The Art and Architecture of Death
Both the mausoleum and the statue on top are identical to the Braun mausoleum in the South Side Cemetery, suggesting that the mausoleum and statue came as a set. This one is missing its bronze doors.
Not many families chose modern architecture for their private mausoleums, but for their clients with modern tastes, a few companies did make up-to-date modernistic mausoleums like this one, a plain cube with an off-center door. The cartoon outline of a stained-glass window on the left is an odd concession to the popular notion that a funerary monument ought to have some sort of decoration. (There is also real stained glass inside, and a rusting iron bench to sit on and contemplate mortality.)
Silhouetted against a morning sky, this obelisk marks the Blum family plot in the oldest part of the cemetery.
Should we call this a fat obelisk or a thin stele? Either way, it serves its function of making the graves of Mr. and Mrs. Haas easy to find. The foliage decoration is notable.
Joseph and Mary Hughey’s descendants must have no trouble at all finding their graves. This immense stone has the most extravagant foliage decoration in the cemetery.
This urn bears no markings, or at least none that old Pa Pitt could find. It is picturesque in its way, whether it marks a grave or whether it is just a landscape decoration.
An almost cartoonishly bulky and substantial rustic mausoleum, missing its bronze doors, which have been replaced by ugly concrete blocks. We can imagine that it must have looked much more inviting with artistic bronze doors and flower arrangements dripping over the edges of the urns.
The only legible stone in this well-maintained plot belongs to Conrad Reich, who died in 1896. A damaged stone next to his is probably for his wife Gertrude, who died in 1910. They had children who are buried in this cemetery, but the ones old Pa Pitt could trace were buried in other plots. So it seems that Mr. and Mrs. Reich have quite a bit of room in here to stretch their legs.
This angel is the guardian of the cemetery, taking careful notes about who has been stealing bronze doors from mausoleums. You have been warned.
