Woodlawn Cemetery Tea at the Toledo Art Museum Photo

Summary

Historic Woodlawn Cemetery was recognized equally a National Celebrated site in 1998. The overall landscape design, which follows the principles of the rural cemetery motility, is a significant feature of the commune and has been counted as a site. Woodlawn Cemetery has maintained its integrity as a fine example of the "rural cemetery" program. The rural cemetery incorporates the natural beauty of the mural with advisedly planned lots, and this is what the founders of Woodlawn Cemetery had in mind when they chose the present site. The cemetery association has been careful to maintain the natural landscape and loftier quality grave markers. Kirk Holdcroft, current Director of the cemetery (1993) and President of the Board of Trustees (1994), is committed to ensuring the cemetery continues in this tradition.

*What is a necrology? In short, it means "obituary" (Meriam- Webster), a "list of deaths" (Oxford), or a discover of deaths including a biography (vocabulary.com).   In older practices (e.thousand., in monsteries, cemeteries), necrologies were "registers contaiing the entries of deaths of persons connected with, or commemorated past" an instituion or organization (based on a derfinition inThe Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, 1970)

About the Academy of Toledo's Historic Woodlawn Cemetery Project (1995)

During the 1995 winter term, members of Dr. Diane Britton'south public history practicum course at the Academy of Toledo researched and wrote a history of Woodlawn Cemetery. Students worked with sources at the cemetery's administrative offices, the local history drove of the Toledo Lucas Canton Public Library, the Toledo Bract, the University of Toledo's Canaday Center Archives, and the Lucas County Auditor'south Office. They too conducted field surveys and spoke with people in the community familiar with the cemetery'south past. The report of Woodlawn provides an case of the fashion that public history at the University of Toledo focuses on community outreach activities and cooperative projects. The program emphasizes the application of historical knowledge and methodology beyond academe that encourages a consideration of the past in daily life. As a cultural and historical establishment, Woodlawn Cemetery tells us much virtually Toledo'due south past and provides an important resource for studying local history.

Biographies: A-B

James Ashley, Sr. - Roy William Babcock - Marcus Barbour - Rudolph A. Bartley - James Baumgardner - Anderton Bentley - John Berdan - Charles H. Breyman - Otis Avery Browning

Biographies: C-F

Alonzo Chesbrough - Albert "Bert" South. Close - Elmer Harry Close - Frank Collins* - John Craig - Frank, Howard and George Crosby/Crosby Brothers - Frances Crosby - William Culver - Judge Joseph W. Cummings - Robert S. Cummings - William Cummings - Edwin F. Damschroder Sr. - Isaac Horning Detwiler - Henry Contrivance - Charles C. Doolittle - John Hardy Doyle - John Felker - Stevens Warren Bloom - George R. Ford - Albert Five. Foster - John W. Fuller

*The original list from 1995 besides includes Florence Collins but the link leads to Frank Collins's biography.

Biographies: G-L

John C. Gipe - Benjamin F. Griffin - John Gunckel - Arthur Hickock - Henry Hinde - Hugh Webb Hubbard - Thomas Hubbard - Samuel Milton Jones - Adrian "Addie" Joss - John Milton Killits - Clarence Lamb - George W. Lathrop - Gustav A. Lay - The Charles T. Lewis Family - Edward Drummond Libbey - Gilson Don Light - David Ross Locke - Robinson Locke

Biographies: M-R

Albert East. Macomber - Guido Marx - William V. McMaken - George Stratford Mills - Clement Orville Miniger - Raymon Mulford - Elizabeth Mulholland - Lynn 1000. Murphy - Colonel Henry. G. Neubert - Albert Neukom - C. Burton Nickels - Charles Northup - John William Oswald - Earle L. Peters - Major Merrill Due north. Pheatt - John Shearing Pratt - Erwin P. Raymond - Colonel William H. Raynor - Frazier Reams - Dr. Calvin Hamilton Reed - S.C. Reynolds and West. B. Reynolds - William Edgar Richards - Ramson Richards - George Due west. Ritter - Jefferson D. Robinson - Horton C. Rorick

Biographies: S-Z

William H. Scott - James Secor - Jay K. Secor - Secor, Joseph K. - Gen. Isaac R. Sherwood - Spitzer Family - Genl. James B. Steedman - George Butler Storer - Robert A. and Frank D. Stranahan - The Tiedtke Brothers - Sergeant Ernst Torgler - Thomas H. Tracy - Morrison Remmick Waite - The Walbridge Family - William Spooner Walbridge - Herbert Whitney - Alvin Mansfield Woolson - Samuel Young

Toledo's Woodlawn Cemetery

From "Notes from the Editors" by Charles Due north. Glaab. Northwest Ohio Quarterly, Winter 1996

The subject of this outcome-the history of cemeteries in Northwest Ohio-presents an opportunity for more tranquil observations than our editorial comments of late on the current "state of war against history." But perhaps not entirely. Much of the rancorous debate on the effort to constitute national standards for the teaching of history or for exhibits on the Enola Gay, Sigmund Freud and slave life assumes the existence of an irrefutable body of historical knowledge that can be uncovered past trained historical scholars to produce a true conclusion-mayhap not a scientific truth only something nearly then. But this is not the history we seek when we visit a cemetery. The unmarried-minded analysis that is a part of gimmicky contend overemphasizes the unity of historical knowledge. In his famous critical essay, "The Use and Abuse of History," Frederick Nietzsche pointed out that history exists at unlike levels of comprehension, all of which have a measure of validity -or in his view, more than exactly, a lack of validity. Amid these are the "antiquarian," which connects an individual with a place and creates the impulse to survey "the marvelous individual life of the by" and place oneself "with the spirit of the house, the family, and the city." For the individual the "history of the boondocks becomes the history of himself." 1

