Many ancient classical designs are replicated in American graveyards, often in grand neoclassical mausoleums based on the designs of Greek and Roman temples.  The Greek temple, the Parthenon, is one such example that has been replicated. The temple atop the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, was built between 447 and 438 BC and dedicated to the patron goddess of the city—Athena. The Parthenon was named for the cult of Athena Parthenon—“Athena the Virgin”. The temple was directed by Pericles and built by the architects Ictinus and Callicrates.   The sculptor Phidias supervised the construction and also completed the gold and ivory statue that was the centerpiece of the interior.

The Parthenon is an example of architecture in the Doric order, which is characterized by the fluted columns with no base resting directly on the stylobate, slightly curved and unadorned capital.  The architrave (stone panel that traces around the building just above the column) is truncated and plain, as is the frieze which is generally enhanced with triglyphs and bas-reliefs.

Two mausoleums, one in the Spring Grove Cemetery at Cincinnati, Ohio, and one in the Lakewood Cemetery at Minneapolis replicate the Doric-style design of the Parthenon.

The Spring Grove Cemetery’s replica of the Parthenon was built by Charles Louis Fleischmann a yeast manufacturer. The Fleischmann Yeast Company became the world’s leading yeast producer. The company also produced vinegar and margarine. The mausoleum was constructed of 5,000 square feet of granite and designed by noted architects Samuel Hannaford and James K. Wilson.

Lakewood Cemetery’s largest mausoleum was built for the Goodrich and the Lowry families. Dr. Calvin Gibson Goodrich, Sr. and his son, Dr. Calvin Goodrich, Jr., were both prominent doctors. Thomas Lowry was a prominent businessman who headed the Minneapolis Street Railway Company. Goodrich and Lowry co-founded the Lakewood Cemetery and were also connected by the marriage of Beatrice Goodrich to Thomas Lowry.

The Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving in the fall of 1621. They had made it through a harsh New England winter with a little more than half of the original group having survived it. For three days, the Pilgrims and a band of Wampanoag Indians played games and feasted. They likely ate venison, lobster, clams, swan, and other water fowl and probably wild turkey.

Turkey, however, has evolved into the main dish on most Thanksgiving tables in America. In fact, the national Turkey Federation (yes, there is such an organization—and they are not working on behalf of the turkeys) claim that 88% of American households serve turkey on thanksgiving.

The question usually following Thanksgiving is what to do with the leftover turkey? That was the same question that had to be answered by the Swanson & Sons Corporation in 1953. That year, Swanson ordered too many turkeys and literally tons were left over after the big holiday.

To get rid of the leftover turkey, a Swanson Company executive, Gerry Thomas, suggested producing dinners in aluminum trays—the company cooked up 5,000 dinners of turkey, cornbread dressing, gravy, peas, and sweet potatoes ready for re-heating. At 98 cents a pop, they were a hit. Within one year, over ten million were sold. The TV dinner was born!

Swanson and Sons was founded by Carl Swanson (1879 – 1949). Swanson was a Swedish immigrant in partnership with John O. Jerpe who grew what started as grocery store into a large dairy operation buying eggs and butter from farmers. The company started selling poultry and other meat. Swanson eventually bought the company from Jerpe and renamed C.A. Swanson and Sons. Carl’s sons Gilbert and Clarke joined the business.

All three are buried in the Forest Lawn Cemetery at Omaha, Nebraska. Carl Anton Swanson (1879 – 1949) and his wife Carol Gerock Swanson (1881 – 1952) are buried in a light gray granite mausoleum with straight horizontal and vertical lines in a modern design. His son’s monuments flank his mausoleum.

His son Gilbert Carl Swanson (1906 – 1965) and his wife Roberta Epperson Fulbright Swanson (1911 – 1959) have a modernistic monument with two columns split with bonze cross surrounded by delicate ornamental metal work separating the two halves. In the corners of the monument are the initials “G”, “C”, and “S” intertwined.

Walter Clarke Swanson (1908 – 1961) has an intriguing monument. It is directly to the right of Carl Swanson’s mausoleum and is a bit of a mystery. The sculpture created in 1963 by famed artist Bruno Innocenti (the statue is signed) of a male figure holding his hands in the air with flames emanating from the palms. The meaning of the statue seems to be unknown to all but the Swanson family.

Now what to do about all that leftover turkey? There is always the old standard like a pot pie. Or you could try Melissa d’Arabian recipe for Chicken Pot Pie Turnovers, substituting turkey, of course. A new twist on an old idea. Here is a link to the recipe at the Food Network: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/melissa-darabian/chicken-pot-pie-turnovers-recipe.html

Valentin Blatz

Born October 1, 1826, Miltenburg, Germany

Died May 26, 1894, Saint Paul, Minnesota

Valentin Blatz, a German émigré, settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1849.  Blatz had worked in his father’s Bavarian brewery and others and plied the trade he knew from his youth in Milwaukee.  After having worked at a brewery, which was operated by Johann Braun, Blatz started his own brewery next door.  In 1851, Braun was thrown from a beer wagon and died.  Blatz married Braun’s widow, Louisa, and consolidated the two breweries establishing the Blatz Brewing Company.  What started out as two small breweries grew to be the third largest brewery in Milwaukee.  The buildings where the beer was brewed covered over four city blocks.  Blatz introduced bottled beer in 1874, an innovation we still enjoy to this day!

