Bellefontaine Cemetery

By Dustin Stoll

Recently, I went with the rest of the graduate students to Bellefontaine Cemetery in St Louis, Missouri. We needed to make the trip so that we could start analyzing the 314 acre site for our upcoming design project, which is a crematorium facility to be located on the beautiful plot of ground.


When first arriving at the site, one must enter through an ornate iron gate and pass by two all stone buildings with real slate shingles. These distinct features gave me the feeling that I was entering a very exclusive area that deserved respect and honor. Our first destination was the small chapel located at the rear of the property. To get there we had to follow a winding path covered by a canopy of large trees with dense green leaves. The chapel is a small stone structure that can seat around 70 people on its wood benches. The building is classical in appearance, with its four columns in front and metal clad gable roof. The entire building was recently renovated and adapted with a columbarium to hold cremated remains. This was something that I was unfamiliar with. The columbarium is basically a bunch of little niches about 1ft x 1ft x 1ft, locate along the walls of the room. An interesting design feature is that the bottom niches are designed to be elevated off the floor a little bit, because it was feared that people would be hesitant to have their earthly remains located on the floor.

Another thing that I really enjoyed about the cemetery was all the unique tomb stones and mausoleums. Each was unique in its own way, with great attention paid to the detailed stone work. My favorite mausoleum was the Wainwright tomb, designed by Louis Sullivan in the late 19th century. The structure was design to hold the remains of Ellis Sullivan and his wife. On the outside, it appears to be somewhat plain at first glance, with a form consisting of a cube and a dome. When looking a bit closer, it is easy to see the beautiful engraved border on each of the four exterior walls. Our tour guide told us that each wall has a different design, which represents each of the four seasons. The highlight of the tour was that we got to go on the inside of the famous mausoleum and see the very detailed mosaic tile work. I thought it was interesting that the designer chose to put the most detail on the inside of the tomb, instead of the outside where it could be enjoyed by more people.


Overall, I thought our trip to the Bellefontaine Cemetery was very interesting, and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in very old and detailed architecture.