Monday, August 8, 2011

Wade Chapel

While we were at Lakeview Cemetery on Friday we visited the Wade Memorial Chapel.


The interior was designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany and his studios in New York and it is stunning. The centerpiece is an enormous stained glass window at the front of the chapel:


Along the side walls are intricate mosaic murals (each one is 8 feet tall and 32 feet long) depicting sections of the Old Testament of the Bible. The docent, a former Latin teacher, shined a light on different areas and explained their significance. 

My nephew, Ethan, who visited in the spring with his gifted class, told us about the back entrance. The chapel is built on a hillside with the back a level lower so the horse-drawn carriage could deliver the coffin sight unseen. Inside the back entrance, a series of pulleys would raise the deceased up to the front of the chapel. 

On a side note, even the floor in the chapel was beautiful:

Learn more about the chapel here.

1 comment:

  1. Interesting......must be similar in age to Woodland Cemetary here in Dayton. The chapel was also a Tiffany - a memorial to his daughter. The cemetary is undergoing renovation so the Chapel is now a temporary sales office. Bit it has the same intricate floor and a stained glass window as well - rare because it contains writing (which we were told he hardly ever did). The murals were covered to protect them. Put the same pulley system in place.

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