Blatz died of a heart attack on his way back from a trip to California with his wife, Louisa.  The Milwaukee Sentinel, Sunday May 27, 1894, headline read: VALENTIN BLATZ DEAD: Heart Disease Carries Off the Well-Known Brewer; SUDDENLY STRICKEN AT HOTEL RYAN, ST. PAUL.  The article went on, “Mr. Blatz and His Wife Were Returning From California on Their Way to Milwaukee-His Family Here Shocked by the Sudden Intelligence- Mr. Blatz Was One of the City’s Wealthiest Men–Started in a Very Small Way Back in the Fifties and Built Up a Vast Business.” Valentin Blatz was survived by his wife, Louisa, and five children—John, Louise, Valentine, Albert, and Emil.

Valentin Blatz was buried in the Forest Home Cemetery at Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  The Blatz Mausoleum, the largest in the state of Wisconsin, was built in 1896 from Barre, Vermont granite.  The massive and imposing mausoleum is 40 feet tall, 38 feet long and 30 feet wide, weighing 525 tons.

Adolphus Busch

Born July 10, 1839, Kastel, Grand Duchy of Hesse (now Germany)

Died October 10, 1913, Lindschied, Germany

Certain foods go together like peanut butter and jelly, bread and butter, or salt and pepper. There are pairs of names like that, too, in the entertainment world like Laurel and Hardy, Rowan and Martin, and Penn and Teller—that don’t seem quite complete without the other.  In the world of beer the pair that came together to create “the King of Beers” was Anheuser and Busch.

Adolphus Busch, a German-born brewer, teamed up with his father-in-law, Eberhard Anheuser to found the Anheuser Busch Brewing Company.  Adolphus was the second child of twenty-two children born to Ulrich and Barbara (Pfeiffer) Busch.  Not expecting to inherit much of his father’s estate, Busch immigrated to the United States and settled in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1857.  Adolphus worked several different jobs.  In 1861, he met and married Lilly Anheuser, Eberhard’s daughter.  When the Civil War broke out—he joined the Union Army and served for six months.  Adolphus went to work in his father-in-law’s brewery business.  In 1879, Adolphus became a partner in the business and the name was changed to Anheuser Busch.

Even though, Busch himself preferred wine to drink over beer, he was keen to produce the best beer possible—adopting the latest technologies, including pasteurization and refrigeration, to not only brew the best but get the best to market.  Busch built a large network of brew houses, ice houses, and bottling factories to build his local brand into a national brand.  Pasteurization allowed Busch to ship beer cross country and keep it fresh.  In 1882, Busch bought the brand name and trademark for Budweiser—the beer that is synonymous with Anheuser Busch.

All the while Busch worked at building his brewery, his family grew.  Adolphus and Lilly had thirteen children—eight sons and five daughters.

While on vacation in his home country of Germany, Adolphus died on October 10, 1913.  His body was returned to St. Louis in 1915 where he was buried in the Bellefontaine Cemetery.  His funeral was one of the largest ever seen in that city with thousands of people lining the streets to catch a glimpse of his funeral cortege.  Busch’s wife, Lilly, had the family mausoleum torn down and the “inhabitants,” including her parents, reburied in the lot the new mausoleum was to be built.  The building resembling a church was designed by Thomas Barnett from the architectural firm of Barnett, Haynes, and Barnett, widely known for their classical designs.  The Gothic revival-style tomb is constructed with unpolished red granite quarried in Missouri.  The slate roof is topped with a copper spire.  In the cartouche in the arch above the doorway is carved the famous words of Julius Caesar, “”Veni, Vidi, Vici,” or “I came, I saw, I conquered”.

The mausoleum is befitting a beer baron, except for the grapevines decorating the building.  The grapevines are not only a nod to the German wine producing area Adolphus grew up in but also to his favorite drink—wine.

Lawrence McMahon

1845 – 1941

Jennie McMahon

1847 – 1907

The pyramid-shaped tomb of Lawrence McMahon, a retired pharmacy chain store businessman, and his wife, Jennie, in the Calvary Cemetery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was designed by Herman Buemming.  McMahon commissioned the mausoleum after his wife died in 1907.  When the tomb was completed in 1909, McMahon had her body re-interred.

