We usually bring news about construction projects for the living, but a tipster wrote in to tell us about a new mausoleum under construction at Cave Hill Cemetery, so we decided to stop by for a look at the construction site. Tucked into a hillside of the 296-acre cemetery and arboretum in a row of Victorian-era graves and mausolea, a series of five interconnected structures overlook the twin-lakes and stone chapel.
The Lakeview Mausoleum complex provides a variety of arrangements for crypts and niches for cremated remains and two of the buildings will have accessible courtyards similar to many of the historic structures in the area. Each of the five components will have individual facades.
Currently, the Lakeside Mausoleum is only a concrete shell, but later stone facades with lintel carvings and columns will be installed. The project was designed by Milne Mausoleums and is expected to be complete by the end of May 2009. There’s a video walkthrough on the Cave Hill web site if you would like to see what the finished product will look like.
Cave Hill Cemetery opened in 1848 as an extension of the rural, garden-style, Victorian cemetery movement which was rooted in Europe. As it was in the beginning, and even now, it is not uncommon for the cemetery to be used as recreational grounds. This began to subside gradually as Cherokee Park opened with the Olmsted Parks initiative in the late 1800’s.
“The garden setting would be a natural backdrop for the lots and monuments and the cemetery would receive perpetual attention and could never be violated” stipulations never before provided. Here then was a place not to be shunned, but a park to be sought out for its beauty and the spiritual elevation gained from contemplating the collective accomplishments of its inhabitants.”
Lakeside Mausoleum is the second community mausoleum built at cave hill recently. A smaller Hillside Garden Mausoleum was finished a few years ago just down the path from the new project alongside several historic mausolea.
- Cave Hill Cemetery (Official Site)
