For some reason I had never noticed the Spink Mausoleum hiding in the trees, with its massive stylized Ionic columns flanking its bronzes doors.
An upside-down torch symbolizes life ended, as that is how you extinguish a torch. I have never extinguished a torch, so I will have to take their word for it.
I also discovered these two very nice sculpted monuments, one with a statue, and the other with a nice portrait in relief on the side.
Good morning chris. when I was in high school (Riverview Gardens) our humanities teacher Mr. Elgert took us on a field trip to Bellefontaine and Calvary cemetery, along with the two water towers in north st. Louis. He was a knowledgeable/interesting man and a great teacher. he wanted to show us the classical orders of architecture used in the mausoleums . He said in regards to the Wainwright mausoleum that architects from around the world make a pilgrimage to this building because of it’s half sphere resting on a perfect cube. He said the Louis Sullivan creation was an architectural masterpiece. The mosaics are pretty cool also. It was a great field trip.
The folks from Bellefontaine have been doing a series of lectures about the cemetery at the Central Library. The next one is about the iconography there. It’s October 2 at 6:30.