Monroe Memorial

President James Monroe
April 28, 1758–July 4, 1831
Hollywood Cemetery
Richmond, Virginia

James Monroe was the fifth president of the United States. He was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, to well-to-do, but not wealthy, parents. He was privately tutored until the age of eleven, and then attended Campbelton Academy in Virginia. One of his classmates was future Chief Justice John Marshall. He then enrolled at the College of William and Mary, but was caught up in the revolutionary spirit. He enlisted and fought in the American Revolution in the Third Virginia Regiment. In 1780, he went back to school, and studied law under Thomas Jefferson.

In 1780, Monroe married seventeen-year-old Elizabeth Kortright who was a great beauty by all accounts. In 1790, Monroe was elected to the United States Senate. For the next twenty-seven years, he held a variety of high-level political offices, serving twice as governor of Virginia, as Secretary of State, and as Secretary of War. He was elected President of the United States and served two terms (1817–1825). Highlights of his presidency were the enactment of the Monroe Doctrine (that declared that the United States would regard any interference in the internal affairs of any states in the Western Hemisphere as an unfriendly act) and the Missouri Compromise (that delineated the parts of the United States where slavery would be allowed). Monroe also advocated the establishment of a refuge for freed slaves in the African nation of Liberia by supporting the efforts of a group called the American Colonization Society. That plan never came to fruition, but, in the midst of the planning, the capital city was named Monrovia, the only foreign capital named after an American president.

James and Elizabeth Monroe were the first couple to live at the newly rebuilt White House after the British burned it in 1814. Unfortunately, their tastes ran well beyond their means. At the time the presidential salary was $9,000 a year. Congress had appropriated $20,000 the first year of Monroe’s term so the couple could buy furniture for the White House, and an additional $18,000 the next year. The couple spent much of the money on French antiques and diverted at least one-third of the money for entertainment. A scandal ensued and Congress asked to be reimbursed for the money spent entertaining. Still, the couple entertained and even used the White House for the marriage of their daughter Maria. When Monroe’s term ended in 1825, he left Washington essentially broke because Congress had withheld his salary until he paid the couple’s entertainment debts. Congress eventually gave him $30,000 of the $53,000 it had withheld. Elizabeth’s health had been in decline for a number of years and she finally succumbed on September 23, 1830, at age 62. She was interred in a vault on their Oak Hill, Virginia estate. James Monroe was convinced to leave Oak Hill. He moved in with his daughter and her husband in New York City where he lived out his remaining months of life. After his death, he was buried in the Gouverneur family vault (their daughter Maria’s husband’s family) in the New York City Marble Cemetery. Rest in peace, James Monroe. Well, not yet.

James Monroe rested peacefully for over twenty years; then, in the 1850’s, in a resurgence of state’s pride, politicians in Virginia started lobbying to bring home all of the deceased presidents who were born in Virginia. The plan to bring all the fallen Virginia-born presidents home never materialized, but the Virginia General Assembly did convince Monroe’s descendants to request that Monroe’s body be brought back to Virginia, and buried in the Dignitaries Circle in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond. The owners of the Hollywood Cemetery Company were enthusiastic supporters of the plan, knowing that having Monroe buried in the cemetery would boost lot sales and revenue. Monroe’s body was disinterred from the Gouverneur family vault on the morning of July 2, 1858, and placed in a mahogany coffin studded with thirteen stars in a circle to represent the thirteen original states. Other silver stars were added around the coffin. After the disinterment, a formal ceremony followed at the Church of the Annunciation where ten thousand mourners filed past the draped coffin. The coffin was loaded onto the steamer Jamestown on the East River in New York on July 3, 1858, bound for Richmond via the Atlantic Ocean and the James River. On July 5, 1858, hundreds of mourners slowly walked through the cemetery’s gates following the horse-drawn hearse carrying James Monroe’s remains. His coffin was lowered into the ground at Dignitaries Circle. In late 1859, a 12-foot tall cast-iron monument—manufactured by the Philadelphia company Wood and Perot, and labeled as a birdcage by detractors, was placed over his grave. His wife, daughter, and son-in-law were moved from their burial places and reinterred alongside James Monroe some years later.
Text and photo © Douglas Keister Visit Doug’s Author Page

[address cemetery=”Hollywood Cemetery” street=”412 S Cherry Street” city=”Richmond” state=”Virginia” zip=”23220″]

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″]

Birge Memorial

Twelve Doric columns stand at attention around the sarcophagus of George K. Birge. The memorial, erected in 1929 by McDonald and Sons of Buffalo, is a good example of the trend in the 1920’s and 30’s toward less surface ornamentation.

