Murphy Mausoleum
The design of the Murphy mausoleum, built of sandstone in 1921, has been attributed to Bernard J. S. Cahill (1866-1944), who designed a number of structures at Cypress Lawn. Cahill chose French Gothic, a style of architecture that emerged in 12th and 13th century French Cathedrals. The term “Gothic” was originally intended as an insult by Italian Renaissance artists. Use of the term implied that Medieval cathedrals, when compared to Renaissance buildings, were so crude that so crude that only a Goth could have produced them. The Goths were Germanic barbarians who had sacked Rome in 410 A.D.. The Goths are closely related another barbaric tribe, the “Vandals”.
Charles Conick designed the stained glass windows of this French Gothic mausoleum. Great height is achieved in the beautifully crafted sandstone interior by the use of rib vaults supported on engaged columns.
The Murphy mausoleum is reminiscent of the Chapel of St. Hubert in the city of Amboise, in the Loire Valley in France. The Chapel of St. Hubert was also used as a model for the Belmont mausoleum at Woodlawn cemetery in the Bronx.
Photos and text © Douglas Keister Visit Doug’s Author Page
[address cemetery=”Cypress Lawn Memorial Park” street=”1370 El Camino Real” city=”Colma” state=”California” zip=”94014″]
Belmont Mausoleum
Oliver Belmont
November 12, 1858 – June 10, 1908
Alva Vanderbilt Belmont
January 17, 1853 – January 26, 1933
40 53’12.75"N 73 52’36.34"W
The Belmont mausoleum is an almost exact full-scale replica of a famous building, the Chapel of Saint-Hubert in the Queens section of Chateau Amboise in France’s famed Loire Valley. The Chapel was designed by Leonardo DaVinci in the “Gothic Flamboyant” style in the early 1500’s. DaVinci spent the last three years of his life in the village of Amboise as a guest of Francois I. Upon his death in 1519, DaVinci’s remains were placed in a sarcophagus in the chapel he designed. The Belmont version was designed by the architecture firm of Hunt & Hunt (1908) and fabricated in limestone by Barr Thaw & Frazer.
Architect R.H. Hunt, in designing the relief panels above the entry of the Belmont mausoleum made very few changes from the originals on the Chapel of St. Hubert in Amboise, France. The central figure in the lintel is a stag with what looks like a crucifix growing from its head. The crucifix is actually supposed to be wedged in its antlers and represents the stag that caused St. Hubert to convert to Christianity. Also occupying the panel are St. Hubert, patron saint of the hunt, St. Christopher, St. Anthony, dogs, angels, cherubs, and various woodland creatures. The tympanum’s central figure is the Madonna and Child flanked by the kneeling figures of Charles VIII of France and his Queen, Anne of Brittany.
Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont who rests beneath the protruding gargoyles of his mausoleum was hardly a religious man. O.H.P. Belmont’s great love was horses. He was the founder of the Belmont Raceway. He was also a financier and a U.S. representative in Congress from New York. After O.H.P. died, following an attack of appendicitis, his wife Alva Vanderbilt Belmont (she was previously married to William Vanderbilt), used large sums of her fortune to support the growing suffragette movement. Alva lived a long life, and, after her death in Paris in 1933, her remains were interred in the Belmont mausoleum. Interred along with Alva is the suffragette banner she carried, inscribed with the words, “failure is impossible”. The banner hangs inside the mausoleum. As early as 1917, Alva Belmont opened the mausoleum to the public and today it is frequently opened for tours given by the Friends of Woodlawn Cemetery.
R.H. Hunt and his father Richard Morris Hunt were partners in an architectural firm that specialized in designing residences for the rich and famous. Richard Morris Hunt designed residences for Alva when she was a Vanderbilt and R.H. Hunt designed this mausoleum for her when she was a Belmont. She may have switched husbands but she knew a good architectural firm when she found one.
