A mausoleum had not been built at Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis for over 70 years. Now, a prominent local businessman has brought the funerary form back to life at the historic burial grounds. Since its establishment in 1849, Bellefontaine—the first cemetery west of the Mississippi to be created as part of the Rural Cemetery Movement that began in the 1830s—has witnessed the construction of many striking mausoleums. Notably, a Gothic Revival pile was erected in 1921 for the family of Adolphus Busch, co-founder of Anheuser-Busch. Before that came the Wainwright Tomb (1891), a domed-cube decorated in stylized floral patterns designed by Louis Sullivan for another local brewer, Ellis Wainwright. (Ellis also commissioned Sullivan to design the 10-story Wainwright Building in downtown St. Louis; both are on the National Register of Historic Places.)
But Bellefontaine’s role as a final resting place for the city’s elite had diminished over the years, and mausoleums—often small, temple-like structures—had lost prevalence with the growing popularity of cremation beginning in the 20th century. Architect Thomas Wall of local firm Mitchell Wall was approached in 2016 to design a mausoleum for a family for whom he had been designing a house. Recently completed, the $5 million tomb is a contemporary take on the age-old monument that incorporates historic and artisanal elements.
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