Wrapped in Marble
Many cemeteries have mausoleums for those who wish to be safely and snuggly interred
in a vault above ground. Chicago's Rosehill Cemetery has one of the more elaborate halls for the deceased, lined from top to bottom in shiny, white marble.
It seems that no expense was spared when cemetery trustees asked architect Sidney
Lovell to design a mausoleum in 1913, unlike any other in the city. And when Lovell died in 1938, he himself was placed in one of the marble-lined crypts.
Perhaps one of the reasons for all the opulence was that many of Chicago's most
prominent citizens had already purchased crypts and private family "rooms" prior to construction. When the building was completed, it proved to be so popular that there were few available spaces left, so plans were immediately drawn up for an addition. By 1965, the original structure had been added-on too ten times.
Among the more recognizable names like Ward of the giant Montgomery Ward catalog
company, and his rival Richard Sears of Sears Roebuck, rests John G. Shedd, the chairman and president of Chicago's venerable Marshall Field & Co. Shedd started at Fields as a clerk and was taken under the wing of the department store's founder who saw in Shedd the same qualities Field had as a young man. Shedd is very well known to Chicagoans primarily because the city's aquarium bears his name. He also has the largest and most prominent "family room" in the structure, where no matter what your social standing happens to be, you can all spend an eternity wrapped in marble.
See our previous Rosehill post: Memorials in Glass.
Posted by designslinger at 3/15/2010 1:43 AM 
Categories: Architecture, History, Decorative Arts
Tags: Chicago Rosehill Cemetery Mausoleum Sidney Lovell
Categories: Architecture, History, Decorative Arts
Tags: Chicago Rosehill Cemetery Mausoleum Sidney Lovell
I've always wondered... The family rooms (like John G. Shedd), can the families enter them to sit with their loved ones or is it closed to everyone? Also, the free-standing cement ones, can the family enter those? I've always wondered this and didn't have anyone to ask.
The families and the management have access to the spaces behind closed doors. Some of the mausoleums that are freestanding out in the cemetery grounds haven't been opened in decades. If someone wanted to get in, a locksmith would probably have to get involved, and even then who knows if the door would unlatch. And on some of the family mausoleums you see scattered around cemeteries you'll find the that doorway has been closed up tight with a slab of stone or concrete. That's because the family has made the decision that once the tomb is filled, the door opening is to be permanently sealed since there's no one left who needs access!
Thanks for the information! I've wondered about that for years!
You're welcome. And thanks for all your comments. We're happy to hear from you!
Hello, Can you tell me whether Sidney's son McDonald helped with this mausoleum? I know they became partners in the firm Lovell & Lovell. I am looking for photos to run in a magazine. Thanks.
Well Steve, maybe, maybe not. McDonald would have been around 18 years old when his father was asked to design the mausoleum in 1912 as well as beginning his architectural education at the University of Illinois. McDonald's marriage announcement in the Chicago Tribune on May 4, 1919 said that he was a member of the firm Lovell & Co. (no Lovell & Lovell yet, just company) and had just finished his service in the First World War as a Lieutenant airman. So, he may have been helping out in his father's office while going to school, but how much of an active participant in the design of the mausoleum is questionable. Thanks for asking and for the visit.