It is ordinarily this antiquarian imperative that impels people to visit country graveyards, the remaining burial grounds in our cities and the mod cemeteries of recent times-to observe the tombs of the famous, and to wonder at the creativity of monuments to expiry. The antique impulse strengthens, of class, with age. The young fearfulness the graveyard, equally they experience the get-go shudder of mortality. The japery imposed on every kid who grew upwardly in a modest town-"I went out to the cemetery today; I saw everyone I know there"-acquires new dimensions as years pass. But a visit to a graveyard seldom evokes a sense of i kind of historical reality, that the mountebank and the reprobate, the vicious and the avaricious-the villains who fill up our bookish histories-lie there. More often, as Nietzsche observes, i simply "looks back to the origins of his existence with love and trust; through information technology he gives thanks for life." 2

Nietzsche'southward antique impulse, which takes many to the historical museum or historical site, or the graveyard, may be as much a mystical equally a historical experience. When we visit these places seeking historical dimensions, nosotros seldom are searching for the historical truths of the academy. Nevertheless, a tour of the cemeteries of the Toledo region, some of which are portrayed in a photographic essay in this issue, provides a few obvious insights into historical forces that shaped American society. Notably demonstrated is the unity of Western civilization; at that place is footling cultural diversity in the iconography of Christianity. Christ figures, cherubim and angelic hordes grow alongside the symbols of the civilization of Hellenic republic and Rome. The omnipresent obelisks and occasional pyramids represent role of a nineteenth-century cultural effort to tie Europe and America to aboriginal Egypt, the kickoff culture, it was thought, upon which had been built the civilisation of Europe. The 20th-century temperament replaces ornate Victorian statuary with cubes and spheres and the occasional minimalist mausoleum, while a continual fascination with technology makes trains and airplanes the celestial omnibus. (The Globe Wide Cemetery on the Internet and light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation sealing of durable pictorial images on tombstones correspond the latest homage to applied science in memorializing the dead. iii) In the latter years of the century, the traditional cemetery of monuments and statuary has often been succeeded by the ultimate in minimalism-the memorial park with acres of grass and occasional shrubbery, but with no raised tombs to disturb the sublimity of nature.

The cemeteries of the Toledo region are for the most part a product of the modernistic flow of cemetery building-the era of the "rural cemetery" motility, which began in Europe and America in the early years of the nineteenth century. Before so the expressionless were interred in church burial grounds, producing such familiar reflections on death as those in Gray'southward "Elegy." One of the more moving passages in early American messages is to be found in the famous diary of Samuel Sewell, the Puritan magistrate instrumental in the hangings of Salem witches. The day subsequently the sudden death of his two-year-former daughter Sarah on December 23, 1696, he laments his part in the Salem trials. On Christmas day, his entry records the events of the burial, the reading of Biblical passages by his 3 immature surviving children and friends bearing "my picayune daughter to the Tomb." Afterwards a visit before in the day to the brick-lined earthworks located in Boston'south New (afterward the Granary) Burying Footing, he wrote: "Twas wholly dry, and I went to see in what order things were ready; and there I was entertain'd with a view of, and antipodal with, the Coffins of my dearest Erstwhile Begetter Hull, Mother Hull, Cousin Quinsey, and my Six Children: for the piffling posthumous was now took upward and set in upon that that stands on John's: so are 3, i upon another twice, on the demote at the end. My Mother ly'south on a lower demote, at the cease, with head to her Husband's caput: and I society'd picayune Sarah to be set on her Grandmother'southward feet. 'Twas an awfull still pleasing Treat: Having said, The Lord knows who shall be brought hether next, I came abroad." 4

In tardily-eighteenth-century Europe a new concern with the dead started a movement for large burial grounds in natural settings away from populous areas of cities. The use of the term "cemetery" (cimetière in French) instead of the more than common Old English-derived word "graveyard" reflected in part an endeavor to relate decease to the natural universe posited by Romanticism. The discussion cemetery came from the Greek give-and-take for sleeping chamber, a place of repose. The new model for the rural cemetery, Père la Chaise in Paris, opened in 1804 with hundreds of acres on the metropolis's eastern outskirts. Its founding was the upshot of the 1765 Parliament of Paris decree that closed all cemeteries in the city and required the move of corpses outside its limits. Past the end of the first decade four rural cemeteries had been established effectually Paris, with Père la Chaise'south plan for a vast, rustic, garden-like burial ground followed before long in London, Genoa and Vienna. The new cemeteries became popular gathering places for lovers and families on Sunday promenades. v

Within American cities, in particular New York, Philadelphia and Boston, early- nineteenth-century church building burial grounds had become overcrowded and badly maintained, while the great demand for urban land forced the reburial of many. In addition, before midcentury when the germ theory of disease first began to gain credence, prevailing medical thought emphasized the dangers of disease-causing miasmas from contamination.

Public health authorities warned about exhalations arising from graveyards, while physicians argued that decaying corpses contributed to the devastating xanthous fever epidemic of 1822. These influences, along with Romanticism'southward conception of nature's positive outcome on mind and body, contributed to the motility for rural cemeteries in the U.s..

The first American cemetery tied to this movement was Mount Auburn, established in 1831 on a seventy-ii-acre site on the Charles River, four miles from Boston, an area described at its dedication as having "vigorous growth of forest trees" on state "beautifully undulating in its surface, containing a number of bold eminences, steep declivities, and shadowy valleys." 6 The quick success of Mount Auburn influenced leaders in other U.South. cities to institute rural burying grounds; information technology, Laurel Hill in Philadelphia (1835) and Greenwood in Brooklyn (1838) were the three cemeteries that influenced the national movement. In 1849, when Toledo was just outset to grow equally a city, Andrew Jackson Downing, popular abet of nature in the early years of the century, alleged, "In that location is scarcely a city of note in the whole country that has not its rural cemetery." seven The establishment of this move was related to the emergence of the urban park movement in the mid-nineteenth century. Early advocates of parks, such every bit popular nature poet and New York editor William Cullen Bryant, noted that urban dwellers were finding their way to the new cemeteries in large numbers. Nature'due south benefits to body and soul, he argued, should be brought to the city itself.