Text and photos © Douglas Keister Visit Doug’s Author Page
[address cemetery=”The Woodlawn Cemetery” street=”East 233rd Street” city=”Bronx” state=”New York” zip=”10470″]
Egan Tomb
It appears the Egan family tomb has fallen into disrepair and is gently crumbling into the Earth, but in fact the tomb is in quite good repair and should stand for many years to come. The Egan tomb, built in the late 1800’s of Tennessee marble, is one of the most unique and creative replica tombs in the world. Often referred to as “the ruined castle” its design is taken from a little chapel on the family’s estate in Ireland that had been burned, vandalized and lay in ruins.
The design has been attributed to Pierre Casse, who skillfully carved the marble to make it appear chipped, cracked and broken. To complete the illusion, the slab containing the names of the fallen Egan’s (on the floor of the tomb, covering the underground crypts) also appears to be cracked. Perhaps the tomb is a representation of life cut short: it contains the remains of two young Egan men who died in the Civil War, 24 year old Henry Egan who was killed at Amelia Springs, Virginia, on April 6, 1865, and 24 year old, Yelverton Egan, who was killed at the Battle of Sharpsburg (Antietam) on September 17, 1863. The inscription above the Gothic arch, “Sic itur ad astra ”(Thus is accomplished the journey to the stars), is from Vergil, Book ix, line 641 written in 19 B.C.
Photos and text © Douglas Keister Visit Doug’s Author Page
[address cemetery=”Metairie Cemetery” street=”5101 Pontchartrain Boulevard” city=”New Orleans” state=”Louisiana” zip=”70124″]
Dexter Chapel Mausoleum
It took four years (from 1865 to 1869) for Cincinnati architect James Keyes Wilson to design this Gothic Revival combination chapel and mausoleum for the Dexter brothers—the chapel is above and the crypts are below. Although the Dexter brothers wanted a structure that was reminiscent of Sainte Chapelle in Paris, Wilson may also have been inspired by Chinchester Cathedral in England. With its flamboyant design and massive flying buttresses, it is considered one of the most beautiful buildings in the Cincinnati Area.
When it was finished in 1869, the Dexter mausoleum had the only flying buttresses in the Cincinnati area. These architectural wonders are fashioned to give buildings extra strength by transmitting the thrust of a vault or a roof from the upper part of a wall to an outer support, known as a buttress. When the buttresses are open, as seen in the Dexter mausoleum, rather than solid, they are known as flying buttresses.
The $100,000 cost of the mausoleum was quite extravagant for its time, but it has long been a centerpiece for Spring Grove Cemetery. The structure has unfortunately been plagued with structural problems almost from the beginning. The sandstone walls were once covered with ivy, which contributed to its decay. Many of the turrets, crockets and pinnacles have deteriorated and fallen to the ground.
Below the chapel area of the Dexter mausoleum are the crypts. Like the rest of the Dexter mausoleum, the crypts are made out of sandstone. Sandstone, especially if it is installed at a certain angle, tends to “melt” over time. The crypts in the Dexter mausoleum are certainly “melting” and appear quite ghoulish. The rear of the crypt area is illuminated by a shaft, which reaches to the upper level chapel behind the altar. The shaft space was intended to contain an elevator for lowering caskets into the crypts, but was never installed. Despite periodic attempts at restoration, it may have to be torn down.
Photos and text © Douglas Keister Visit Doug’s Author Page
[address cemetery=”Spring Grove Cemetery” street=”4521 Spring Grove Avenue” city=”Cincinnati” state=”Ohio” zip=”45232″]
McCan Mausoleum
The David McCan mausoleum with its Gothic Revival form and strong verticality is reminiscent of the Albert Memorial in London’s South Kensington district. The death of Queen Victoria’s consort, Albert, in 1861 was one of the major factors in the popularization of the funerary arts. One of Queen Victoria’s first acts of memorialization of Prince Albert was the construction of the Albert Memorial. Albert died at age 42 following a bout of typhoid fever. According to the Queen, their son, Edward the Prince of Wales brought on Albert’s illness. It seems Edward’s unseemly behavior caused Albert to explode in a fit of rage resulting in irreparable damage to his health. So great was Edward’s sin in Victoria’s mind that she never forgave her son for his behavior. Albert’s death threw the Queen into a mourning frenzy. She wore only black clothing for the remaining 40 years of her life; went to bed every night clutching Albert’s nightshirt; kept a portrait of him on the pillow next to her and went on a memorialization rampage. She had numerous memorials, monuments and buildings constructed in his memory. One of the results of Victoria’s huge influence on culture, (after all, an entire era was named after her) was that erecting showy memorials became the fashionable thing to do.
