Edwards Mausoleum

J. Gordon Edwards Mausoleum
June 24, 1867–December 31, 1925
Kensico Cemetery
Valhalla, New York

This one-of-a-kind mausoleum is the resting place of prolific silent film director J. Gordon Edwards. Canadian-born Edwards was one of the most prominent movie directors in the silent film era. He began his career as a stage actor and director, and then, in 1914, he made his film debut as director of St. Elmo. Not long after his debut, he became a director at Fox Film Corporation (Fox merged with Twentieth Century Pictures in 1935 to become Twentieth Century Fox). From St. Elmo in 1914 until his last film It Is the Law in 1924, Edwards directed over 50 films. He is best known for directing the original Cleopatra in 1917; The Queen of Sheba in 1921 that contained a enormous chariot race; and all of Theda Bara’s films from 1916 to 1919 (including her most noted role in Cleopatra). Theda Bara said Edwards was the kindest director she had ever worked with.

Edward’s wife Angela commissioned this mausoleum some years after Edwards’ death, and it is an homage to the exotic high-production period films Edwards directed. The twin minarets were originally wired for electricity. Inside the mausoleum are a number of movie props including chairs and a tiger skin rug. Often, Angela would visit the mausoleum and read while seated in one of the chairs. When she died in 1965, she directed that she be cremated and her ashes be mingled with her husband’s. Their ashes are sealed in one of the crypts inscribed with the last line (Canto XXXIII, line 145) of The Divine Comedy Part III Paradiso by Dante Alighieri: “L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stele,” or “The Love which moves the sun and the other stars.” J. Gordon Edwards is the grandfather of director Blake Edwards (July 26, 1922–December 15, 2010).
Text and copy © Douglas Keister Visit Doug’s Author Page
[address cemetery=”Kensico Cemetery” street=”273 Lakeview Avenue” city=”Valhalla” state=”New York” zip=”10595″]

LaFarge Mausoleum

John LaFarge
March 31, 1835 – November 14, 1910
Green-Wood Cemetery
Brooklyn, New York

The mausoleum/vault of American artist John LaFarge (sometimes spelled La Farge) is tucked into a hillside just above Atlantic Avenue. LaFarge was born in New York City. He developed an interest in art during his early schooling (he was doing watercolors at age 6), but was steered toward a career in law. That began to change when he visited Paris where he stated associating with people involved in the arts. Upon his return to the United States, he began executing drawings and landscapes that showed a marked gift for combining color values. He started illustrating books, then moved into murals where he exhibited a vivid sense of composition and color. He was particularly drawn to religious-themed subjects, and was commissioned to do murals for churches in Boston and New York.

Some of LaFarge’s most well known works were those he executed in stained glass. He is credited with first using opalescent glass in stained glass windows, receiving a patent for his process on February 24, 1880. He ushered in what has become known as the “opalescent era” (1880-1920), where glass was produced in multicolored, textured sheets often with an iridescent sheen. Among his stained glass masterpieces are windows at the Trinity Church in Boston, St Paul’s Chapel at Colombia University in New York, First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia, Trinity Episcopal Church in Buffalo, and the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. LaFarge also designed mausoleum windows.
Text and copy © Douglas Keister Visit Doug’s Author Page

[address cemetery=”Green-Wood Cemetery” street=”Willow Avenue” city=”New York” state=”New York” zip=”11218″]

Kennedy Mausoleum

John Stewart Kennedy Mausoleum
January 4, 1830–October 30, 1909
Woodlawn Cemetery
Bronx, New York

John Stewart Kennedy was born in Glasgow, Scotland. Although he received little formal education, he educated himself and got a job as a clerk. At age 20, he was sent to the United States to represent an iron firm for which he was working. Shortly after his arrival, he went into business with banker Morris K. Jessup. Kennedy became an adept negotiator, and was a skilled reorganizer. He used those skills when he became one of the receivers of the Central Railroad of New Jersey in 1888. In later life, he became involved in a number of philanthropic causes, and his will stipulated over $30 million in bequests. John Stewart Kennedy has been called one of America’s “little-known rich men.” His drab-colored garden-variety Classical Revival mausoleum belies a spectacular interior ceiling.
Text and copy © Douglas Keister Visit Doug’s Author Page

[address cemetery=”Woodlawn Cemetery” street=”517 E 233rd St” city=”Bronx” state=”New York” zip=”10470″]

Kiralfy Mausoleum

Imre Kiralfy
1845-April 27, 1919
Green-Wood Cemetery
Brooklyn, New York

Imre Kiralfy was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire city of Pest, now Budapest, Hungary, in 1845. He was the oldest of seven children born to Jacob Konigsbaum, a well-to-do clothing manufacturer, and his wife Anna (Rosa) Weisberger. The Jewish family suffered through the 1848 Hungarian Revolution. Young Imre showed a talent for the arts, and dancing in particular, making his debut as a Hungarian folk dancer at age four. He adopted the stage name Kiralfy. Eventually five of his six siblings joined him on stage.

The family moved to Berlin and then to Paris while the children performed in theatres in Britain, France, and the Low Countries. In 1872 Imre married Englishwoman Marie Graham (1851-1942) in New York. The couple had nine children, but only six survived into adulthood. The Kiralfy brothers produced extravagant stage shows with large chorus lines, elaborate costumes, and spectacular special effects, but, after a few years, the brothers split due to artistic differences.