The ii cemeteries represented in articles in this issue- Woodlawn in Toledo and Oak Grove in Bowling Dark-green-represent well the characteristics of American rural cemeteries, as exercise many others in the region, in item Wolfinger Cemetery in Secor Metropark and Swan Creek Cemetery, westward of the metropolis of Maumee on Highway A20 in Monclova Township. The former is enveloped by the metropolitan expanse'due south most naturalistic park setting, while the latter, although properly a church building graveyard, seems to extend almost organically into a heavily wooded ravine with creek. Woods Cemetery, the oldest in the metropolis of Toledo, contains the virtually elaborate bronze in the region and provides the almost striking vistas of the natural park cemetery surrounded by a modern city. The iconography of Roman Catholicism in America is probably best represented in Calvary Cemetery. That cemetery is related to the effort to bring nature to the city through the establishment of parks (in this case nearby Ottawa Park) continued throughout the metropolis by tree-lined boulevards (in this case, Parkside Boulevard). There are also significant reflections of the by in smaller sites such as Haughton Cemetery, which is completely surrounded by the continuous strip mall of the business organisation section of West Toledo. Most motorists would scarcely discover information technology, although children from a neighboring school continue to visit it yearly as function of the formal observances of our sole important pagan holiday, Halloween. The modern cemetery can nevertheless provide the kind of haven information technology did in the early on years of the nineteenth century. The popularity of bicycle touring in the latter part of this century, for example, has led to a rediscovery of the cemetery as the "mannerly pleasure-basis" of which Downing spoke. A fantabulous guide to the dorsum roads of Ohio for bicycle touring, published in various editions past Jeff and Nadean Disbato Traylor under the series championship of "Life in the Wearisome Lane," identifies many of the state'due south most attractive cemeteries. 8 Ane of this writer'southward favorites from the guide is the 1808 Hopewell Church building Cemetery, located s of West Florence and Highway 22 on Fairhaven Road, with its unusually attractive stone wall fronting the site. Non listed in their piece of work is the Auglaize Church of God Cemetery near Fort Chocolate-brown and the boondocks of Grover Hill, which provides a tranquil bird watching spot and in the summer the near certainty of seeing groups of deer in the field and woods that encapsulate the pocket-sized grave site that runs alongside a flowing creek. Harrington Cemetery in the heart of the town of Elmore, surrounded by wrought atomic number 26 fencing, contains splendid grave markers from the early nineteenth century. St. Elizabeth Cemetery, to the west of Toledo, and Oak Hill on the southern edge of the metropolitan area are two of the scores of cemeteries that provide tiny natural havens from the mile upon mile of flat cultivated farmland that make up the region.

Perhaps this special result of the Quarterly will not but stimulate involvement in the historical significance of American cemeteries merely besides create some awareness of the neglected fact that cemeteries in this region and elsewhere preserve in part a natural earth that we seem to be losing in mod metropolitan America.

NOTES:

1 Quoted in Michael Kammen, Selvages & Biases: The Fabric of History in American Civilization (Ithaca: Cornell Academy Press, 1987), 162.

2 Quoted in ibid., l62.

iii The Detroit News and Free Pressouth, 27 May 1996.

4 M. Halsey Thomas, The Diary of Samuel Sewell, 1674-1729, 2 vols. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, l973), 1:364.

5 For a concise discussion of the origins of the rural cemetery movement in Europe and America, see David Schuyler, The New Urban Landscape: The Redefinition of City Class in Nineteenth-Century America (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Academy Printing, 1986), 37-56.

6 Quoted in ibid., 43.

7 Quoted in ibid., 47.

8 Life in the Slow Lane: Fifty Backroad Tours of Ohio, rev. ed. (Columbus: Backroad Chronicles, 1992).

Web Resources

Historic Woodlawn Cemetery Website

 Nomination to the National Register of Historic Places

Text of National Parks Service Historical Site Nomination for Woodlawn Cemetery (NPS Form x 900 OMB No. 1024 0018) by Linda Jeffrey.

WOODLAWN CEMETERY, LUCAS CO. OH.

Narrative Description (Section 7: pp1-6)

Historic Woodlawn Cemetery is nominated to the National Annals of Historic Places every bit a historic district. The overall mural design, which follows the principles of the rural cemetery motility, is a pregnant feature of the district and has been counted every bit a site. Woodlawn Cemetery has maintained its integrity as a fine example of the "rural cemetery" programme. The rural cemetery incorporates the natural dazzler of the landscape with advisedly planned lots, and this is what the founders of Woodlawn Cemetery had in mind when they chose the nowadays site for the cemetery. The cemetery clan has been careful to maintain the natural landscape and high quality grave markers. Kirk Holdcroft, currently the Director of the cemetery (1993-) and President of the Board of Trustees (1994-), is committed to ensuring the cemetery continues in this tradition.

The cemetery was originally situated outside Toledo'south urban center boundary, but by 1900 the speedily growing metropolis had enveloped the site. The area surrounding the cemetery reflects the sprawling nature of the city of Toledo. The area is a mixture of residential housing, city park, and semi-industrial zones. The housing situated across West Central Avenue on the southern purlieus is an outer lying function of the Quondam West End celebrated district (NR, 1973; 1984), while across Jackman and Hillcrest Roads is small residential housing. Willys Park marks the cemetery's eastern border. Across from Willys Park is the nationally renowned Jeep plant. Today the cemetery's natural landscape remains unblemished amidst the urban sprawl equally a monument to the people and the spirit that built Toledo. The cemetery is non only a park, but too an arboretum, a bird sanctuary, museum, historical archive, and an important cultural and social landmark for Toledo.

The cemetery was laid out according to the landscape backyard plan which was promoted by Adolph Strauch, Superintendent of Spring Grove Cemetery (est. 1845) in Cincinnati (NR, 1976). Strauch also designed Greenwood Cemetery in Hamilton, Ohio (NR, 1994) This was a modification of the original rural cemetery movement equally a response to bug that became credible in early rural cemeteries. The landscape lawn plan, with monument only, was an effort to restrict patrons who busy their private lots with disregard to the full general effect on the landscape. This threatened to backbite from the landscape effect, which was a principle feature of the rural cemetery movement. Woodlawn's parklike appearance and careful attention to ensuring grave markers, tree plantings, and roadways best compliment the landscape is an instance of the movement to grade a consistent whole. Strauch's idea was that the best effect is obtained "when broad undulations of light-green turf prevail, adorned here and there with a noble family monument, and at proper intervals shaded with suitable trees. Such lots, blending the elegance of a park with the pensive beauty of a burying identify, confer on the whole a grace and dignity which can never be obtained in situations where every human foot of footing is occupied with ornamental puerilities[sic]" (Description of Woodlawn Cemetery, 1883).

