Tag Archives: cemetery

-New York, Cemeteries, National Register of Historic Places, Symbolism

A Memorial to a Broken Heart in Buffalo’s Forest Lawn Cemetery

July 26, 2025 Cynthia L Jennings Leave a comment

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.

Article in the January 24, 1984 issue of *The Buffalo Commercial*announces the death of Nelson Blocher.

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.

-New York, Cemeteries, National Register of Historic Places

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Blue Sky Mausoleum

July 16, 2025 Cynthia L Jennings Leave a comment

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.

-Georgia, Cemeteries, National Register of Historic Places, Symbolism

The Memorial to the Six Million in Atlanta’s Greenwood Cemetery

June 17, 2025 Cynthia L Jennings Leave a comment

Greenwood Cemetery is one of my favorite cemeteries in Atlanta. Its diversity in markers and burial sections illustrates the different people who call Atlanta home. Greenwood has an extensive Jewish section. There are many people buried here who escaped Nazi Germany. After World War II, many Jews immigrated to Atlanta.

In 1964, Jewish Holocaust survivors created the Eternal Life-Hemshech. Their focus was to create a memorial where people could mourn and recite Kaddish.

The organization turned to Benjamin Hirsch, a Holocaust survivor who lost family during the Holocaust and an alumnus of the Georgia Tech Architecture program. He chose locally quarried Stone Mountain granite to symbolize trauma and resilience. The memorial contains four entrances, representing the earth’s four corners, and all were welcome through the “doors.”

Six torches extend into the sky from the center of the memorial. Each torch represents one million people who lost their lives during the Holocaust. During the annual Yom HaShoah services, they are lit. At its center rise six towering torches, each representing one million Jewish lives extinguished by the Nazis. During the annual Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) services, these torches are lit. Under the torches in a vault, there are ashes interred of some of the people who lost their lives at Dachau.

The memorial opened on April 25, 1965. There are annual services held at the memorial.

In 2008, the memorial was recognized on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2024, the memorial was restored.

-Alabama, Cemeteries, Churches and Temples, Vernacular Headstones

The Ruins of Harmony Hill Church and Cemetery of Chambers County, Alabama

May 31, 2025 Cynthia L Jennings Leave a comment

I learned about Harmony Hill Cemetery when an account I follow posted images of a ledger stone with marbles. Marbles are one of my favorite folk art finds on headstones, and I will document them whenever I can. I was in Chambers County looking for the William “Rock” Jackson grave markers and decided to find this cemetery.

The cemetery can be found on a dirt road west of Oak Bowery. The easiest path into cemetery lead me to what I believe are the remains of the Harmony Hill Baptist Church.

Research has not given me much information. According to FindAGrave, the earliest burial is 1891. The most recent obituary is from 1971, which matches the last burial in the cemetery. Jeffie Allison (1887-1981) is one of five members of the Allison family buried here.

One of the dozens of field stones in the cemetery.

I believe this to be an old grave marker.

This is the grave of Lucy Presley (1871-1927). Her headstone is a common handmade one that can be seen in the South. Her grave ledger is decorated with marbles.

These are the graves of brothers James and Luke Moody. They died within six days of each other in 1903. A records search doesn’t show why they died so close to each other.

If you know more about this church and cemetery, please let me know.

-Alabama, -Georgia, Cemeteries, Churches and Temples, Symbolism, Vernacular Headstones

The Gravemarkers of Stone Carver William “Rock” Jackson

May 29, 2025 Cynthia L Jennings 1 Comment

William Rufus “Rock” Jackson (1808-1892) was a gin operator, miller, and headstone carver who lived and worked in Chambers County, Alabama. Jackson became known for his carving and made many tombstones for his family and community members using local green schist or steatite. Also known as soapstone, steatite is mainly composed of talc, which makes it relatively soft.

Mount Hickory Cemetery outside of LaFayette, Alabama

Jackson’s markers, characterized by their distinctive green-blue coloring, can be found throughout eastern Alabama. Colloquially, the stone was also called “blue marble.” The headstones feature a variety of symbols with recognizable lettering. According to Cox (2010), who wrote their thesis on Jackson’s tombstones, the most common elements are hearts and fern branches, but there are dozens of designs in the over 400 markers they documented. Markers have been identified in four counties.

So far, I have documented the vernacular headstones in three cemeteries: Long Cane Baptist Church in Troup County, Georgia (top image), Mount Hickory Cemetery in Chambers County, and Concord Primitive Baptist Church in Randolph County. One thing I noticed is that not all headstones were oriented toward the east, so it made photographing the headstones a challenge. I will document more headstones during future visits to eastern Alabama.