Photos and text © Douglas Keister Visit Doug’s Author Page
[address cemetery=”Metairie Cemetery” street=”5101 Pontchartrain Boulevard” city=”New Orleans” state=”Louisiana” zip=”70124″]
Pratt Tomb
This canopy tomb looks like a miniature Gothic cathedral complete with a towering central spire ringed with menacing gargoyles. All four gables are punctuated with trefoils above the Gothic arches which rest on Corinthian columns. The four larger than life female figures standing away from the monument are classically draped, a nod to Classical Revival.
Samuel Fletcher Pratt (1840-1880), to whom the monument is dedicated, is only one of many generations of Pratts whose graves pepper the property, which received its first burial in 1872.
Photos and text © Douglas Keister Visit Doug’s Author Page
[address cemetery=”Forest Lawn Cemetery” street=”1411 Delaware Avenue” city=”Buffalo” state=”New York” zip=”14209″]
Huck Mausoleum
Perhaps its fitting that the name of the architect who designed the Huck mausoleum has been lost to the ages, because the building manages to look like an alien space vessel from a Star Wars movie. Then again, Chicago has a long tradition of creative and innovative architecture, so what better place to try some experimentation than a cemetery, where few critics ever venture.
Cemetery records indicate the Huck mausoleum was built in 1915, probably by the wife of Louis Carl Huck, on a plot Huck purchased in 1888. Besides Mr. and Mrs. Huck, the mausoleum contains the remains of three infants who were moved here from other locations. Huck owned the Sheridan apartment building at the corner of LaSalle and Carl streets in Chicago.
Photos and text © Douglas Keister Visit Doug’s Author Page
[address cemetery=”Graceland Cemetery” street=”4001 North Clark Street” city=”Chicago” state=”Illinois” zip=”60613″]
Moorhead Mausoleum
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″]
Crouse Mausoleum
Architect H.Q. French of New York designed this mausoleum in 1884 for John Crouse (1802-1891). It is in a style that can only be described as “uniquely funerary”. The main body of the Crouse tomb appears to be Romanesque Revival or “English Gothic” as it was known at the time, but certain details such as the piston-like columns suggest the influence of Frank Furness (Furness was a Philadelphia architect noted for his highly personal style). Crouse wanted to make sure he knew what he was getting, when it came to his eternal home so he had it built in anticipation of his death (which would occur 7 years after the completion of the mausoleum), rather than have some relative attend to its construction, after his death.
John Crouse was an industrialist and capitalist who was known as the wealthiest man in Syracuse, achieved the bulk of his wealth in the wholesale grocery business.
Photos and text © Douglas Keister Visit Doug’s Author Page
[address cemetery=”Oakwood Cemetery” street=”940 Comstock Avenue” city=”Syracuse” state=”New York” zip=”13210″]
Spotts Mausoleum
John Baird of Philadelphia designed and erected this marble mausoleum in 1866, in an Islamic style with some Classical embellishments often called Venetian Gothic. Many fine examples can, understandably, be seen in Venice, Italy. Baird was an innovator in the use of steam power for cutting marble. He eventually built, on the Schuylkill River, the largest establishment for the sawing and manufacture of marble in the United States.
The mausoleum was commissioned by Mrs. Spotts, the widow of Capt. Harry I. Spotts, a popular Louisville steamboat captain. The lines and the overall shape of the mausoleum (only the front is seen in the photograph), are reminiscent of a funeral barge, perhaps a nod to Capt. Spott’s career on the Ohio River.
Photos and text © Douglas Keister Visit Doug’s Author Page
[address cemetery=”Cave Hill Cemetery” street=”701 Baxter Avenue” city=”Louisville” state=”Kentucky” zip=”40204″]