Herman Buemming (1872 – 1943) was a native of Ohio who moved with his parents to Milwaukee as a child.   He apprenticed as a draftsman and eventually had the top drafting job at Pabst Brewing Company. In 1893, he moved to New York City to study architecture at Columbia University.  When he returned to Milwaukee he formed the first of several partnerships.  His various architectural firms designed commercial buildings and homes all around the city, many of which are still standing and part of the Milwaukee landscape.

The McMahon mausoleum designed by Buemming is an example Egyptian Revival architecture that became popular in the United States.  After the French and British occupations of Egypt, there was a renewed interest in Egyptian architecture and symbolism.  The Egyptian symbol that is most commonly found in American cemeteries is the obelisk.  And the most famous obelisk in America is the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. But the pyramid is by far the epitome of Egyptian funerary architecture, the tomb of the pharaohs.  The oldest pyramid is the Pryamid of Djoser built over four thousand years ago from 2630 BC to 2612 BC.  The largest of the Egyptian pyramids is the Pyramid of Khufu at Giza built between 2589 and 2566 BC.

However, the Egyptian and Christian symbolism share an uncomfortable coexistence in this design.  The pyramid-shaped mausoleum is the penultimate ancient pharaonic tomb.  Yet, it also displays the Celtic cross.  The Celtic cross is recognized by the nimbus featured with the cross.  The Celtic cross is above the doorway and also as incised carvings on each side of the top of the door frame. Many Christians objected to Egyptian motifs and their non-Christian origins.  To soften the impact, designers often included Christian symbolism, as is the case here.

William Farrington Aldrich

March 11, 1853 Palmyra, New York

October 30, 1925 Birmingham, Alabama

William Farrington Aldrich was an Alabama Congressman from 1896 until 1901, a successful mining businessman, and editor/owner of the Birmingham Times.  Upon his death in Birmingham, his remains were cremated and interred in the Aldrich family mausoleum in St. Paul’s Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D. C.

The eclectic gray granite mausoleum mixes several styles into one harmonious building tucked into the side of a hill within the cemetery.  The four columns are a modified Ionic design.  The rounded-top windows are reminiscent of Romanesque architecture.  The centerpiece of the crypt, which dominates the mausoleum, is the keyhole doorway, a feature of Moorish architectural design.

The interior of the crypt has three kinds of gothic arches framing the alcoves that house the urns.  Each shelf has a different design—rounded arches separating the alcoves on the top, cinquefoil arches in the middle, and pointed arches on the bottom shelf.  Each urn is embellished with a flame.  Like many Christian symbols, the flame has several different meanings—eternal life, religious fervor, and vigilance.  The flame can also represent martyrdom.  Each of the urns has a name carved into it and holds the person’s cremated remains.

Not far inside the Gothic gates of the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, is the David and Adelia Stewart mausoleum.  The mausoleum was designed by Stanford White, of McKim, Mead and White, at one time, the largest and most prestigious architectural firm in the world.

The mausoleum is fairly plain ornamented with putti, or three winged and chubby-cheeked cherubs topping the building.

Underneath the cornice, a leaf design twines above the STEWART family name.  The bronze panels on either side the door feature an angel, both seated.  One holds a scroll with the Bible verse Matthew 5:4, “Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted.”

The other angel, masculine with thicker arms and without flowers intertwined in his hair, holds a long trumpet and most likely represents Gabriel—a subtle laurel leaf and twig motif is in the background.  The laurel leaf symbolizing victory over death.

Stanford White collaborated with Augustus Saint Gaudens on several projects including Saint Gaudens most famous funerary sculpture created for Clover Adams in St. Paul’s Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C.  There is some dispute, however, about how much White and Saint Gaudens collaborated on this mausoleum.  According to Nancy Adgent, in the article, “Augustus Saint Gaudens: Bringing the American Renaissance to the Cemetery,” page21, MARKERS XXXIV, it is unclear if the putti were crafted by Louis Saint Gaudens, brother to Augustus.  It does seem clear that Augustus did model the angels, though they are clearly before he had fully developed his concept of the angel created for Amor Caritas.  The wings are not intricately defined and the faces of the angels “are not the iconic Davida visage” in his master work.

Gilded Amor Caritas sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Typical of the many of the designs in which White and Saint Gaudens collaborated is the egg and dart motif around the bronze door to the mausoleum and the treatment of the lettering—“u” is replaced with a “v” and a dot appears between each word on the banner the angel is holding to the left of the door into the mausoleum.  According to the article, the design work of the figures is Saint Gaudens’s work.

The Tiedeman mausoleum in the Bonaventure Cemetery, in Savannah, Georgia, with a rounded roof line is an outstanding example of Art Nouveau design.  The flowing design on the bronze doors exhibit the characteristics of the movement that made it popular.

The Art Nouveau movement was a bridge between Neoclassicism and Modernism and reached its popularity from 1890 to 1905.  Luminary artists such as Alphonse Mucha, Gustav Klimt, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec; glass designers Rene Lalique and Louis Comfort Tiffany, and Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi among others used long fluid lines inspired from florals and plants in their work.

