Lake View Cemetery

Lake View Cemetery

The James A. Garfield Memorial in Lake View cemetery.
Location of Lake View Cemetery
Details
Year established 1869
Country United States of America
Location Cleveland, Ohio
Type Public
Size 70 acres (28 ha)
Number of graves 104,000

Lake View Cemetery is located on the east side of the City of Cleveland, Ohio, along the East Cleveland and Cleveland Heights borders. There are over 104,000 people buried at Lake View,[1]:98 with more than 700 burials each year. There are 70 acres (0.28 km2) remaining for future development. Known locally as "Cleveland's Outdoor Museum," Lake View Cemetery is home to the James A. Garfield Memorial, Wade Memorial Chapel, which features an interior designed by Louis Tiffany,[2] as well as an 80,000,000-US-gallon (300,000,000 l) capacity concrete-filled dam.

Contents

History

Lake View Cemetery was founded in 1869 and sits on 285 acres (1.15 km2) of land.[1]:98 The cemetery is so named because it is partially located in the "heights" area of Greater Cleveland, with a view of Lake Erie to the north. It was modeled after the great garden cemeteries of Victorian era England and France. The Italian stonemasons brought in to create the Cemetery founded the Cleveland neighborhood of Little Italy just to its southwest.

The James A. Garfield Memorial is the most prominent point of interest at Lake View Cemetery. The ornate interior features a large marble statue, stained glass, bas relief, and various historical relics from Garfield's life and presidency. The monument also serves as a scenic observation deck and picnic area. President and Mrs. Garfield are entombed in the lower level crypt, their coffins placed side by side and visible to cemetery visitors.

The other prominent structure in the cemetery is the Wade Chapel. A small-but-magnificent chapel with Tiffany windows and elaborate Biblically-inspired mosaics on the walls, the edifice is still used for small weddings and located north and down the hill from the Garfield monument. Behind the chapel is a large pond.

The cemetery is among those profiled in the 2005 PBS documentary A Cemetery Special.

Notable interments

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Vigil, Vicki Blum (2007). Cemeteries of Northeast Ohio: Stones, Symbols & Stories. Cleveland, OH: Gray & Company. ISBN 978-1-59851-025-6. 
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "Lake View Cemetery". Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Case Western Reserve University. http://ech.cwru.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=LVC. Retrieved 2009-05-17. 
  3. ^ "Bolton, Frances Payne". Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Case Western Reserve University. http://ech.cwru.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=BFP. Retrieved 2009-05-17. 

External links