We weren't entirely sure what to expect when Roger from Ohio's Tourism Division urged us to visit Cleveland's Lake View Cemetery because of our interest in history, architecture, and photography, but we took his advice and spent the better part of a day exploring this fascinating cemetery.
The 285-acre cemetery, established in 1869, gave planners plenty of space to execute their vision of a garden to rival the grand Victorian gardens in England and France.
Lake View Cemetery may be best known as the final resting place of U.S. President James A. Garfield (you can expect to see more stories here about Lake View's massive Garfield Monument and other interesting sites in the cemetery), but we didn't go to Lake View expecting to see one of the nation's best examples of the work of famed stained glass artisan Louis Comfort Tiffany.
The cemetery's Wade Chapel is one of Cleveland's most treasured architectural gems. The chapel's Tiffany-designed interior, which is one of few intact Tiffany interiors in existence, earned a place on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
The exterior's simple and classic Greek- and Roman-inspired lines don't really prepare visitors for the little chapel's intricate Art Nouveau interior, highlighted by Tiffany mosaics and a spectacular stained glass window depicting themes of spiritual fulfillment, resurrection and immortality.
You can tour the chapel's interior and meet with a docent to learn about the chapel's construction, history, and artwork between April 1 and mid-November.
Jeptha Homer Wade (1811-1890), a business man best known as one of the founders of Western Union Telegraph Company, was the first president of Lake View Cemetery's board of trustees. Wade died in 1890, and his grandson, Jeptha H. Wade II, Wade asked architect Dominick Benes to design Wade Chapel to honor the elder Wade.
The chapel, completed in 1901, was the first well-known Cleveland landmark designed by Benes, and his architectural partner Benjamin S. Hubbell. Benes and Hubbell designed several other important Cleveland buildings, including the Cleveland Museum of Art in 1916.
Two massive bronze doors open to admit visitors into the chapel's Tiffany-designed interior. The 7' x 9' Tiffany stained glass window depicting the soul's ascendance from earth to heaven stands at the front of the chapel, and the chapel is flanked by two gold-and-glass, 8'x32' mosaic walls designed by Frederick Wilson that depict the Prophecy and law of the Old Testament (east wall) and the fulfillment of those laws through the birth of Christianity and the New Testament (west wall).
The window takes on an especially ethereal quality due to Tiffany's Favrile process, where exposure of glass to chemicals and fumes of molten metal during processing gave the glass its unique opalescence and iridescence. Only Tiffany himself and a few trusted artisans knew the exact formulation of elements in the Favrile process, and that knowledge died with them.
Tiffany personally selected this window as one of 100 pieces he displayed at the World Exposition in Paris in 1900, earning a gold medal from the expo for his work.
The Wade Chapel docent tours last about a half-hour, and our docent was quite good about explaining the symbolism of each artistic element of the chapel's glasswork, architecture, and fixtures. I was also able to pick up an informative booklet about the chapel at a small gift store in the Garfield Memorial building, which is also open April 1 through mid-November.
Come back later this week for a closer look at some of the details of Wade Chapel's Tiffany-designed interior.
© Dominique King 2009 All rights reserved
Wow, that glass is beautiful! I can't believe I lived in Ohio and never saw this.
Posted by: Sarah V. | December 30, 2009 at 02:12 PM
Sarah-We had no idea this chapel, and a lot of other things we saw in Lake View, were there. Thanks to Roger, who suggested we visit the cemetery, I've got a batch of stories to share here :)
I've also got some more photos up of the chapel's interior today.
Posted by: Dominique King | December 31, 2009 at 07:11 AM