Cimitero delle Porte Sante, Florence, October 2001

High atop a hill that looks down upon Florence in Italy is San Miniato al Monte, or St Minias on the Hill. Attached to the church is a small cemetery founded in 1839, Cimitero delle Porte Sante. It is a small cemetery, but very crowded. There are some spectacular monuments and mausoleums here. I visited here in October 2001 with my mother, brother, and stepfather.

The view of Florence with Brunelleschi's magnificent dome dominating the skyline.

Famous director Franco Zeffirelli? Most likely, Zeffirelli is a Florentine.

St. Joseph Cemetery, Price Hill

St Joseph Cemetery was originally founded in 1842 on nineteen and a quarter acres in Price Hill by the Cincinnati Archdiocese headed by Archbishop John B. Purcell. The cemetery is located at West Eighth and Enright. West Eighth was not there when the cemetery was built.  Its construction divided the cemetery and most of the Irish and Italian interments ended up across the street in what is now a very dilapidated offshoot.

When the archdiocese announced the cemetery to the public several ethnic parishes petitioned to have St. Joe set aside for their groups. The cemetery was divided into German and Irish sections. After West Eighth was run through the cemetery, the Irish graves were the ones that had to be relocated. When the cholera epidemic hit the catholic community hard between 1849 and 1854 , the cemetery filled quickly and a new cemetery, St. Joseph New, was founded and became a mostly Italian/Irish Catholic cemetery.

St. Joseph is still an active cemetery with frequent burials and is overseen by the St. Joseph Cemetery Association. The grounds are in beautiful shape. The monuments are in various states. Some are well taken care of while others have been left to crumble. There are few mausoleums here, but the monuments are beautiful and many rival Spring Grove's finest!
There are only a few people of note in this cemetery, the most famous, perhaps, is Louis Hudepohl, the beer baron.

I like the broken lyre under the bust. This symbolizes that his "music" (life) was cut short.

What would Strauch say? Strauch would not approve of the number of monuments within a family group. It also does not have an “improvement upon nature” air about it. With the exception of the older sections on the west, northwest corner, there is not much shade and it is mainly just an expanse of grass area. The plots are tidy, though and they have refrained from the excessive accouterments that Strauch so despised when he arrived at Spring Grove. 
Gladstone, on the other hand, would approve. There are many beautiful monuments, some with loving epitaphs.

It is also obvious that some families are still involved with the care and upkeep of the stones. Here is a good example. This is a new granite plinth on the old marble base and the original angel on top.

There were so many beautiful monuments! I could blow this page up with pictures, but what follows are a few of my favorites.

Beautiful simplicity.

This tableau is prevalent throughout the cemetery, Faith. Her sisters Charity and Hope are more commonly depicted as their symbols, the heart and the anchor.

Ostentatious much? I like the busts.

A very fine treestone

A fine bronze statue. Ostentatious but tasteful.

LOVE this! Carved clouds, very unique.

Note the figure standing on the snake with the apple in its mouth.

I'll end with my favorite. Simple yet beautiful.

 

 Thanks to my mother, Sandi Cook for being the photographer on this jaunt.

Robinson Family Mausoleum

Running away to join the circus stirs the imagination in many a girl and boy, but in approximately 1820 John H. Robinson did just that. He ran away from his home in New York state and became a roustabout in a circus. This act of youthful rebellion led to the creation of a circus dynasty that lasted until the last of the John Robinsons sold the family business (The largest family held circus in the country) to an Indiana company that would eventually be folded into the Ringling Brothers and Barnum Bailey circus. Started in 1842, the circus entertained presidents and royalty and became woven into the fabric of living legends. The circus became a local business in 1857 when "Old John," as John H. was known, created winter quarters for his circus in Terrace Park, Ohio. Legend has it that elephants are even buried there. 

John H was the first of the four John Robinsons. His son John F., also known as “The Governor,” is the second of the four. John G., or “Papa,” came third with his son John the IV being the last. John IV was only in charge of the circus for a very short time and he became an attorney.

Many famous people are connected to the circus. One, Dan Rice, the most famous clown of his era, is thought to be the model for Uncle Sam.

Old John’s son Gilbert married Emma Lake, Queen of the Side Saddle and Wild Bill Hickok’s stepdaughter. Emma’s mother Agnes is a famous person in her own right having been the only woman to own a circus. Agnes also ran away to join the circus when she was fifteen. According to a Spring Grove docent, Agnes and Emma are buried elsewhere in Spring Grove.

The Robinsons were kind people and they made sure that their performers had a place in Spring Grove, up on higher ground.

Papa’s granddaughter Ellanora, was married to Superman, George Reeves. Reeve’s mother Helen petitioned to have her son interred there but was denied due to space issues.

All of the John Robinsons are buried on the family plot, including their wives, Elizabeth, Caroline, Lenora, and Judith.

The walls are slabs of blue limestone and smoother marble facing. The cost to build was $35,000, a huge sum for the times. The advertisements emphasized the “Four John Robinsons.” Here is an ad showing a four leafed clover with the four Johns displayed in the leaves.

This concept of four is played out symbolically in the design of the mausoleum. There are quatrefoils throughout the design with their four protrusions. It is suggested that the quatrefoil represents the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. It is a mainstay of Gothic architecture and may simply represent the four Johns and or the lucky four leafed clover.

On the structure’s peaks there are stylized marble pieces each with four points. It is hard to tell exactly what they are, maybe stylized ivy meaning immorality and fidelity.

There are also four columns in the front arch and four statues grace the monument. The top statue is of the Archangel Gabriel with his horn. As Douglas Keister puts it, [he] “has his horn at the ready, to signal the heavens of the impending arrival of another Robinson.” His upraised hand also indicates the raising of a soul to heaven.

 The other three are the three virtues Faith, Hope, and Charity. Faith is the cross, Hope is the anchor and Charity is love.

The columns are in the Corinthian style. The relief is very worn and it is very difficult to see what was carved there. It looks like it must be flowers because they have stems and leaves. Berries can be seen.

Very little can be seen of the inside of the mausoleum but you can see a cross called a Glory. It is a cross with a halo and an aureole radiating from it. According to Keister, it represents the “most exalted form of divinity. The cross bears the date, “1874,” the year the mausoleum was built.

I have seen several comments claiming that the mausoleum is based on Sacré-Cœur in Paris, France but the evidence does not bear this out. The mausoleum was built in 1874 but construction on the church in Paris did not begin until 1875 and was not completed until after WWI. Also, Sacré-Cœur is an example of Romano-Byzantine architecture while the Robinson structure is Gothic Revival. They both have domes, but there the similarity ends.

Our second exploration of Spring Grove was quite different from the first. The first exploration was all about questions. The 2nd was about getting some answers. I learned a bit more about the people underneath us.
There was also a difference in the ambiance and in the the feeling of the purpose of the space. One our first day it was a sunny, mild and bright. Walking through our section felt like, well, like a walk in park. Though we were exploring a cemetery, I got more of the park-like feel and it felt like the days when my friends and I would picnic on the lawn.
On this second adventure, I got more of the "cities of the dead" feel. The sky was overcast and it was drizzling. A pall was cast over the grounds and we talked of the people interred there. There was a decided gloom about the day and it felt appropriate for the exploration of a cemetery.
I enjoyed seeing sections that I had not been to, including ones with newer monuments and mausoleums. The Brooks mausoleum was very new looking and it helped me to imagine the way the older structures must have looked when new.
The Robinson mausoleum captured my imagination with its history of circus people and its beautiful statues of Faith, Hope and Charity. I will be using them for my mausoleum overview.