Founded in 1844 and inspired like many American rural cemetery movement burial grounds by Père LaChaise Cemetery in Paris, Spring Grove Cemetery is the huge contributor to the field in Cincinnati. Like many others, a cholera epidemic and a desire to replace small urban cemeteries spurred its founding. An impressive Gothic Revival gatehouse welcomes the…
Tag: Cemeteries
Bellefontaine Cemetery, Late November 2022
I realized it had been some time since I had photographed Bellefontaine Cemetery, so I snapped some late November views that were new or ones that I had not taken in a long time.
Montmartre Cemetery
Across Paris in the Montmartre area is another cemetery, built in the basin of a former limestone quarry–a common theme where largely unbuildable land is used for the burial of the dead. It’s an interesting counterpoint to Père Lachaise; Montmartre Cemetery is still a rural cemetery movement space but it is more rigid and just…
Père Lachaise Cemetery
Perhaps a visit to the burial ground where so many iconic people are buried would not be as memorable if a steady rain were not falling as I walked the winding paths of Père Lachaise Cemetery. Designed as the first rural or garden cemetery, laid out with winding paths and forested lanes, the land lies…
Two Events Coming Up Soon
I would like to invite my readers to two wonderful events coming up this weekend and the first weekend of October. Imagine yourself trapped between two hostile forces during the Civil War in Missouri. Caught in this huge conflict the enslaved Archer Alexander would earn his freedom, because of his brave act at the Peruque Creek bridge…
End of Summer Odds and Ends
I first would like to invite readers out to my free lecture on the history of the Lemp Brewery tomorrow, at 11:00 AM, September 20, 2022 at the Missouri History Museum. Its architecture was born out of the designs of highly influential architects Edmund Jungenfeld; Theodore Krausch; Widman, Walsh and Boisselier; and Guy Tyler Norton. I will be…
Two Churches in the Land Between the Rivers
We looked at two churches in that flat bottomland sandwiched between the Missouri and Mississippi rivers that forms an almost peninsula-like eastern tail of St. Charles County. The first one, Trinity Lutheran Church at the intersection of Highway 94 and Church Road, dates from 1876, when it was calved off from Emmanuel Lutheran. The church…
Around Woodford County, Illinois, June 2022
I went around and looked at some of the towns northeast of the family farm. I started with Eureka, the county seat of Woodford County. I could have sworn I had featured the courthouse before, but apparently not. Got to love the bank where they filled in the windows–who needs natural light when there’s amazing…
Bethel Church, Logan County, Illinois
Through the randomness of Google Maps, I spotted a new landmark popping up in the countryside north of Lincoln, Illinois. Labeled Bethel Church, I knew the short ten minute drive off the interstate was going to be worthwhile. The style of the church is an interesting mix of the massing of the Gothic Revival, with…