=”Green-Wood Cemetery” street=”Willow Avenue” city=”Brooklyn” state=”New York” zip=”11218″]
E.J. “Lucky” Baldwin Mausoleum
This mausoleum is probably exactly what most people imagine a family tomb looks like. Its Classical style is admirable for its restrained elegance and enduring beauty. Twin polished, black marble columns in the Tuscan, frame the entry. A ray of sunlight illuminates a figurative stained glass window, and crowning the pediment an eternal flame, frozen forever in black marble.
Like many of his generation, Elias J. Baldwin (1828-1909), made his fortune as a Gold Rush entrepreneur. He earned his nickname “Lucky” by speculating in the Comstock Lode silver mines in Nevada. He made his fortune selling out at peak value. Baldwin proceeded to enhance his fortune with successful business endeavors in the hotel and real estate businesses. He built and owned major hotels in San Francisco and Lake Tahoe. His most enduring legacy was his interest in the Santa Anita Rancho in Southern California which eventually became the world famous Santa Anita Raceway.
Text and photo © Douglas Keister Visit Doug’s Author Page
[address cemetery=”Cypress Lawn Memorial Park” street=”1370 El Camino Real” city=”Colma” state=”California” zip=”94014″]
Robinson Mausoleum
John Robinson built this mausoleum in 1874 for $35,000. Although the basic form of the mausoleum is a Gothic Revival cruciform, the heavily rusticated blue limestone walls reflect a Romanesque influence. To contrast with the rough surface of the blue limestone, the architect chose marble for the smooth surfaces of the mausoleum. Statues of Faith, Hope, and Charity frame the entry while the Archangel Gabriel, surmounting the dome, has his horn at the ready, to signal the heavens of the impending arrival of another Robinson.
The Robinson family owned Robinson’s Circus from 1824 to 1916 when they sold it to the American Circus. It was subsequently merged with Ringling Brothers.
Text and photo © Douglas Keister Visit Doug’s Author Page
[address cemetery=”Spring Grove Cemetery” street=”Spring Grove Ave” city=”Cincinnati” state=”Ohio” zip=”45232″]
Bodmann Mausoleum
H.Q. French of New York designed this perfect little Gothic Revival mausoleum in the shape of a small chapel. There is an interesting play of smooth and rusticated stone, Gothic arches frame stained glass windows, a splash of rose colored granite is used on the columns to contrast with the gray stone. Quatrefoils on the upper windows and the door add balance. Adding to the fairy tale appeal of the Bodmann mausoleum is its beautiful setting in relationship to the environment.
Much of the beauty of Spring Grove Cemetery can be attributed to landscape architect Adolph Strauch. Strauch was born in 1822 in the Prussian province of Silesia. He studied botany and in 1838 took a job in the Imperial Gardens in Vienna. It was there that he developed his taste for well groomed lawns carefully framed by masses of trees and sculpted ponds. In 1848 he worked in London’s Royal Botanical Gardens and also guided foreign visitors through the Crystal Palace Exhibition. During one of those tours a man from Cincinnati, Robert Bonner Bowler, gave him his calling card and instructed Strauch to look him up if he was ever in Cincinnati. As luck would have it, in 1852, while Strauch was touring America he missed a train from Texas to Niagara Falls and found himself in Cincinnati. He looked up Bowler, who proceeded to introduce Strauch to a number of Bowler’s wealthy friends. In short order, Strauch was designing gardens and landscapes all over Cincinnati. It was only a matter of time, 1854 to be exact, before Strauch was offered the superintendent’s job at Spring Grove, a post he held until his death in 1883.
Text and photo © Douglas Keister Visit Doug’s Author Page
[address cemetery=”Spring Grove Cemetery” street=”Spring Grove Ave” city=”Cincinnati” state=”Ohio” zip=”45232″]
Wharton Mausoleum
The Wharton mausoleum, built c. 1860 seems to be comfortably burrowed into the hillside. The mausoleum’s rich patina has been aided, no doubt, by decades of exposure to the smokestacks of Pittsburgh’s many industries. A blooming “snowball” bush softens and completes the scene. The Wharton mausoleum’s form is Classical Revival with some early Victorian embellishments. One can easily imagine the mausoleum’s double doors gracing the parlor of a fashionable Pittsburgh address.
The lot owner and one of the occupants of the mausoleum was Oliverette Wharton, a relative of the Wharton brothers, who owned the Ormsby Ironworks in Pittsburgh.
Text and photo © Douglas Keister Visit Doug’s Author Page
[address cemetery=”Allegheny Cemetery” street=”4715 Penn Avenue” city=”Pittsburgh” state=”Pennsylvania” zip=”15224″]