David D. Pursglove

Born April 3, 1881 England

Died December 19, 1921

The gray granite mausoleum in the Saint Clairsville, Ohio, Union Cemetery is an example of Neo-classic design in the Tuscan order characterized, in part, by the plain Doric columns and the lack of ornamentation such as triglyphs or guttae.  The Tuscan order was largely a simplified version of the Doric order.  The protruding porch is supported by highly-polished non-fluted columns.  The occupant’s name, David Pursglove, is emblazoned on the architrave.

The tomb displays symbolism inside out—the passionflower, for example, adorns the pediment.  The passionflower was so named by Spanish Christian missionaries because they identified parts of the flower with the Passion of Jesus Christ.

• Then ten petals represent the ten faithful disciples.  The two apostles who were not considered were St. Peter, the denier, and Judas Iscariot, the betrayer.
• The filaments that circle the center of the flower represent Christ’s crown of thorns.
• The curled filaments represent the whips used in flagellation of Christ.
• The white color was equated with Christ’s innocence.
• The styles symbolize the nails.

The bronze doors are split into two sections.  The upper section has a wreath overlaid on bars.  The wreath traditionally symbolizes victory over death.

The bottom panels feature inverted torches. The flame is symbolic of the soul.  The inverted torch represents a life that has been extinguished but the soul continues to exist in the Heavenly Realm.

A peek inside the tomb reveals a stunning stained-glass window in the rear of the mausoleum displaying a profusion of red American roses.

Romantics have waxed poetic about the rose and the connection to love for centuries which has made the rose an undeniable symbol of love.  The rose also has a religious meaning, differing by color.  The white rose symbolizes purity while the red rose represents martyrdom and the messianic hope that Christ will return.

The light gray granite mausoleum belongs to J. C. Penny (September 16, 1875 – February 12, 1971) the American businessman and department chain founder that bears his name.

The mausoleum is relatively plain, except for the elaborate repeating pattern surrounding the entryway that serves as a frame for the sculptured bronze door that features a classically draped mourning figure.  A circle of oak leaves and acorns forms a halo around the bowed head of the   melancholy woman.  One hand is bent and resting on her shoulder, while the other clutches a flower, as if it might be an offering.

The door as a motif in funerary art symbolizes mystery.  The door is the pathway from the Earthly Realm to the Heavenly Realm.  In Christianity, however, the door is usually viewed with hope, charity, and faith—the next life will be better.

The door was created by artist Oronzio Maldarelli, the son of Louisa Rizzo and Michael Maldarelli, Italian immigrants who came to America in 1901 when eight or nine years old.   Oronzio’s father, Michael, was a goldsmith.  Oronzio showed early promise as an artist and took lessons at the Cooper Union before enrolling at the National Academy of Design.  Maldarelli enjoyed a long career as a successful and award-winning sculptor whose commissions included architectural sculpture, his own free-standing works, and funerary designs.  He taught at Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University.  This bronze door is signed in the lower right hand corner of the door by the Maldarelli.

The Egyptian Revival was an architectural movement that swept the United States and Europe.  The movement in America was influenced by three separate events—the first was Napoleon’s defeat of Egypt in the 1790s.  Later Napoleon published the results of his scientific expedition, which was printed in serial form, the last released in 1826.  The second event was when the so-called “Cleopatra’s Needle” was erected in Central Park in New York on February 22, 1881.  Lastly, “Egypto-mania,” as some called it, reached fever pitch in November 1922 when King Tut’s tomb was discovered, and the news flashed around the world.

The influence of the Egyptian Revival was reflected in buildings in the United States as early as the 1820s.  The revival was also found in American cemeteries in the 19^thcentury and on into the 20^th century. Egyptian ornamentation can be divided into three categories—architectural, geometric, and natural.

One example of a mausoleum that was Egyptian Revival-style architecture was the F. W. Woolworth (of five-and-dime department store fame) Mausoleum in Woodland Cemetery in the Bronx built by the Farrington, Gould, and Hoagland Monument Company.  According to the book, Sylvan Cemetery: Architecture, Art, & Landscape at Woodlawn, (page 107) “Egyptian themes inspired mausoleum doors, such as the one designed by Julius Loester for the Woolworth mausoleum, with costume, birds, and flowers intended to signify ancient Egypt and its enduring mysteries .”

The door to the Woolworth Mausoleum.

The door to the Winter Mausoleum.

According to a flyer published by the Allegheny Cemetery Historical Association in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, an exact replica of the Woolworth Mausoleum was built for Emil Winter.  Winter was an “industrialist, banker, and founder of The Pittsburgh Steel Company, making him a man of vast  wealth…Living in New York City in his later years, he saw the Egyptian-style Woolworth family Mausoleum in Woodlawn and had an exact replica made for him in 1930 for his own lot in the Allegheny Cemetery.”  Even the door created by Julius Loester adorns the Winter Mausoleum.