Woodlawn made a conscious effort to obtain the all-time talent during initial planning in order to develop "one of the finest cities of the dead in the Due west" (Clarification of Woodlawn Cemetery, 1883: ix). Schwagerl and Co. of Philadelphia drew upwards the original lawn plan map for Woodlawn's lots and sections. The cemetery continues to follow this design to this day. The natural landscape is one of gently undulating terrain. A stream that flowed into cemetery grounds fed a ravine that cut through the site. By damming the lower end of the ravine with soil and stone masonry an artificial lake was allowed to grade. The cemetery has two connecting ornamental lakes that feature 3 small islands. The lakes are central features of the site (see Map 3).

Woodlawn'southward natural terrain was complemented with plantings and roadways that were subject field to a general plan. Trees were planted in groupings according to diversity, and interspersed with shrubbery, to obtain the best effect. Winding roadways, instead of rectangular roads, provide admission to the sections and complement the landscape effect (run across map ii and three). Although the roads have been resealed they are basically the same width equally they were historically and maintain the integrity of the rural cemetery movement. The sections and lots are of diverse shapes, sizes, and positions to cater for unlike tastes and requirements. Those that are in prominent positions (past roadways or overlooking the lakes) were the more expensive sites.

The site features six buildings, four contributing and two non-contributing. The four that have been categorized as contributing resources are the office, crematory chapel, comfort station, and cemetery residence. The non-contributing buildings are the new crematory and service edifice. The cemetery is encircled past an iron fence, and includes two connecting lakes. A bridge spans the larger lake, while a land bridge is situated where the larger lake runs into the smaller lake. Other objects on the holding include exquisite private mausoleums and monuments. The forty-ii mausoleums or monumental tombs, and the bridge and argue are classified as contributing structures, while the K.A.R. Civil War monument, Ludwig, and Gunckel monuments have been classified as contributing objects.

The Stewert Atomic number 26 Works Company of Cincinnati, Ohio erected the 2-mile fe fence that surrounds the cemetery in 1915. The entrance, which faces the intersection of Auburn and Central Avenues, features half-dozen rock pillars, three on either side of the gate. Each colonnade is decorated with ornate ironwork. The big iron gates hang on the pillars, one on either side of the driveway (photo #4).

The unique role building, which was built in 1903, is situated at the archway gates (photo #5). This irregular and unusual building is dominated by a bell belfry which is believed to exist the centerpiece remains of an erstwhile windmill that was located on the site in the belatedly nineteenth century. The office building seems to exist "wrapped around" the tower. The tradition of tolling the bell to signal the arrival of a funeral procession continues today.

The building is Romanesque in way. Its walls are of rock-faced coursed Ohio limestone and a roof of slate tops information technology. The belfry is similar to a battlement and has a large square window on its front and rear, while on each side of the belfry there is an arched window. None of the windows have panes or shutters.

The office edifice has retained its historical integrity, and appears on the outside much as information technology did when it was built. The interior was completely renovated in 1985 to create more room. This included the modification of the entrance door to the building as well as one of the windows to allow for more lite. This is the nearly distinctive building in the cemetery (photos # 5, half dozen, and vii).

Asphalt lanes gently wind their mode through the valleys and rolling landscape of Woodlawn Cemetery. A concrete bridge, congenital in 1913 by engineers Wyncoop and McGormley, traverses the lakes. Information technology was rehabilitated in 1965 at a cost of nearly $35,000 (photograph #eight).

The chapel is situated on the northwest side of the bridge and overlooks the lake. It was dedicated in 1883 and is the earliest remaining building on the property. The chapel was congenital on top of a receiving vault, which was used to house those who died in the winter months. At this time of the year the ground was frozen, and at the plow of the century technology had not been developed to dig the frozen soil. Bodies were placed in the vault to wait for the spring thaw. The vault, featuring a domed ceiling, was turned into a crematory chapel in 1923. Woodlawn was the starting time and but cemetery offer cremation as a service in northwestern Ohio, and every bit tardily as 1952 Detroit was the closest city with cremation services. The original crematory retort is still constitute in the basement of the chapel (photo #ix) (Glimpses of Woodlawn:9-13, Manuscript Collection).

The exterior of the chapel has undergone all-encompassing remodeling due to the deterioration of the woodwork and effects of fire and smoke. The crematorium created the need for a chimney that was erected on the right side of the chapel. Information technology is assumed that around this time the cupolas that existed on the four corners of the roof were removed. The central cupola nonetheless exists. The frieze was also removed. The ornate canopy covering the entrance to the chapel was removed and replaced with a unproblematic suspended overhanging cover (date unknown). A transom is featured over the canopy. Unfortunately the original stained glass windows were destroyed in the 1973 chapel fire and were replaced with green and yellow glass. Later on a second fire in 1991-2 the existing purple (bluish) and clear plexiglass was installed. The frames accept retained their original "round curvation" shape, although the windows are at present less intricate (photos #10, 11 and 13).

In a 1952 remodeling, the chapel stucco was removed and replaced with brick veneer. 8 years later the old asbestos and shingles were removed from the chapel roof. All the rotten sheathing was besides removed at that time and replaced with new shingles and gutters. The brickwork on the corner buttresses has been covered with brick veneer and the walls take been plastered with stucco (probably to gainsay the smoke stains caused by the crematory emissions). The chapel has maintained its basic structural integrity despite undergoing superficial alterations.

The interior has remained intact and retains its integrity. The chapel is symmetrical and is particularly notable for its vaulted ceiling (photo #12). The double door has a fanlight overhead and each of the three arched multipaned windows is framed past a pillared arch (photo #13).

The chapel interior instills a sense of softness and quiet. The design is simple and in the secular tradition of the rural cemetery movement. The chapel is no longer used for services or cremations. A mod service edifice was constructed betwixt the residential house and office in 1986. The new crematory, which began services in 1995, is located between the office edifice and service building (photo #xiv). These 2 modernistic buildings are considered not-contributing.

