Probably a stock design, but a pleasingly artistic one, representing a half-finished Romanesque arch carved out of a rustic boulder. The effect is appropriately romantic, as if the sculptor himself had been interrupted by death in the middle of creating his masterpiece.
One wonders whether the neighbors think of the Straub mausoleum as bringing down the tone of the neighborhood. Among the architect-designed classical temples of the Pitcairns and Clemsons and so forth, here is a little Romanesque mausoleum that seems to be a dealer’s stock model; the William H. McCarthy mausoleum in Calvary Cemetery is identical, with the addition of a cross to suit Catholic taste. One likes to imagine the spirits of the very rich reacting the way they would react if they were still alive and their new neighbor announced that he was going to put up a very tasteful manufactured home on his lot.
The statue on top seems to be a version of that very popular flower-strewing mourner who appears in many of our cemeteries, usually handless if she is at ground level; compare the Aul, Potts, Alexander H. King, Baxmyer, and Nickel monuments.
What shall we call this style? Father Pitt has heard it called “Byzantine,” but that does not seem right to him; it seems more Romanesque, but with an unusual domed cupola. The cupola adds impressive height, and in spite of the difficulty he had assigning the structure to a particular style, old Pa Pitt thinks it is a pleasing and harmonious design.
A small rustic Romanesque mausoleum made almost top-heavy by the large statue of Hope holding her anchor. Father Pitt knows nothing about Martin Lappe except that he died in 1896 and his name is on this mausoleum.
An unusual style Father Pitt might call “Deco Romanesque.” The shape and tasteful restraint of the design are more in line with the Renaissance style, but the arch is trimmed with Romanesque details.