The Winter Mausoleum sphinx.

The two gray granite mausoleums have strong and commanding architectural features. The sides of the tombs tilt slightly inward from the bottom to the top.  Rather than a traditional cavetto cornice curves which forms into a half circle at the top, the tomb has an architrave with a repeating reed pattern. The pediment rises very slightly to a peak.  The monument is geometrically balanced—two sphinxes flank the tomb.

The natural elements of the monument feature two winged globes with uroei above the doorway and on the cornice. In these examples there are three sets of falcon wings that are a symbol of the king, the sun, and the sky. The globe represents the Egyptian god, Horus. The uroei, snakes, are waiting to strike. They symbolize the king’s ability to ward off evil spirits.

Along the sides of the doorway are the long slender stems of the lotus flower, sacred to the Egyptian and Buddhist cultures. The Lotus represents purity and evolution. The lotus is born in the water, the primordial ooze—making it also a symbol of creation and rebirth.  Etched into the columns are incised scarabs and ankhs—both symbols from ancient Egypt.  The scarab beetle was represented the cycle of life—rebirth and regeneration and the ankh as the key to eternal life.

The monument gives one the sense of solemnity and a sense of eternity, reminiscent of the temples of the pharaohs.

The Winter Mausoleum.

The modest mausoleum in the Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx was built for Charles Waite Waller (March 20, 1870-January 19, 1927) and his wife, Rose Ann Hutchcroft Waller.  Charles was born in the tiny coastal village of Anderby, England, with the original name of Whaler, which he later changed to Waller.  Waller was the financial officer and vice president for the United Hotel Company.  According to the January 20, 1927, Washington, D.C. Evening Star, (page 16), Waller was a hotel finance expert who died at the age of 56.  In addition to his work at the hotel company, Waller was long interested in electrical power and was associated in business with General Electric for over 15 years.  Waller died during a business conference he was conducting in his home.

The building is a plain unpolished gray granite tomb with a curved pediment as its only adornment.   The focal point of the mausoleum is the door which was created by Austrian-born artist Julius Loester.  Loester (April 12, 1861—July 20, 1923) was the son of Josef and Wilhelmine Loester who, like many artists at the time, took private and public commissions.

The figure Loester created for the Waller Waite mausoleum is like so many of the doors for tombs, it features a classically dressed and draped mourning figure standing with her head bowed, tentatively waiting in somber silence.  In David Robinson’s book, Saving Graces, he describes these figures as “grieving women who signify how deeply the deceased is missed.  As symbolic mourners, their idealized beauty is spiritual, representing purity, passion, and commitment…But these women also serve as escorts on the journey ahead.  As designated companions in eternity, they are posted there to watch over and take care of the deceased.  Forever present, they are also forever young…these women symbolize the aspiration of eternal life, not the acceptance of death.  They may grieve, but they also comfort, and in this role, their beauty is more sensual than spiritual.”  Robinson notes that these mourning figures are “Pure on the one hand, sensual on the other, idealized yet lifelike…a very human combination of spiritual devotion and earthly desire.”

Loester took commissions for funerary monuments.  For instance, he created the doors for the Winter Mausoleum in the Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh and the door for the Woolworth Mausoleum in Woodlawn Cemetery.  But He also received commissions for innovative and new sculptural projects.  An article titled, “Models in Miniature: A New Device of Architects to Prevent Disappointment of Owner,” in the New York Tribune from November 16, 1902, states that millionaires building palatial homes in Manhattan were often disappointed once the house was built because they didn’t really understand the plans they looked at when the blueprints were drawn up.  According to the article, innovative artist Julius C. Loester took the plans and constructed a plaster scale model of the house so the owners could see in 3-D what their house would look like thereby preventing disappointment.

He also won some major public commission work, such as the contract for the creation of the statuary for the Liberal Arts Building and the Horticulture Building at the Trans-Mississippi International Exposition of 1898 in Omaha, Nebraska.

The seemingly plain light gray granite Cuneo family mausoleum is a stunning example of Neo-classical architecture.  The pedimented porch is a key aspect of Neo-classical door design.  The porch features polished granite Ionic columns.  The entablature, the horizontal structure above the capitals, is plain as is the pediment.

The pedimented porch frames the elaborate bronze door.  The arched window above the door is called a fanlight or a transom light.  One each side of the fanlight is a wreath symbolizing memory and victory over death.

The door itself is imbued with symbolism from top to bottom.  The top half of the door has crosses with passionflowers on the cross.  The passionflower was so named by Spanish Christian missionaries because they identified parts of the flower with the passion of Jesus Christ.

