The Art and Architecture of Death
An elegantly simple cube with rusticated stone blocks to add texture and shading. Unlike most of the mausoleums in this cemetery, this one has kept its bronze doors. One wonders whether the designer intended the shallow stepped roof as a subtle recollection of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.
A modest rustic temple with Doric columns. Like most mausoleums in the South Side Cemetery, it has lost its bronze doors, and the gap has been filled with concrete blocks.
Old Pa Pitt always wonders how much snickering there was at the monument dealer’s when this order came in. This is a typical Victorian obelisk with the dangerous pointy end heavily shrouded. Behind it is the even taller Adams obelisk.
This statue of a wreath-bearing mourner looks more contemplative as she weathers into abstraction.
Old Pa Pitt is going to call this style Romanesque because of the medieval columns, rusticated stone, and rounded lintel; but it is perhaps a bit of a mixed metaphor in style. Like most of the mausoleums in the unguarded South Side Cemetery, it has lost its bronze doors, which have been replaced with ugly concrete blocks.
A weathered and damaged angel that is all the more picturesque for the damage. The right hand was probably strewing flowers when the statue was intact.
A fine and tasteful Art Deco stele that probably dates from 1933, when John E. Cook himself died. His wife and four of his six children died before him.
A very simple mausoleum whose visual interest comes mostly from the rusticated blocks, and their contrast with the finished doorframe.
Rusticated blocks and Doric columns are a popular combination for good reason: the Doric style is simple enough to go well with rough-cut stone, which adds interest to the otherwise blank side walls.
A simple rustic mausoleum, probably a stock model, immaculately kept, like everything in the West View Cemetery.