Next to the chapel is the comfort station that was erected in 1923 (the same year the crematorium was installed). The condolement station is constructed of Ohio limestone and is too unproblematic in style. Information technology consists of i rectangular room and has a hip roof with an cease interior chimney. The building is dissever-level, and the front of the edifice has a single centered door with two multipaned windows on either side. The rear of the edifice is ii stories, with 4 windows. A door to the basement is located at the side of the building. Today the comfort station is largely unused. During the winter the cemetery peacocks are housed on the lower floor (photos #fifteen, #sixteen, and #42).

Located on the Central Avenue side of the cemetery, 500 feet west of the office building, is the cemetery caretaker's residence (c. 1917). The residence is unremarkably thought to be a Sears firm, unfortunately in that location is no documentation to confirm this belief. It is still occupied today (photos #17 and 18).

At Woodlawn Cemetery in that location are twoscore-two private mausoleums dating from the 1880s. The last was congenital in the 1950s. Some of the notable mausoleums vest to the Chesbrough (one of the showtime built in the late 1880s), Stranahan (1935), Spitzer (c.1900), Berdan (c.1900), and Snyder (c.1930) families. The mausoleums provide eloquent examples of funereal architecture (photos #19, 20, 21, 22, and 23).

The Spitzer and Snyder mausoleums, which face each other on the primary driveway near the entrance to the grounds, complement each other. The grand and imposing Spitzer mausoleum is neoclassical. Three levels of granite steps pb up to the six columns and ii doors at the archway of the mausoleum (photo #24). The Snyder mausoleum is delicate and pocket-size in scale, yet artistically perfect. Its 4 columns and rounded sculpture design in a park setting provide a good contrast to the Spitzer mausoleum (photo #25). The Browning mausoleum is a proficient case of Egyptian Revival architecture. This style was popular during the mid-nineteenth century, and peculiarly popular during the 1920s with the discovery of King Tutankhamen's tomb. (Gordon: 82) The Browning mausoleum features reeded columns with horizontal banding. Roman numerals on the steps read 1910. (Photograph #26)

In addition to the fantabulous examples of mausoleum architecture are numerous monuments. Woodlawn Cemetery has prided itself on encouraging the originality of monuments and mausoleums. The Lloyd Brothers (Walker) Monument Company continues to emphasize individuality of design and style for every sculpture they work on, every bit reflected in the unique and distinctive monuments found in the cemetery. Some of the mausoleums on the property also comprise impressive examples of Tiffany drinking glass dating from early on in this century (photos #33 and 34). The Stranahan and Tiedtke (c. 1920) mausoleums accept examples of fine bronze relief work on their doors (photos #35 and 36).

The Ford monument is too an interesting example of neoclassical architecture. A colonnade of imposing granite frames the large urn that sits on a pedestal. Stairs lead to the urn (photo #37). The James B. Bell monument, also neoclassical, consists of a benchseat that is canopied by an arch. The arch has the relief of a tree on the square pillars either side of the bench. The arch has 2 pillars at each end, which support an entablature of elementary design that reads "Until The Day Interruption And The Shadows Flee Abroad."(Photo #38)

Some of the well-known and more unusual monuments include the pyramid erected for John Eastward. Gunckel in 1917 (Photo #39), the Bessie Ludwig chair monument, 1930 (Photo #40), and the G.A.R. Civil State of war monument, 1901. Ii graves that are included in the section are those of Civil War veterans Henry One thousand. Neubert (Photo #41) and Major General James B. Steedman. Both monuments feature a bronzed bust.

Woodlawn also displays examples of the late Victorian "fad" which incorporated monuments that resembled trees instead of common styles. The trees are truncated and accept had all the branches cut off; this is to stand for an unfinished life (photo #27). An organisation called the "Woodsmen of the World" offered a $500 subsidy if its logo was allowed to appear on such monuments.

The site is important regionally due to the exceptional compages and artistic blueprint of buildings and structures that are found within its boundaries. The holding consists of a carefully planned and developed mural, which emphasizes nature and a park similar setting. The Cemetery Clan has been careful not to mar the historical and architectural integrity of the cemetery. The four notable buildings, fence, and span that are located on the property date from 1883 until 1923. Woodlawn cemetery is maintained in the spirit in which it was founded and is a good representation of a rural cemetery. Everything in it is, as Adolph Strauch said of rural cemeteries, "tasteful, classical, and poetical" (Linden-Ward: 31).

Narrative Statement of Significance (Section 8: pp7-13)

Woodlawn Cemetery is eligible for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places under criterion C and criteria consideration D in the areas of landscape architecture and architecture. Woodlawn cemetery is a "historical document" which provides insight to changing American burial practices in the nineteenth century and reflects the concrete and cultural evolution of Toledo. Woodlawn Cemetery maintains the integrity of the principles on which it was founded and the original designed mural remains the organizing characteristic of the cemetery (see maps provided).

Woodlawn Cemetery is significant for cemetery and mural planning in Toledo as information technology represents both the reform of Toledo'due south burial customs and a concerted effort to provide city dwellers with a sylvan place to escape urban life and return to the pastoral ideals of nature. The founding of Woodlawn Cemetery in 1876 introduced the landscape lawn program, a modification of the rural cemetery motion, to Toledo. (David Sloane in The Last Bang-up Necessity (1991) recognizes Toledo's importance every bit role of this motion: 121). The rural cemetery motion became popular in the nineteenth century as city leaders realized burial grounds had to be reformed. Graveyards within cities had become offensive and posed serious wellness hazards. They were depressing, neglected, crowded, and revolting. Graveyards had degenerated into piffling more than "stinking quagmires." Nor did they provide the dead with a permanent resting place because as the city grew, and close relatives moved away, the backdrop were often seized by land hungry developers who would uproot the dead (French: 42).