• Then ten petals represent the ten faithful disciples.  The two apostles who were not considered were St. Peter, the denier, and Judas Iscariot, the betrayer.
• The filaments that circle the center of the flower represent Christ’s crown of thorns.
• The curled filaments represent the whips used in flagellation of Christ.
• The white color was equated with Christ’s innocence.
• The styles symbolize the nails.

Behind the crossbars are rays of light.  The bottom has crossed palm fronds.  The palm frond is an ancient symbol of victory, dating back to Roman times when victors were presented with palm fronds. The palm fronds were also laid in the path of Jesus as He entered Jerusalem. So, for many Christians, the palm represents righteousness, resurrection, and martyrdom, symbolizing the spiritual victory over death associated with the Easter story.

In the panels just below the crosses are winged hourglasses surrounded by a laurel garland.   The winged hourglass is a reminder in bronze that life is short, and that time is fleeting, every minute of every day brings one closer and closer to death.  Again, the laurel wreath symbolizes victory over death. The laurel wreath dates to Roman times when soldiers wore them as triumphal signs of glory.  The laurel was also believed to wash away the soldier’s guilt from injuring or killing any of his opponents.

The bottom panel of the bronze door are modernized version of the winged cherub’s heads, which have a fluid, almost art nouveau style. The winged cherub was a symbol that became popular in the 18^th Century.  Winged cherubs replaced the stark and morbid flying death’s heads from our Puritan forefathers.  The cherubs have a childlike countenance of innocence.  The iconography represents the flight of the soul from the body upward to Heaven and the hope of the resurrection.

Joseph Cuneo was born March 12, 1834, in Genoa, Italy, and died September 21, 1902— 68 years old.  His wife, Mary, was born in 1849 and she passed away in 1909.  The door to their tomb is flanked by statuary—the Madonna on the left of the entrance and Joseph holding baby Jesus on the right.  Sitting on the pediment is an angel holding a trumpet and looking perfectly bored.

Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont (1858-1908)

Alva Smith Vanderbilt Belmont (1853-1933)

The Belmont Mausoleum, in the Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, is a near replica of the Chapel of Saint Hubert; the original is in Amboise, France, and is the final resting place of Leonardo da Vinci.

Alva Smith Vanderbilt Belmont commissioned the architectural firm of Hunt and Hunt to build the tomb after the death of her second husband Oliver Belmont in 1908.  The mausoleum was completed in 1913 and is a masterpiece of late-fifteenth-century French Gothic architecture.

The front façade displays two intricately carved sculptures.  The lintel—or horizontal block above the door—features a sculpture depicting the legend of Saint Hubert from which the chapel is named.  According to the legend, while hunting Hubert saw a stag with a crucifix between his anthers.  After the vision, Hubert converted to Christianity.  Because of his humane treatment of the animals he hunted, Saint Hubert became the patron saint of hunters.  That was particularly fitting for a focal point for the Belmont Mausoleum because of the Belmont family’s association with horse racing—the Belmont Racetrack and the world-famous Belmont Stakes, the oldest prize in the Triple Crown.

The sculpture in the pointed arch above the door depicts a scene with King Charles VIII and his wife, Anne of Brittany, kneeling in deference to the Madonna and Child.

The chapel has many architectural features that were common to Gothic design:

Gargoyles—The spouts that were designed to divert rainwater away from the building were often elaborately designed to look like grotesque animals and human forms known as gargoyles.  These figures became popular in France during the Middle Ages, though they can be found in other countries during that time, as well.

Hood molding—If you look above the scene of the stag, there is a three-sided molding, also known as a drip molding.

Pinnacles—These ornamented structures are usually pointed and are found on the corners of the Saint Hubert Chapel.  They are often found on the buttresses of Gothic buildings.

Stepped buttresses—in the chapel, the stepped buttresses can be seen of the front of the building’s sides.  These are a mass of masonry built against a wall to give the building additional support and strength.  The buttresses on the chapel are stepped, meaning in this case, the buttress has a wider segment, then on top of that is a smaller one, and still one more smaller buttress on top of that.  Topping the buttress is a gargoyle.

Trefoil window—In the middle of the gable on the front of the chapel is a roundel, a small circular frame.  Inside the roundel is a trefoil—three-lobed form—in this case, a window.

Spire—The tall oxidized copper structure tapering up from the roof is a steeple or a spire.

The Belmont Mausoleum, in the Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, is a near replica of the Chapel of Saint Hubert; the original in Amboise, France—the final resting place of Leonardo da Vinci.

The Murphy Family mausoleum in the Cypress Lawn Cemetery in Colma, California, was designed with the Chapel of Saint Hubert as the inspiration.  While many of the more elaborate elements of the original do not appear in the Murphy mausoleum, such as the lintel sculpture, gargoyles, and tracery, it is easy to see that the basic design of the original exists in this tomb.

The mausoleum was designed in 1921 as the final resting place for San Francisco dry goods merchant Daniel T. Murphy (1863-1919). Murphy played a major role in the development of California.

