BY STEPHANIE FOX
Lakewood Cemetery is more than a final resting place. There is nothing strange or creepy about Lakewood. It is instead, a destination—a place of art, architecture and reflection. More like a quiet sculpture garden, it is for many visitors, a quiet place to escape the stress of the modern world and contemplate the meaning of life and death.
Minneapolis was a city of only 13,000 residents when Lakewood Cemetery was founded. Dedicated in 1872, in a rural area a mile from the southern edge of the city, it was designed to be public, nonprofit and nondenominational. The cost of the 250 acres of land and improvements was $25,000, at a time when an average home in the city cost $500.
Today, single grave plots are available starting at $2,050, with Community and Garden Quad Mausoleum Crypts, roomy enough for four, going as high as $72,100.
Lakewood was designed as what was then called “a garden-style cemetery,” with rolling lawns, shade trees, reflecting pools and a view of Lake Calhoun. When founded, it was at the end of a dirt road. Today, the stone gates at the entrance at 3600 Hennepin Ave. are in the center of the city. But, you need only to walk through the huge stone front gates to find a bucolic oasis, one reflecting the history of the city of Minneapolis. There’s a lot to see here.
Do not miss the 1910 Lakewood Mortuary Chapel, with Byzantine architecture modeled after the iconic Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. Inside, are stunning mosaics created by Italian artists, inspired by the San Marco Cathedral in Venice and crafted with 10 million pieces of colored stone and gold and silver fused glass. The Chapel is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Check out the graves of statesmen, business moguls and celebrities, including the gravesites of more than two-dozen members of the cities’ foremost families, from the Fridleys to the Pillsburys. You can visit the graves of five governors, including Orville Freeman, Floyd Olson and Rudy Perpich, the latter represented with a soaring stainless steel sculpture reflecting his love of modern art. Vice President Hubert Humphrey is there, too, under a simple modern memorial featuring his signature. Senator Paul Wellstone’s grave, overlooking the lake, is marked by a large but simple granite boulder. In the Jewish tradition, visitors leave small stones on the top to honor his memory.
Celebrities include Theodore Wirth, who helped create the Minneapolis park system, Northstar Hockey player Bill Goldsworthy and entertainer Tiny Tim.
There are also special sections, set aside for communities and organizations. A pagoda marks the Chinese Community Memorial, a bronze elk memorializes a section set aside for the Brotherhood of Paternal Order of Elks, and a sculpture of a fireman in a dress uniform from 1892 stands at the Minneapolis Fire Department Relief Association.
At the Showmen’s Rest area, visitors still gather every Memorial Day to pay their respects to circus performers, carnival workers, racecar drivers, wrestlers and amusement ride operators who have passed away.
The cemetery also features a memorial to the Grand Army of the Republic (the Union Army), where a bronze statue of a Union soldier stands atop a granite column behind the only remaining 1860 Sawyer cannon in the United States.
Don’t miss the forests of giant columns and obelisks, some more than three stories tall, their tops hidden in the trees. There is a community of exotic mausoleums, including a tiny Parthenon housing the remains of the Lowery-Goodrich family and an Egyptian pyramid with the name ‘Wood’ carved above the door. Other mausoleums are carved with scarabs, water lilies and other elaborate designs.
Peek inside some of these and you’ll see beautiful mosaics, hanging lamps, stained glass and carvings, all elaborate and beautiful. Some have doorknockers. If you try knocking, there’s an echo, but no one comes to answer the door.
While there, you can also see the memorial to the 18 workers who lost their lives when, in 1978, a massive explosion destroyed Mill “A” at C.C. Washburn’s Flour Mill, one of the worst industrial accidents in Twin Cities history. The explosion on the bank of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis sent debris as far as St. Paul and started a fire that destroyed five other mills. The memorial, on whose base is carved “Labor wide as the earth hath its summit in heaven,” was erected 10 years after the event. The disaster changed the industry, adding new safety features so nothing like this would again happen.
Nearby are the graves of inventor Sir Joseph Francis and his wife, Ellen. He died in 1893, his life story carved in a narrative on a large headstone. He was, it says, “… the founder of the U.S. Life Saving Service, the American Ship-wreck Society, and the inventor of the metallic lifecar lifeboat, etc., etc., … ” (yes, it actually says, etc., etc.). Joseph bought the first plot sold in the cemetery after his wife told him that he’d never see so beautiful a spot and would like to be buried there. She died in 1873, 20 years before her husband.
Drop by the front office, just inside the front gate, and pick up a self-guided tour brochure, helping you find the more architecturally, artistically and historically interesting parts of the cemetery.
The cemetery entrance is located at 36th Street and Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis, open seven days a week, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“Visitors at Life’s carnival,
Did we bring something to you all?
After drudging at mill or desk
Did you find us picturesque?
Did you enjoy a thrill, a laugh?
Then let this be our epitaph.”
– from the Showman’s Rest Memorial