Rings of columns surrounding buildings are known as peristyles. When the columns are arranged in a circle, as seen here, they are known as tholos forms. The tholos form of architecture is well adapted to situations where the designer is presenting a building of simple, dignified and ethereal beauty.

George K. Birge, who will spend eternity in his gleaming white sarcophagus was a wallpaper manufacturer and President of the Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company.
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″]

Foster Tomb

William F. Foster
1841–1895

William F. Foster made his rather large fortune manufactured a rather small product: fasteners. He also made kid gloves. His final resting place was the subject of a lot of media attention when it was constructed in 1895. The canopied granite structure, which has a cruciform footprint, was designed by architect John Wooley, who had offices at 111 Fifth Avenue. Wooley’s design broke the mausoleum mold since it did not have walls and a door. Despite using massive blocks of granite, the tomb has a much lighter feel, thanks to its open-air construction. The base of the tomb is a single 42 x 24-foot 40-ton slab of granite, which was one of the largest ever quarried in Westerly, Rhode Island (Westerly was an early center for granite quarrying in the United States). Under the slab are catacombs, which have space for eight permanent residents. Centermost on the massive slab is a double sarcophagus, which contains the mortal remains of William F. Foster. Sixteen Tuscan columns frame the stone ensemble. In all, over 1,100 tons of granite were used in the construction of the 52-foot-high tomb.

The structure takes the form of a canopy tomb rather than a mausoleum, although its sheer size puts it in a classification usually reserved for mausoleums. In the simplest sense, canopy tombs are tent-like structures that shelter a sarcophagus. These structures, usually composed of columns or pillars supporting a dome, are open-air affairs, and unlike mausoleums, they have no doors restricting entry. Canopies may be seen in a variety of ancient architecture. They didn’t become part of the European and American architectural repertory until the eighteenth century, when architects began using them for garden pavilions. The decorative potential of these canopied pavilions and kiosks were soon exploited by designers of funerary monuments. They are often seen hovering over a grave or small monument or sheltering a sarcophagus. The Foster Tomb is among the largest canopy tombs in the world.
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″]

Stonehenge Memorial

This cenotaph (a monument built to a person or persons whose remains lie elsewhere), was built by noted eccentric Sam Hill, whose own tomb lies nearby, to commemorate 13 young Klickitat County men who gave their lives in World War I. The altar stone was dedicated on July 4th, 1918 and the full structure was completed and dedicated on May 30th 1929. Sam Hill had the structure fabricated out of concrete to resemble how the original megalithic Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England must have appeared ca. 1350 B.C.. Sam Hill’s Stonehenge sits high on a bluff overlooking the Columbia River near Maryhill, Washington.

During a total eclipse of the sun in February,1979, Stonehenge, not surprisingly, became a center of activity. Thousands of people, including members of the New Order of Reformed Druids, gathered at Sam Hill’s concrete creation to witness the moon “eating the sun”. The participants sang and chanted in the darkness until the sun again emerged from behind the moon.

Sam Hill also built a town, (Maryhill) and a museum, (The Maryhill Museum) both named for his wife, Mary, on his isolated property. He was noted for his eccentric ways and although he did not originate the phrase he certainly helped propagate the oft used phrase ‘What the Sam Hill are you doing?!’.
Photo and text © Douglas Keister Visit Doug’s Author Page

[address cemetery=”” street=”” city=”Maryhill” state=”Washington” zip=””]

Matthews Mausoleum

John Matthews
1808-January 12, 1870

One of the most effervescent tombs gracing Green-Wood’s grounds is the monument to John Matthews. Its spectacular array of ornamentation looks like it just bubbled out of the ground in a terracotta and marble ooze. And well it should bubble; for John Matthews brought soda water to America. Mathews was born in England. As a teenager he apprenticed in the shop of inventor, Joseph Bramah, where he learned how to make machinery and most importantly learned how to make carbonic acid gas, the essential ingredient for soda water. In 1832 he left England for America and soon set up shop at 55 Gold Street in Manhattan where he began to manufacture carbonating machinery and sell soda water to local retailers.