Instead of the sculpture in the pointed arch above the door depicting King Charles VIII and Anne of Brittany kneeling in deference to the Madonna and Child, this sculpture only has two kneeling angels paying homage to Mary and the Christ child.

The two-door opening in the Belmont Mausoleum and the original chapel is cut down to one door in this simplified design.  Here the arch is supported by columns instead of resting above the lintel.  This is called an “order.”  Here the term order is used to refer to an arched molding supported in columns which was a common architectural device used during the Romanesque and Gothic periods.

The gable on the front of the chapel features a trefoil, three-lobed form, but in this version is in not within a roundel, a small circular frame.

The balustrade above the arch is ornamented with pointed arches and tracery, far less decorative than in the original design of Saint Hubert’s Chapel.

Comparing these two mausoleums is like playing those find-what’s-different games in the back of children’s magazines.  While they definitely have differences it is easy to see that the basic design and inspiration for both tombs are the same–one a replica and one based on the original.

Tucked away under some massive trees that form a canopy over a large part of the Dexter Family Mausoleum in the Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio, is a great Gothic Revival-style tomb.  The sandstone mausoleum was designed for the Dexter brothers by famed Queen City architect James Keyes Wilson and inspired by the Sainte-Chappelle Cathedral in Paris.  The tomb took four years to build between 1865 and 1869 at the exorbitant sum of $100,000, a staggering amount of money at the time.  The first Dexter to be buried in the family tomb was Edmund Dexter who died at the age of 61 in 1862.  Dexter was an English immigrant who made his fortune selling liquor in Cincinnati.  He was buried in the tomb in 1870.  Now nearly 20 family members are buried within the walls of the mausoleum.

The mausoleum was a curiosity from the beginning.  People who took their carriage rides through the cemetery slowed or stopped to view the ostentatious tomb.  The mausoleum has two distinct levels.  The upper level was created as a chapel measuring 12 feet wide, 30 feet long, and 34 feet high.  One of the features that makes Sainte-Chappelle so well-known are the magnificent stained-glass windows the recount the major events in the Bible from the Creation story to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Unfortunately, the chapel in the mausoleum was never completed so the stained-glass windows that had been planned for the chapel were never installed.  The lower section of the mausoleum houses the crypts.

The massive tomb has many features of the medieval cathedral from which it was inspired.  Typical of Gothic architecture, including Sainte-Chappelle, are the pointed arches which became popular in Western building designs during the 12^th Century.  Every window and nearly every door in the mausoleum do, indeed, have a pointed arch.  Visually the pointed arch is lighter and also allowed builders to create taller windows which gave the buildings an airy feeling.  In addition to the visual lightness, the pointed arch was stronger than the rounded arch which was popularized in Romanesque architectural designs.  The arches are highly decorated with multiple moldings giving the windows a delicate appearance.  Even though the moldings seem to be separate they are, in fact, carved together from the same blocks of stone—called voussoir blocks.

In addition to the decorative moldings each arched window has small decorative points projecting from the curves in the arch—this is known as cusping.  These are formed using small curves.  It is where these small curves meet and form a point or cusp.  Lastly, each window has a hood molding that forms at the side of the window and then culminates in the pointed arch.

Flanking both sides of the tomb are flying buttresses.  These highly decorative arches gave additional support to the walls within a building.  The buttresses were positioned at the points of greatest stress and added additional structural support.  Each of the flying buttresses are decorated with tall pinnacles which add weight to the buttress.  The connecting pieces between the buttresses and the building are referred to as flyers and even those are highly decorated with tracery and quatrefoils.

Even though the Dexter Family Mausoleum has deteriorated and many of the decorative elements, such as turrets, spires, crockets, and pinnacles, have decayed, the tomb remains a magnificent example of Gothic architecture and continues to be one of the most-sought after sights in the Spring Grove Cemetery a century and a half after it was completed.

If you view the four pinnacles on these flying buttresses in the picture above, only one is complete.  Tops of the pinnacles have fallen to the ground as well as the crockets.  Crockets are the protruding and highly-stylized foliage sculptural decorative pieces adorning the pinnacles.

Some of the pinnacles are missing entirely.

The sandstone in the tracery is beginning to deteriorate.

George Whittell, Jr.

September 28, 1881 – April 17, 1969

Elia Pascal Whittell

September 9, 1892 – May 1, 1977

George Whittell, Jr. was born rich—very rich.  His grandfather invested in real estate during the California Gold Rush and made a fortune.  Whittell made the decision not to enter the family business but to follow a life of leisure.  He had two failed marriages, both brief and to chorus girls.  His third marriage was to Elia Pascal, the nurse he met while wounded and serving in France as an ambulance driver.

