February 13, 2017

• Cold in Cleveland

  Joyouswind and I left The 'Duh on Saturday morning and drove to Cleveland, Ohio to meet Bookmark61 for some family time and the exchanging of Valentine gifts. We actually stayed in Independence, Ohio and had the good fortune to be in a hotel that was near a very large Cinemark theater. On Saturday night, we went to the theater and settled ourselves in leather recliners to watch the Lego Batman movie. It was a funny movie and very nice to be able to watch it with my feet up after driving for several hours.

  On Sunday morning, we checked out of the hotel and headed to the historic district of Cleveland for some geocaching in Lake View Cemetery. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate. We found two geocaches before the fog and mist began to turn into wind and rain. We might have found more caches if we hadn't been so distracted by the cemetery. It was a mix of somber beauty, historic tragedy, and human quirkiness. Plus a large cement dam. I've never come across a dam in a cemetery before!

  Once the rain became too heavy to enjoy our surroundings, we headed to downtown and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That post will come later. For now, here is a glimpse of Lake View Cemetery.

  We entered through the Euclid Gate and the first thing we saw was this memorial to a terrible tragedy - the Collinwood School fire of 1908.

  

  Although the school was of a common design for the time, it was a deadly fire trap. When fire broke out (the cause was never determined), it quickly engulfed the building due to a chimney effect. There were only two exits and one was blocked by flames. The other became a bottleneck, trapping and killing about half the students in the school, along with two teachers. A rescuer also died that day. The death toll was 172 children and 3 adults. It took less than an hour for the fire to gut the school.

  

   

  There is a lot of statuary in the cemetery. I am hoping to go back on a nice summer day and spend some time with my camera among the angels, saints, children, and animal statues. Here is a small sampling.

  June Louise

  

   

  June Louise is sitting across a small lake from Wade Chapel, which boasts Tiffany stained glass windows.

  

   

  Here's a close-up of one of the chapel windows.

  

   

  On the other end of the spectrum, a razorback hog stands in front of a bench stating, "All creatures drink joy from the breasts of nature."

  

   

  An almost life-size stylized lion marks the grave of Dr. Mark Anthony Smith, a medical professor and Alzheimer's researcher at Case Western Reserve University.

  

   

  A cat sleeps on a bench.

  

   

  Monument to a guitar player... and possible a Cleveland Browns fan.

  

   

  An avenging angel crushes evildoers watched by an adorable puppy. This was weird.

  

   

  There was a wide variety of headstones.

  

   

  These cylindrical stones appeared to be popular from about the 1880s to the 1920s.

  

   

  Eliot Ness's ashes were scattered on the small lake. His memorial stone is relatively simple.

  

   

  And on the other extreme, the stone marking the grave of Alan Freed is large and flamboyant. Here is the back of it.

  

   

  And here is the glorious front side.

  

   

  This is such a small sampling of the mortuary art in this beautiful cemetery. We also stopped at the memorial to President James Garfield. I will post photos of that separately.

  • 2:24 pm
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