Imre struck out on his own, producing shows in England and the United States. His best known productions were The Fall of Babylon, Nero, Columbus, and The Black Crook.

Assisted by his son Charles, Imre created a lavish spectacle, titled America, in Auditorium Theatre in Chicago to coincide with the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, or the Chicago World’s Fair. America grossed $900,000 in its seven-month run. Returning to London, Imre rebuilt the Earl’s Court exhibition grounds as a small-scale version of Chicago’s White City in 1893. In 1905 he began planning Great White City in the Shepherd’s Bush section of London. Built in a palatial oriental style, it opened in 1908 with the Franco-British Exhibition, and eventually tallied eight million visitors. Imre Kiralfy died in Brighton, England leaving £136,000 (about 8 million dollars today) in his will.
Text and copy © Douglas Keister Visit Doug’s Author Page

[address cemetery=”Green-wood Cemetery” street=”Willow Ave” city=”New York” state=”New York” zip=”11218″]

Steinway Mausoleum

Green-Wood Cemetery
Brooklyn, New York

The largest private mausoleum in Green-Wood holds the earthy remains of dozens of members of the Steinway family, and there’s room for dozens more. Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (1797-1871) arrived in the United States with his family in 1851. He soon anglicized his name to Henry Engelhard Steinway. Steinway was already a successful piano-maker in Germany, and he and his four sons found ready work at piano companies in New York before striking out on their own in 1853 as Steinway and Sons. The company soon became known for quality workmanship and garnered awards at expositions in London and Paris. Steinway’s simple principle was to build the best possible piano without regard for price, and to strive to always improve the instrument. The company has earned over 120 patents, a greater number than any other piano company.

The Steinway mausoleum was built shortly after Henry Steinway’s death for $80,000 ($1.5 million today). It was designed by John Moffitt and contains over 200 individual crypts. Its hilly perch makes it appear even more massive and imposing. The cemetery frequently opens this private mausoleum to visitors during special events.

Steinway Mausoleum Interior

Two walls of crypts line the interior of the mausoleum. Each wall contains 56 crypts. A large piece of granite covers an underground vault. Just out of view at the bottom left are the crypts of Henry Steinway and his wife Julia. The lettering on the marble cover fronting his crypt reads, “E. Henry Steinway, Born February 15th 1797, at Wolfshagen, Duchy of Brunswick, Germany, arrived in New-York June 29th. 1850. Name lawfully changed from “Steinweg” Died February 7th, 1871.”
Text and photo &copy: Douglas Keister Visit Doug’s Author Page

[address cemetery=”Green-wood Cemetery” street=”500 25th Street” city=”Brooklyn” state=”New York” zip=”11232″]

Taylor Mausoleum

Henry A. C. Taylor
1840/1841–May 20, 1921
Woodlawn Cemetery
Bronx, New York

Henry A. C. Taylor was a financier and corporate director who served as director of National City Bank, trustee of New York Life Insurance Co., director of the Metropolitan Opera and the Real Estate Company. He came from an old New York family, and, after graduating from Columbia University, quickly rose through the ranks of his father’s firm, Moses Taylor & Co.

The mausoleum was designed in the Classical Revival style by architects McKim Mead & White in 1900. It was fabricated by R. C. Fischer & Co. in Vermont marble. The mausoleum’s façade features two heavily relieved Corinthian columns that frame a set of two immense bronze doors with intricate grille work. Dentil molding and a coronet inscribed with the letter T (for Taylor) embellish the lintel above the door. Festoons, putti, and dentil molding decorate a frieze that circles the perimeter of the mausoleum. The mausoleum is topped with a dome that rises above a complex projecting cornice. The base of the structure is unusually high hinting at the additional interment vaults that are accessed by a removable floor slab.
Text and photo © Douglas Keister Visit Doug’s Author Page

[address cemetery=”Woodlawn Cemetery” street=”Webster Avenue E 233rd Street” city=”Bronx” state=”New York” zip=”10470″]

Douras Mausoleum

Marion Davies/Marion Cecelia Douras
January 3, 1897–September 22, 1961

Marion Davies, whose real name was Marion Cecelia Douras, was a Ziegfield Follies dancer. Shortly after meeting publisher William Randolph Hearst, she became his mistress and constant companion for over thirty years. With Hearst’s sponsorship, she was cast in a number of films and proved to be a credible actress, appearing in films in the 1920s and ’30s. Also residing in the mausoleum is Arthur Lake (April 17, 1905–January 9, 1987), most noted for playing the role of Dagwood Bumstead in the Blondie movies.
Text and photo © Douglas Keister Visit Doug’s Author Page

[address cemetery=”Hollywood Forever Cemetery” street=”” city=”Los Angeles” state=”California” zip=”90038″]

Clark Mausoleum

William Andrews Clark Jr.
March 29, 1877–June 14, 1934

The mausoleum of William A. Clark, founder of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, sits on an island in the middle of a pond. The elegant Classical Revival family mausoleum was built in 1920, well before his death in 1934. It was constructed of Georgia marble and was designated the most beautiful monument constructed between 1925 and 1928 by the Architectural Society of America.
Text and photo © Douglas Keister Visit Doug’s Author Page

[address cemetery=”Hollywood Forever Cemetery” street=”” city=”Los Angeles” state=”California” zip=”90038″]