On April 3, 2015, we traveled to Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio. This location has been on the list for some time, and the visit was well worth it for our research.
Lake View Cemetery, founded in 1869 by wealthy Clevelanders including Jeptha Wade, was modeled after Boston's Mount Auburn Cemetery as well as the historic cemeteries of France and England.
The 285-acre scenic park is home to over 102,000 graves, with an average of 700 burials annually. Although the cemetery is known for its illustrious residents, anyone can be buried there, regardless of race, creed, religion, or walk of life.
This is a vast cemetery with many beautiful monuments, stone, statues, gardens, and mausoleums. We only had a few hours to spend at the location; however, there following are some of the graves that we were able to locate during this trip.
President James A. Garfield
Located at the highest point of the cemetery, you can find the monument and tomb of the 20th president of the United States, James A. Garfield. We have created a separate blog post for this location; however, it is located within the Lake View Cemetery.
John D. Rockefeller (grave, monument, family plot)
Another monument at the cemetery is that of John D. Rockefeller. When Rockefeller died in 1937 at the age of 98, he wished to be buried at Lake View Cemetery in the city he once called home. A 70-foot obelisk marks his grave. The structure, the tallest in the cemetery, was created by sculptor Joseph Carabelli.
Visitors to the grave site often place dimes at the base of the stone, perhaps hoping that their money will increase as Rockefeller's did.
Eliot Ness
Best known for his pursuit and eventual indictment of 1930s gangster, Al Capone, was Cleveland's Director of Public Safety from 1935 to 1942. He also ran (unsuccessfully) for Cleveland mayor in 1947. Although he lived in Pennsylvania when he died in 1957, he wanted to be buried at Lake View Cemetery. Actually the stone is just a memorial to Ness. His ashes were sprinkled in one of the cemetery's ponds by the Cleveland Police Department, as part of Ness' final requests.
Charles Brush
Charles Frances Brush (1849-1929) was a Cleveland inventor whose original arc street light still stands at Public Square. His Brush Electric Company ultimately became General Electric. The Brush monument at Lake View Cemetery was created by Joseph Carabelli, who also created the John D. Rockefeller obelisk and the Wade Chapel.
The Wade Chapel
Jeptha Wade Jr. had the Wade Chapel constructed in 1901 in memory of his famous grandfather. The Greek revival structure, designed by the architectural firm of Hubbell and Benes. The interior of the chapel was designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany and is one of the few Tiffany interiors still intact. Among the adornments is a Tiffany window, entitled "The Journey of Life." The Wade Chapel is open to the public daily from April 1 to November 19 from 9am to 4pm. The chapel is staffed with a guide and admission is free. There is off-set parking near the chapel.
