The Art and Architecture of Death
The last resting place of many a robber baron who had lived in the millionaires’ havens of the East End.
Doubtless an armchair psychologist would have something to say about the attraction of big pointy things as a display of wealth. From a practical point of view, however, an obelisk is a very efficient—and, more importantly, traditional—way to achieve height. Finding the family plot in a large cemetery is not always easy, and a landmark like this helps a great deal.
Here is a family plot that seems laid out for ancestor-worshiping rituals. The massive classical monument dominates the plot from the rear; in front of it is a classical altar where the descendants could kneel and offer their sacrifices. The older members of the family are named Schwartz; at about the time of the First World War, the younger ones adopted the easy Americanization of Black.
A simple but elegant Ionic mausoleum, seen here with the much more extravagant Brown pyramid in the background.
A rich-looking Ionic façade with a Victorian profusion of details, including rusticated stone blocks. It seems to have been a stock model; an exact duplicate was built for the Wilson family in the Union Dale Cemetery.
A very Victorian towering shaft topped with an urn. It probably dates from 1891, when A. R. Sloan died.
This unusual round Doric temple, unlike a closed mausoleum, invites cemetery visitors to step up and under the roof. There the names of the Baum family members interred here are inscribed in an open stone book on a lectern.
Generations of Heinzes rest in this Jeffersonian domed mausoleum, including H. J. the ketchup king and the late Senator John Heinz.
Leaves are falling, and the low angle of the late-year sun illuminates them in an irresistibly picturesque way.
This pyramid, almost certainly the most-photographed mausoleum in the cemetery, was designed for William Harry Brown, banker and heir to a shipping empire, by Alden & Harlow, Andrew Carnegie’s favorite architects. It was built in 1898.
A strange Egyptian gateway to nowhere, made of rich polished stone and bronze. It probably dates from about 1927, when Alfred Reed Hamilton was buried in this plot.