During the early nineteenth century attitudes towards expiry and commemoration were undergoing a dramatic alter. The harsh views of the Puritans, which emphasized fright and finality, gave way to a gentler spirit of sentimentality and melancholy. Information technology was also believed that rural cemeteries would provide cultural and moral uplift for metropolis dwellers in an increasingly urban world, as well as inciting a sense of historical continuity and a feeling of social roots. Rural cemeteries were therefore important social and cultural institutions. (French: 59)

A large emphasis was placed on nature and art. The rural cemetery included lakes, gently undulating land, trees, originality of monuments, and carefully planned lots. The term "rural" was used as the cemeteries were originally built exterior the city on large pastoral tracts. Today the cities accept grown upward around them and they have become "pastoral oases in the midst of urban sprawl."(Clendaniel: six) Woodlawn Cemetery was the start effort to provide Toledo with a large and magnificent park.

The "rural cemetery" move began in America in 1831 with the establishment of Mountain Auburn Cemetery in Boston. Forty-five years later Toledo followed the national trend and founded Woodlawn Cemetery iii miles from downtown. (There are iv "rural cemeteries"in Ohio that are included on the National Register. These are Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati (1845); Woodland Cemetery, Cleveland (1853); Matrimony Cemetery, Steubenville (1854); and Woodland Cemetery in Dayton (1841) which is listed on the National Annals for its gateway, chapel and office and is one of the nation's five oldest rural cemeteries.

The outset permanent provision for burial of the expressionless in Toledo was Woods Cemetery, which was established in 1839 on eight acres of land outside the city. Past 1865 the land was filled and the metropolis decided to expand the cemetery past ownership some of the country adjacent to it. It was apparent that a new cemetery would accept to be established in the nigh hereafter.

In 1865 a committee composed of local businessmen met to hash out solutions for the burial problem and eventually selected a site in Washington township three miles from the city. The selection was rejected past the city quango, however, because it was too distant from the metropolis. Even though the land was not chosen so, the committee was able to run across the possibilities it presented. Ten years later this site would exist selected every bit the site for Woodlawn Cemetery by a group of citizens who met at the Boody House in 1876. The location was favored because it had undeveloped country around it that would allow the cemetery to exist easily enlarged when required. (Woodlawn Cemetery 1882:two)

Information technology is interesting to note that Frank J. Scott was present at this first meeting. At the same fourth dimension Scott, an architect, was involved in the development of the Old West End which is recognized as one of the largest collections of belatedly Victorian and Edwardian mansions left in America (Historic Places marker located in One-time West End). Located about the cemetery many who lived at that place now reside at Woodlawn, their monuments and mausoleums as grand equally their homes.

The Woodlawn Cemetery Association was organized in 1876. The charter members were: William St. John, D. W. Curtiss, Henry S. Stebbins, Edward Malone, Herman D. Walbridge, Terome L. Stratton, C. P Griffin, Henry Phillips, George Milburn, J. Kent Hamilton, Horace S. Walbridge, Charles Eastward. Phillips, George B. Brown, Albert E. Macomber, Charles H. Eddy, Due east. B. Hall, and Benjamin F. Griffin. At a later on meeting the first officers were elected. Horace S. Walbridge and Charles B. Phillips were elected President and Vice President respectively, and Herman D. Walbridge was made the treasurer.

Woodlawn Cemetery was developed co-ordinate to the landscape lawn plan which was promoted by Adolph Strauch, Superintendent of Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati. Strauch identified bug that had been exposed through the experiences of earlier rural cemeteries. He had visited Spring Grove and was disquisitional of the cluttered lots. Objects that were added to individual lots in unlike cemeteries included "[N]umerous tin can cans, onetime cleaved vases, broken pitchers, cracked glasses, lidless coffee pots, lard buckets," iron gates, fences, and benches. This was a custom that well-nigh cemeteries would have problem combating.(Linden-Ward:29-30, Manuscripts, Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual Convention 1897:22-23)

In 1854 Spring Grove hired the immature Prussian as landscape gardener and appointed him superintendent in 1859. Strauch reformed the "rural cemetery" movement by emphasizing simplicity. He encouraged less ornamentation of individual lots, restrictions on lot enclosures, and less development of the natural form of the land. The aim was to provide a park for the city. Woodlawn was part of the modified "rural cemetery" movement and was the first effort in Toledo to provide the city with a large and magnificent park.

The first superintendent at Woodlawn, Frank Eurich (1876-1900), is credited with much of the original landscaping and early afforestment on the site. Woodlawn is not only a place for the dead but has also become an arboretum of national recognition. Eurich had been a member of the staff at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia and helped in the construction of the Memorial hall. He was an authorization on horticultural matters and had a distinguished career in cemetery management. Messages were sent to him from across the nation requesting information on plants and trees and he kept up a lively correspondence with cemeteries, both regionally and nationally, concerning cemetery matters. He often received messages complimenting him on Woodlawn Cemetery and the chapel. (Emch: 48, Correspondence 1880s-1900).

Eurich was cofounder of the Association of American Cemetery Superintendents that was formed in Cincinnati in 1887. The association met to talk over bug, and contempo trends and developments in the cemetery business. He assisted in the creation of some xx-five cemeteries based on the "backyard program" that was pioneered by Strauch. Much of the mural and plant life at Woodlawn is the result of the difficult work and vision of Frank Eurich. He desired a mixture of both national and international influences, both rare and common, to create a cemetery that adhered to the ideals of the rural cemetery movement. (Emch: 48) The 300 unlike species of trees at the cemetery include Tupelo, Iron Wood, American Elm, Purple Beech, Chanticleer pear, Siberian Pea, and Pecan. There are two state champion trees at Woodlawn Cemetery. One is a 75 ft White Fur while the other is a Purple European Beech, both were planted during the early on years of the cemetery between 1876 and 1900. ("The Trees of Woodlawn Cemetery" by Glenn Firebaugh, printed in the 1976 Naturalist Yearbook, includes extensive identification of the trees at Woodlawn and provides their locations). The cemetery is also a bird sanctuary featuring 200 dissimilar species. It is an allure for botanists, birdwatchers, and school children akin.

