Buffalo’s Forest Lawn Cemetery is filled with incredible works of art. It’s most famous marker is a mausoleum for the Blocher family. At the cost of $100,000 in 1884, John and Elizabeth Blocher built the mausoleum to remember their son, Nelson. Nelson Blocher died at the age of 37 after a long illness.
John Blocher was a successful businessman who ran a successful dry goods store and made money off real estate foreclosures. His son worked in shoe manufacturing but enjoyed traveling the world.
Supposedly Nelson fell in love with a maid named Katherine Sullivan. His parents disapproved and sent him away to Italy. Supposedly the parents let Katherine go and told her to never return. Upon Nelson’s return he became bereft that Katherine was gone. Only her Bible was left behind.
Grief-stricken, Elizabeth implored her husband to create a memorial to honor their son. John designed the mausoleum, which is made of granite. The giant tomb is covered by a dome of one large piece of granite. It sits upon five pilasters, allowing three panes of glass to be installed for three ways to peer inside the mausoleum.
He employed the talents of sculptor Frank Torrey, who carved the four figures inside the mausoleum out of Carrara marble. John and Elizabeth look over their son, who clutches a Bible. Hovering above Nelson is an angel who reportedly looks like Katherine.Radiating from the mausoleum are three granite benches with each of the Blocher’s name etched into the bench.
Whether the story is true or a fable, it is clear the Blochers wanted their son to be memorialized in a grand way.
Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Blue Sky Mausoleum for Darwin D. Martin, a Buffalo businessman who worked for the Larkin Soap Company. The mausoleum is located in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, New York. The mausoleum was the fourth and final design Wright did at the request of Martin, even though it wasn’t built until 2004.
Martin’s brother recommended Wright to Martin to build the Larkin Administration Building for the Company. This endeavor launched a thirty-year friendship, during which Martin asked Wright to design his personal home in Buffalo and their summer home, Graycliff, which overlooked Lake Erie. Martin frequently loaned money to Wright. Unfortunately, he died destitute after he lost millions in the 1929 stock market crash.
Wright designed the Blue Sky Mausoleum in 1928 as the final resting place of Martin and his family. Unfortunately, Martin died in 1935, and his family was unable to afford the mausoleum. In fact, the Martin family plot was unmarked for decades.
“…a burial facing the open sky. The whole could not fail of noble effect.”
Frank Lloyd Wright
Blue Sky Mausoleum was not built until 2004. Forest Lawn Cemetery commissioned Anthony Puttnam, a Wright apprentice, to build the mausoleum. It was built upon the ideas shared in letters between Martin and Wright. The main marker highlights a quote by Wright to Martin about the mausoleum: “…a burial facing the open sky. The whole could not fail of noble effect.” It incorporates the organic architecture for which Wright was known.
Currently, six people are entombed in the mausoleum. According to the Blue Sky Mausoleum website, a total of 24 spaces are available.
Charlotte Canda (February 3, 1828-February 3, 1845) died on her 17th birthday in a carriage ride on the way home from her birthday. She is memorialized in an elaborate tomb at Green-wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.
Robert Launitz and John Franzee made this monument to reflect her life. The monument cost $45,000 to create. It is 17 feet and 17 feet wide. While it is tough to capture all of the details in her marker, many represent her life. She owned parrots and could speak five languages, which are illustrated on the monument.
Below are public domain stereograph images. Courtesy the New York Public Library.
This is my first post in the category of “Not Southern, also known as the “Mostly” part of my blog’s tagline. I shot these photos in 2010, a few months before the Chelsea Hotel was sold and went through a multi-year renovation process.
The Chelsea Hotel is located in Manhattan in the Chelsea neighborhood. Built on 23rd Street between 1883-1885, it has been the long-term home for many artists, musicians, and writers over the years. The architecture firm of Hubert, Pirrson & Company designed the twelve-story Queen Anne hotel to be one of the city’s first apartment cooperatives.
The hotel was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. There are many stories that I could share here, but many writers and musicians have told the story of the Chelsea Hotel better than I could. I thought people would want to see photos that I was able to take in 2010.
Founded in 1895, St. James Presbyterian Church began with members from the former Shiloh Presbyterian Church, first gathering at the Odd Fellows Hall on West 32nd Street.
After several relocations, including a move due to the construction of Penn Station, the congregation followed the Great Migration northward, settling in Harlem in 1915. By 1927, they moved into their current home at 141st Street & St. Nicholas Avenue, a building originally designed for Lenox Presbyterian Church. The building was designed by Ludlow & Valentine and completed in 1905.