Whittell pursued the life suitable to a multimillionaire, building a home near Lake Tahoe he named Thunderbird Lodge, and adding to his growing collection of Duesenbergs.  He was prescient about the Stock Market—taking out 50 million dollars of his investments out of the market only months before the crash which insulated him from the Great Depression.  Though, Whittell was considered a relatively private person, he did throw lavish parties in his home and on his 55-foot mahogany yacht, also bearing the name Thunderbird.  His lavish mausoleum in the Cypress Lawn Cemetery in Colma, California, is a testament to his fortune.

The Whittell Mausoleum is an example of the Egyptian Revival architecture found in many large urban cemeteries.  The Egyptian Revival was an architectural movement that swept the United States and Europe.  The movement in America was influenced by three separate events—the first was Napoleon’s defeat of Egypt in the 1790s.  Later Napoleon published the results of his scientific expedition, which was printed in serial form, the last released in 1826.  The second event was when the so-called “Cleopatra’s Needle” was erected in Central Park in New York on February 22, 1881.  Lastly, “Egypto-mania,” as some called it, reached fever pitch in November 1922 when King Tut’s tomb was discovered, and the news flashed around the world. The influence of the Egyptian Revival was reflected in buildings in the United States as early as the 1820s.  The revival was also found in American cemeteries in the 19^th century and on into the 20^th century. The obelisk, and ancient Egyptian form, is ubiquitous in cemeteries across the North American continent.

The mausoleum has many features of Egyptian temples such as the cavetto cornice that curves into a half circle at the top of the tomb.  Also, the torus molding at the bottom of the cornice and around the corners of the mausoleum are designed to emulate long bundled plants.   Another feature of Egyptian architecture are the heavy columns that flank the doorway with palm leaves at the top.

The Whittell Tomb also features a winged globe with uroei cavetto cornice above the doorway.  In this example, there are three sets of falcon wings that symbolize the king, the sun, and the sky.  The globe represents the Egyptian god, Horus.  The uroei, snakes, are waiting to strike.  They symbolize the king’s ability to ward off evil spirits.

The globe and uroei symbolism is repeated in the amulets around the necks of the sphinxes on the panels on the lower third of the bronze doors leading into the mausoleum.  The steps lead up to a pair of bronze doors that feature lotus flowers and buds.

The entryway is guarded by two large couchant sphinxes.  The most famous sculpture of a sphinx is the Great Sphinx of Giza outside of Cairo, Egypt.  In the Egyptian tradition the benevolent mythological creature has the head of a man and the body of a lion.  However, In the Greek tradition the sphinx is usually depicted as a woman, sometimes with wings.  This example is in the Greek tradition.  In addition to the gender difference, the Greek sphinx is considered a malevolent being.

The massive tomb gives one the sense of solemnity and a sense of eternity, just as the temples of the pharaohs.

Two cemeteries very far apart—Greenwood Cemetery in Phoenix, Arizona, and Crest Lawn Cemetery in Atlanta, Georgia, have the exact same statue of a man standing next to a woman with his arm around her.

In Greenwood the statue (pictured above) sits atop a columbarium which is a place where urns are “stored” in a cemetery.  The word “columbarium” has a Latin root and comes from the word “columba.” Columba referred to housing for doves that was divided into compartments for their housing.

In Crest Lawn the statue (pictured below) sits atop a sarcophagus mausoleum.  A ‘sarcophagus” is defined as a stone coffin and, generally, these structures do not have windows and are partially above ground.

Elisabeth L. Roark wrote an article about cemetery angels titled, “Embodying Immortality: Angels in America’s Rural Garden Cemeteries, 1850—1900”, pages 56 – 111, 2007 edition of Markers, XXIV, in which she categorized the eight most commonly found types of graveyard angels—grouped by the task they performed: soul-bearing; praying; decorating and guarding; pointing; recording; trumpeting; sword-bearing (archangel Michael); and child angels.

Angels are popular images found in cemeteries in America and throughout the Christian world.  The English word “angel,” is derived from the Greek word “aggelos” meaning messenger or herald.  Angels can be found in cemeteries in all shapes and sizes and in many different mediums including carved stone bas-reliefs on gravestones, full sculptures, and even in glass.

The stained-glass window angel in a John Beals Brown Neo-classical mausoleum in the Green Lawn Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio, does not fit nicely into one of the eight categories of most-commonly found angels outlined in Roark’s article.  She holds a crown in one hand—presumably to crown the deceased members buried in the tomb and a palm frond in the other–both symbols of victory over death.

The crown is a symbol of glory and reward and victory over death.  The reward comes after life and the hard-fought battle on Earth against the wages of sin and the temptations of the flesh.  The reward awaits in Heaven where the victor will receive a crown of victory.  The crown also represents the sovereign authority of the Lord.

The palm frond is an ancient symbol of victory, dating back to Roman times when victors were presented with palm fronds. The palm fronds were also laid in the path of Jesus as He entered Jerusalem. So, for many Christians, the palm represents righteousness, resurrection, and martyrdom, symbolizing the spiritual victory over death associated with the Easter story.