Matthews’ business took off when he realized he could use marble chips to make soda water and that there was an ample supply thanks to the many construction projects taking place in the booming burg of New York. In fact, there were enough scrap marble chips from the building of nearby St. Patrick’s Cathedral to make twenty-five million gallons of soda water. Matthews’ other advantage over his competitors was his rather ingenious human-safety-valve in the form of an ex-slave named Ben Austen. At the time, safety valves were unreliable and there were frequent explosions. Ben Austen had a large and powerful thumb that he held over the pressure cock. When the pressure blew Austen’s thumb off the pressure cock, the pressure in the tank had reached the desired limit of 150 pounds and the pressurization was stopped.  Austen’s thumb was so valuable that when a number of blacks were lynched during the Irish riots during the Civil War, Austen was hidden in a shipping crate to avoid detection. The term, “Ben’s thumb” was part of the jargon in the soda water manufacturing industry, meaning the soda water was at the proper pressure.

John Matthews’ business continued to prosper and he opened up numerous soda fountains, sold soda water, added flavoring to soda water and licensed soda water apparatus. By the time he died, Matthews owned over 500 soda fountains. The Soda Water King’s final resting place is in the form of a catafalque/sarcophagus encompassed in a castrum doloris (Latin for castle of grief) a type of elaborate tomb usually reserved for royalty, Popes and the elite. These tombs are adorned with funerary symbols, allegorical figures and often scenes from the person’s life. The Matthews tomb has the faces of his daughters carved into the gables, his wife (some accounts say it is a statue of grief) seated above him, gargoyles and various woodland animals scampering around the edges. Prostrate and almost melting into his sarcophagus, Matthews looks up at relief panels, which depict events in his life —apprenticing at the shop in England, leaving England for America, pondering the idea of soda water and finally being crowned for his achievements. The area around the Matthews tomb is peppered with the graves of other members of the Matthews family.

The tomb, which was crafted by Karl Muller, won an award as the “Mortuary Monument of the Year” soon after it was built in 1870. However, noted art critic Effie Brower had other words for it. In her 1878 book In Memoriam: Greenwood Leaves she said [it reflected] “the hideousness of morbid taste”.
Photo and text © Douglas Keister Visit Doug’s Author Page

[address cemetery=”Green-Wood Cemetery” street=”Willow Avenue” city=”Brooklyn” state=”New York” zip=”11218″]

Pierrepont Catafalque

This Gothic Revival catafalque, carved out of sandstone, is the last resting place for a number of members of the Henry Evelyn Pierrepont family. Henry Pierrepont was the son of a wealthy Brooklyn landowner and gin distiller. In 1835, the task fell upon Henry to lay out the streets for the newly incorporated city of Brooklyn. His design included 11 parks, and land set aside for the development of a cemetery to be modeled after Père-Lachaise cemetery, in Paris.

As things evolved, Green-Wood Cemetery, which was dedicated on April 11, 1838, was modeled after Cambridge’s Mount Auburn Cemetery (which itself was modeled after Père-Lachaise). During the decade after its dedication, additional land was purchased until Green-Wood reached its present size of 478 acres, three times that of Mount Auburn. In 1849, noted landscape architect A.J. Downing proclaimed, “Judging from the crowds of people in carriages and on foot I found constantly thronging Green-Wood and Mount Auburn, I think it is plain enough how much our citizens of all classes would enjoy public parks on a similar scale.” It was, in fact, the popularity of Green-Wood Cemetery that led to the establishment of New York City’s Central Park in 1856.

The design of the Pierrepont catafalque has been attributed to Richard Upjohn and his son Richard Mitchell Upjohn. Pierrepont had also commissioned the father/son team to design the Gothic Revival entrance to Green-Wood cemetery.
Photos and text © Douglas Keister Visit Doug’s Author Page

[address cemetery=”Green-Wood Cemetery” street=”Willow Avenue” city=”Brooklyn” state=”New York” zip=”11218″]