A rather “exotic” tomb!

“This one-of-a-kind mausoleum is the resting place of prolific silent film director J.Gordon Edwards. Canadian-born Edwards was one of the most prominent movie directors in the silent film era. He began his career as a stage actor and director and then in 1914, he made his film debut as director of St. Elmo. Not long after his debut, he became a director at Fox Film Corporation (Fox merged with Twentieth-Century Pictures in 1935 to become Twentieth-Century Fox). From St. Elmo in 1914 until his last film, It is the Law, in 1924, Edwards directed over 50 films. He is best known for directing the original Cleopatra in 1917, The Queen of Sheba in 1921, which contained an enormous chariot race and for all of Theda Bara‘s films from 1916 to 1919 (including her most noted role in Cleopatra). Theda Bara said that Edwards was the kindest director she had ever worked with.

Edward’s wife, Angela, commissioned the mausoleum some years after Edwards death, and it is an homage to the exotic high-production period films Edwards directed. The twin minarets were originally wired for electricity. Inside the mausoleum are a number of movie props, including chairs and a tiger-skin rug. Often Angela would visit the mausoleum and read while seated in one of the chairs. When she died in 1965, she directed that she be cremated and her ashes be mingled with her husband’s. Their ashes are sealed in one of the crypts, which is inscribed with the last line (Canto XXXIII, line 145) of The Divine Comedy Part III Paradiso by Dante Alighieri: “L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stele” (“The Love which moves the sun and the other stars”). Gordon Edwards was the step grandfather of director Blake Edwards (July 26, 1922 – December 15, 2010). Stories in Stone. New York. A Field Guide in New York City Area Cemeteries and their residents. By Douglas Keister.”

Taken with a Sony NEX 5N and Sigma 30mm f2.8

Again according to Douglas Keister:

William Van Duzer Lawrence was born on a farm outside Elmira, New York. His parents, Robert D. Lawrence and Catherine Van Duzer Lawrence, both came from prominent Dutch-American families. At age 19, William went to work in the family’s pharmaceutical business and quickly rose through the ranks. He amassed a considerable fortune in both the pharmaceutical and real estate business. At the turn of the nineteenth century, he built a suburban housing development called Lawrence Park in Bronxville, New York. The development catered to the upper middle class, and because of its semirural setting, it was attractive to established painters, sculptors, and literary types. The artistic aura of the place must have rubbed off on Lawrence. In later life, he started making contributions to a variety of institutions. His most well known outpouring of wealth was in 1926 when he founded Sarah Lawrence College after the death of his wife, Sarah Lawrence (1846-1925). The centerpiece of his large plot at Kensico is a semicircular low neo-Gothic wall with a throne-like arch. The plot is peppered with the graves of members of the extended Lawrence family.

Taken with a Sony NEX 5N and Sigma 30mm f2.8

The Community Mausoleum was built in 1924 to offer above-ground burials – presumably for those who didn’t want or couldn’t afford their own above-ground mausoleums.

According to Rootsweb

This mausoleum was erected in 1924 to replace the original Receiving Tomb. Architect Sidney Lovell styled the building after twelfth-century gothic churches of northern Europe. At the time of its dedication in 1925, the building design was described as Tudor Gothic. The mausoleum was erected with permanence, as well as grandeur, in mind. The exterior is pink Etouah marble from Georgia. The interior is white marble from Alabama. Massive cast bronze doors mark the entrance to the mausoleum and private chapel area. In fact, all the doors, windows and gates in the mausoleum are made of or framed in bronze. The community mausoleum houses a small chapel, 292 crypts, 68 niches and two private rooms.

Taken with a Fujifilm X-E3 and Sigma 18-50 f2.8

There’s certainly a lot of space at Kensico Cemetery.

Taken with a Fujifilm X-E3 and Sigma 18-50 f2.8

“Kensico Cemetery, located in Valhalla, Westchester County, New York was founded in 1889, when many New York City cemeteries were becoming full, and rural cemeteries were being created near the railroads that served the city. Initially 250 acres (1.0 km2), it was expanded to 600 acres (2.4 km2) in 1905 but reduced to 461 acres (1.87 km2) in 1912, when a portion was sold to the neighboring Gate of Heaven Cemetery. The cemetery has a special section for members of the Actors’ Fund of America and the National Vaudeville Association, some of whom died in abject poverty. The cemetery contains four Commonwealth war graves, of three Canadian Army soldiers of World War I and a repatriated American Royal Air Force airman of World War II. As of December 2021, eight Major League Baseball players are buried here, including Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Lou Gehrig. Many entertainment figures of the early twentieth century, including Russian-born Sergei Rachmaninoff, were buried here.” (Adapted from Wikipedia, which also provides a long list of the well-known people buried there).

Apart from my fascination with cemeteries it was this latter was what brought me to the ceremony. I wanted to find the final resting places of Sergei Rachmaninoff (because I like his music) as well as a that of Danny Kaye (UNICEF‘s first Goodwill Ambassador. I worked for UNICEF for about 38 years). I failed on both counts. After walking around for about three hours, following the map I couldn’t find either of them. By this time, I was hungry, tired and my feet hurt. I sat down for a couple of minutes and took a look at the Find a Grave website, which has GPS Co-ordinates for graves. From this I discovered that there was no way that could ever have found these graves using the map, because the map is just wrong: the graves are not in the locations marked by the map. Now I know where they are I guess I’ll have to go back again.

While it’s a pleasant enough cemetery with its open landscapes, attractive mausoleums, nice statuary etc. it’s not one of my favorites. I tend to prefer older cemeteries, where the old, crumbling gravestones are packed tightly together.

Taken with a Fujifilm X-E3 and Sigma 18-50 f2.8