Edward O. Schwagerl, from Philadelphia, was also prominent in the early landscaping of Woodlawn Cemetery. Schwagerl, consulting landscape architect and engineer, provided early on sketches of the landscape and worked with Eurich on designs for the chapel. Schwagerl had designed the Riverside Cemetery in Cleveland on the "lawnplan." (Emch: 45-46)

The "conservatory chapel" at Woodlawn was dedicated in 1883. Although much grander in conception the conservatory that was to be added later never was due to recurring financial problems and Globe War I. These factors saved the chapel in the 1930s. The clan considered demolishing the original chapel and constructing a new chapel and public mausoleum just the outbreak of the Keen Low and World War II put the plans permanently on hold.

Woodlawn Cemetery has been actively involved in events associated with the growth of the community. The history of the site is a monument to the immense growth the city of Toledo has experienced in 120 years. The location was originally part of Washington township and was initially rejected because information technology was accounted to far away to serve the city. In 1887 the Cemetery Association wanted to brand the grounds more attainable to the metropolis and discussed the possibility of a streetcar railroad. In 1892 the cemetery Lath gave permission to the Metropolitan Street Car Railway Company to "construct, maintain and operate" a single track railway on and along Central Avenue, from the westerly city line to the cemetery gates reverse Auburn Avenue. The railroad was built providing access to the cemetery for Toledoans who lived in the metropolis. (Minutes)

The urban center spread speedily, and by 1908 the urban center limits had reached the Primal Avenue boundary of the cemetery. The increased use of the parklike settings that was permitted by the street cars, close proximity of the city, and the advent of the auto acquired problems for cemetery direction. The rural cemetery proved and then popular that the majority of visitors were not visitors but sightseers and people seeking recreational infinite. The role of the cemetery had changed to one of a park and outdoor museum. The crowds and holiday mood became so peachy that cemetery management had to pass rules and regulations that restricted the excesses of some of the patrons. The association was uncomfortable with the increased public use of the cemetery as a place of leisure and passed rules and regulations to protect the ambiance and serenity of the grounds. The Board of Trustees cited bug with straying horses, shooting guns, loud music, and an influx of spectators to funerals. Information technology was mentioned that as soon equally an open grave was visible scores of people flocked to the cemetery grounds to sentinel the burial, particularly on Sundays. Officials were disgusted that such a somber occasion provided entertainment for the masses. Rules were passed prohibiting children from using the lakes for skating, fishing and swimming. Other cemeteries also expressed dismay at the thought that they had go trivial more than theme parks. (Minutes, Rules and Regulations handbook, Zanger: 24-26).

The cemetery was responsible for providing the traffic lights at the archway gates in 1935. The intersection at Auburn and Central Avenues was considered then unsafe that the cemetery paid for and owned the lights until the city took them over a few years later. In 1946 the cemetery was once more actively involved in the affairs of the city when it loaned a parcel of unused land on the Hillcrest side of the property to the city for veterans housing at the terminate of World War II.

The office building was constructed in 1903 and it provided an impressive sight for the visitor at the entrance gates. Near 1917 the caretaker's house was built. In 1923 the comfort station and crematory were added to the cemetery. The date chosen to end the menstruation of significance is 1946 as information technology marked the terminate of construction of the notable buildings and mausoleums.

Lloyd Brothers Monument Company, based in Toledo, created many of the monuments and mausoleums on the site. It is too one of the oldest monument firms in the country. Lloyd Brothers was established in 1846 and is today ane of a few firms that continue to do all of their creations by manus. Lloyd Brothers has done significant architectural work both nationally and regionally. Their piece of work includes the new Toledo Court House, the Fort Meigs battle monument, the Booker T. Washington Monument in Tuskegee, Alabama, and the General Robert Due east. Lee and Lewis and Clark Monuments in Charlottesville. Woodlawn Cemetery has an unequaled collection of their monuments and mausoleums.

Located in section 41 is the Lucas County Civil War Monument, likewise constructed by Lloyd Brothers, which commemorates the area's veterans. The granite monument was dedicated on May 25, 1901, and is 65 feet tall and weighs 32,000 pounds. The architectural blueprint is of a Grecian needle, although it is commonly and incorrectly referred to every bit Cleopatra'southward needle. The memorial is surrounded by 295 graves that at the time of the dedication were of unknown soldiers. Today all except one of the 295 soldiers have been identified; his only identification is the initials F. W. C. on his marker rock. The graves that lay around the base of operations of the monument are laid out in the shape of a five-pointed star, the symbol of the Grand Army of the Republic.

The cemetery contains the graves of several Ceremonious War officers. One notable grave is that of Colonel Henry One thousand. Neubert. Neubert participated in General William Tecumseh Sherman'south "march to the sea" in Nov 1864. Colonel Neubert's grave has a statuary bosom that weighs between 150-200 pounds. On either side of his grave there is a stone bench. The monument's rock pedestal has a bronze relief sculpture showing the Colonel on horseback next to General Sherman. They are apparently looking toward Savannah, Georgia, the goal of the march. Neubert idea of the monument design himself (photograph #41). James B. Steedman, who fought at Chickamauga during the Civil State of war and rose to the rank of Major Full general, is also buried in the cemetery. His monument is a vii-foot alpine pedestal upon which a bronze bust of Steedman is perched.

The Gunckel Monument, a pyramid, is a memorial to John Gunckel the founder the Toledo Newsboy Association. The monument was dedicated nigh two years after his death on Baronial eleven, 1917. It is located a half mile from the Woodlawn Cemetery archway and overlooks a stream. The pyramid is made of approximately 10,000 pocket-sized stones and rocks. The stones were contributed by citizens of Toledo and came from all over the world. They include agates from the Holy Land and rare stones from People's republic of china, Japan, and Alaska. The base of the 1 ton monument is thirty feet in length and the height is 26 anxiety. The Lloyd Brothers Monument Company (photo #39) did the work on the pyramid.

