Category Archives: Mausoleums

Keeping up with the Joneses

Posted on June 6, 2015 by gravelyspeaking

The Soper Mausoleum in the Fairmount Cemetery at Denver, Colorado, was commissioned by Susan Soper in honor of her husband, Roger.  The mausoleum is constructed of rusticated sandstone, that is, the sandstone on the sides of the mausoleum are rough … Continue reading →

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A Victorian Folly

Posted on May 5, 2015 by gravelyspeaking

  The Metarie Cemetery at New Orleans is by most accounts one of the great garden cemeteries in the United States, if such things are rated. The famous, the rich, the infamous, the highly decorated, and the obscure are all … Continue reading →

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The Maker of the Modern Mall

Posted on May 2, 2015 by gravelyspeaking

The modern-style polished-granite mausoleum in the Fairmount Cemetery at Denver, Colorado, was designed by and built for Temple Hoyne Buell (1895–1990) a noted architect who gained lasting fame for designing the first-ever American shopping mall. Buell was a prolific and … Continue reading →

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On a Pedestal, 2

Posted on February 6, 2015 by gravelyspeaking

James Dougherty 1815 – 1900 Atop the light pink granite Dougherty Mausoleum in the Laurel Hill Cemetery at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is a bronze statue of the bearded and handsomely dressed James Doughtery, an iron foundry owner, prominent citizen, and social … Continue reading →

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An oddly-shaped pearl

Posted on January 13, 2015 by gravelyspeaking

Jacob Burnett February 22, 1770 – May 10, 1853 Rebecca Wallace Burnet August 23, 1778 – January 3, 1867 Jacob Burnet was a prominent citizen and early leader in Ohio, serving in various elected and appointed posts including, serving on … Continue reading →

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Worldly Achievement

Posted on December 26, 2014 by gravelyspeaking

The modern Romanesque mausoleum in the Rosehill Cemetery at Chicago has carved on it the laurel leaf. The vine starts half way up the rounded arch and leads to the top of the mausoleum where it culminates in a square … Continue reading →

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The Pyramid: Monumental Architecture

Posted on October 22, 2014 by gravelyspeaking

This is my 500th post. So, to commemorate the occasion, I wanted to write about something monumental. When it comes to funerary sculpture and architecture, nothing is more monumental than the pyramid.  The Egyptians knew how to bury their dead, … Continue reading →

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Art Nouveau

Posted on August 21, 2014 by gravelyspeaking

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 … Continue reading →

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Venetian Gothic

Posted on May 25, 2014 by gravelyspeaking

With the exception of the ornamentation on the top of the Spotts Mausoleum, two nearly identical mausoleums, one in the Cave Hill Cemetery at Louisville, Kentucky, and the other in the Mt. Olivet Cemetery at Nashville, Tennessee, were designed and … Continue reading →

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The Mausoleum that the Hot Dog Built

Posted on September 11, 2013 by gravelyspeaking

Charles Feltman (November 8, 1841-September 20, 1910) The Charles Feltman Mausoleum in the Green-Wood Cemetery at Brooklyn is a neo-classical temple honoring the man many consider to be the creator of the American hot dog.  Feltman, a German immigrant, started … Continue reading →

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