Just inside the archway gates sits the unusual and unique monument erected for Bessie Ludwig. The monument features a granite replica of the piece of cake chair upon which Bessie spent the final twenty-v years of her life. After the death of her husband she became a familiar sight reclining in her easy chair. Information technology is reported that she sat and slept in the chair considering she feared if she lay down she would never ascension again. When Bessie died in 1930 her chair was sent to a Vermont quarry to ensure that an verbal replica was carved out. The platform arrived before the chair. One time finished the chair made its journeying to Toledo by rails. It was then transferred onto a special car that carried the monument down the trolley line on Central Avenue. A special line was laid from Central, through the gates of the cemetery, so the chair could exist transported to its terminal resting-place. The Lloyd Brothers Visitor (photo #40) designed the Ludwig monument.

Rural cemeteries were not exclusively for the upper classes and were open up to anybody who could purchase a lot. They are graphic registers of social significance and status, having both "fashionable" and "unfashionable" sections. On well-nigh occasions poor people could not afford family plots and would instead purchase single lots. Normally these lots would be adorned with modest markers. The wealthy were able to purchase spacious lots where they could flaunt their wealth past building impressive mausoleums or monuments. (Ames: 651)

Woodlawn Cemetery reflects the stratification of society in Toledo. The wealthy were able to purchase lots in prime number locations forth the lakefronts or on elevated areas (photo #1). The lakes are central features in the cemetery, and the existence of social classes can be seen equally they radiate outwards from these features. The cheapest lots are found in the most undesirable portions of the cemetery. These tend to be near the purlieus contend on land that is less landscaped.

In Woodlawn monuments and mausoleums are strategically placed to complement the scenery. Each monument is constructed according to location and surroundings. Individuality of mode is maintained through strict rules concerning the duplication of unique monuments.

Woodlawn Cemetery is an important cultural and celebrated landmark in the area of mural architecture and architecture. Information technology has remained dedicated to the rural cemetery motion. The Clan continues to emphasize a landscape of natural beauty and ensures that but monuments of high quality and artistic pattern are erected on the holding. The history of Woodlawn Cemetery reflects the development of the rural cemetery movement, and the growth and evolution of Toledo. The cemetery "resolved the cities' conflict between retention and progress and provided sanctuary and stability in a dynamic, energized age."(Ames: 642)

Major Bibliographical References

Master Sources

Bibliography files and Scrapbooks. Local History and Genealogy. Toledo-Lucas County Public Library.

Manuscripts, pamphlets, documents, etc. found at Woodlawn Cemetery. Woodlawn Cemetery Association 1876-1996. Virtually of the material is now at the Canaday Eye, University of Toledo.

Proceedings of the Eleventh Almanac Convention of American Cemetery Superintendents 1897

Toledo Blade 1910-1990

Woodlawn Cemetery Clan. Description of Woodlawn Cemetery (1883)

Glimpses of Woodlawn. Toledo, Oh., c.1883.

Rules and Regulations Handbook.

Secondary Sources

Ames, Kenneth L. "Ideologies in Stone: Meanings in Victorian Gravestones." Journal of Popular Civilisation 14 (Spring 1981):641-656.

Bender, Thomas. "The Rural Cemetery Movement: Urban Travail and the Appeal of Nature." New England Quarterly 47 (June 1974):196-211.

Bohan, Ruth L. "A Home Away From Abode: Bellefontaine Cemetery, St. Louis, and the Rural Cemetery Movement." Prospects xiii (1988):135-179.

Clendaniel, William C. "Rural Cemeteries: Guardians of Our Nation'southward Heritage." Cemetery Management, (Jan 1995):half-dozen-11.

Emch, Lucille B. "Two Anniversaries in Toledo, Ohio, in the American Bicentennial Year: The Hundredth for Woodlawn Cemetery and the Seventy-5th for the Lucas County Civil State of war Memorial." Northwest Ohio Quarterly 49 (Spring 1977):43-55.

Firebaugh, Glenn. "The Trees of Woodlawn Cemetery," 1976 Naturalist Yearbook.

French, Stanley. "The Cemetery as Cultural Establishment: The Establishment of Mount Auburn and the 'Rural Cemetery' Movement." American Quarterly 26 (March 1974):37-59.

Gordon, Stephen C. How to Complete the Ohio Historic Inventory. Columbus: Ohio Historical Society, 1992.

Jeffrey, Linda A. et al. "Toledo's Historic Woodlawn Cemetery." Northwest Ohio Quarterly 68(Winter 1996):8-22.

Linden-Ward, Blanche and David C. Sloane. "Spring Grove: The Founding of Cincinnati's Rural Cemetery, 1845-1855." Queen City Heritage 43(Spring 1985): 17-32.

Lockwood, Charles. "As About to Paradise as one tin can Accomplish in Brooklyn, N.Y." Smithsonian 7 (April 1976):56-62.

Porter, Tana Mosier. Toledo Profile: A Sesquicentennial History. Toledo, OH., Toledo Sesquicentennial Committee, 1987.

Sloane, David. The Terminal Great Necessity: Cemeteries in American History. Baltimore, MD, John Hopkins Academy Printing, 1991

Stannard, David E. "At-home Dwellings: The Cursory Sentimental Age of the Rural Cemetery." American Heritage 30 (Baronial 1979):43-54.

Zanger, Jules. "Mount Auburn: The Silent Suburb." Landscape 24 (1980):23-28.

National Annals of Historic Places Nomination Forms

Akron Rural Cemetery Buildings, Glendale Cemetery, Akron, OH.

Greenwood Cemetery, Hamilton, OH.

Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati OH.

Union Cemetery, Steubenville, OH.

Woodland Cemetery, Cleveland, OH.

Woodland Cemetery, Dayton, OH.

Exact Boundary Description

Woodlawn Cemetery is situated in Lucas Canton, Toledo, Ohio. The district consists of 159.xiv acres. Information technology is bounded on the north by Hillcrest Artery and to the s past Primal Avenue. Willys marks its eastern limits while Jackman Road marks it western limits.

Boundary Justification

The district selected for nomination consists of 159.xiv acres of land known equally Celebrated Woodlawn Cemetery. This is nearly all of the original 160 acres excluding a small portion on the southwestern corner of the cemetery sold to the urban center when I-475 was constructed.

bakerjusid1985.blogspot.com

Source: https://toledosattic.org/exhibit-themes/toledo-events-history/101-exhibit-themes/biography/109-necrology-woodlawn?showall=1

Share this post