Fairmount Cemetery

[mistressofmuses]

My original hope was that we'd start with one of our farther-away "targets" for a hike or something, but unfortunately, Alex did something ("something" here means "nothing more than walking across the room") and hurt his ankle last night. It was still bothering him pretty badly this morning, so we didn't want to risk either a far-away thing, or anything that cost money, in case we had to turn around and come back.

So we picked one of the nearby cemeteries we'd been wanting to visit: Fairmount.

Fairmount Cemetery is an enormous (280 acre) cemetery in Denver. It was founded in 1890, and is still active. It has some lovely historic markers and above-ground crypts, including some with stained glass. (The Fairmount Mausoleum has a very extensive collection of stained glass, apparently, but we didn't go in there because Cy was with us.) We mostly drove around, getting out when we saw something interesting, both to spare Alex's ankle, and because it was pretty warm, and the dog is a weenie. There were also lots of little gnat-type bugs that mostly left me alone, but were driving Alex nuts.


The Little Ivy Chapel


One of the older crypts. I like the statue on top.


A nice bit of stained glass in a different crypt.




Another shot of the chapel. I think I was largely taken by how blue the sky was today. It's felt like a long while since we had more than vague grey haze.

One of my favorite crypts is the one for the MacMillan family, because it seems like there was a strong aesthetic they were going for.


That aesthetic was "stained glass and crystals." The table inside has several different crystals (including in the bowl) on it, and the glass in the back is lovely.

But most striking are the stained glass panels along the sides. Forgive the iffy quality; they had to be taken at an odd angle through the front glass, which was very reflective and a bit dirty.


A horse and a dragon. I love it.


And on the other side, a pig and monkey, a rabbit, rats/mice, and a rabbit and dragon.

I do notice that all of these are Eastern zodiac signs, though I don't know if that's absolutely the theme. Perhaps they represent certain members of the family? I don't know, but I love stained glass, and I love these.


Both sides of the walkway up to the doors are lined with these huge crystal geode pieces. Someone loved quartz.


This marker is so worn down it's impossible to tell much. The dangers of sandstone, I suppose. The general shape, and the dots at the bottom that *may* have been a leaf pattern make me think it was one of the tree-stump fashioned markers. Usually those are "Woodmen of the World" markers, though sometimes they may not be.


This is the type of marker I suspect the above may have been as well.

I find it interesting when headstones list birth places as well as dates, especially when it was someone from another country.

These two:


Born in Posen, Germany

and


Born in Posen, Prussia

led me on a bit of a brief history lesson. Posen was an extremely contested province, being bounced back and forth and fought over by Prussia and Germany (and uprisings for Polish independence) for a very long time throughout the 1800s/early 1900s. I wonder if the markers had nationalities assigned based on what the person thought of as the rightful owners of the land, or just what nation it had belonged to at the time of their birth (or death)?

Post WW2, Posen became part of Poland.

(This is similar to looking into my own family history on my mom's side: her grandparents came from Bohemia, which was what they always referred to it as. But it was actually the kingdom of West Bohemia in the Austro-Hungarian empire. It's now the Czech Republic.)


A unique frame design.


This crypt was almost completely overgrown by that bush up front. The back had a stained glass panel that was barely visible through the outer pane. What I could see was very broken.


Nice statue.


And half a fairy ring! In a cemetery! I'm sure it's fine, lol.

Oddly, we found a relatively recent headstone of someone who shares my last name. It is not a common last name, so it seems likely that we may have been related in SOME fashion. (Though I'm not actually blood-related to the name.) A quick google search didn't reveal anything much, except that they lived in Michigan at one point. Odd.

Then we came home and took brief naps. Then went back out to buy crickets for Broccoli Cheddar Bomb, and dinner for us. Alex bought me roses. <3 And then we got home and Cy went ballistic over some raccoons in the drainage ditch. (Raccoons are the ONE thing we have ever found that Cy has a negative-to-the-point-of-aggressive reaction to. He loves other dogs, he honestly barely registers coyotes, he thinks horses and deer look like friends, he loves cats and wants to play with them, he thinks skunks are cats... but he HATES raccoons.)

All in all, a very nice day.

Comments

[scarlipswolfwife]

Lovely photos! I love all the stained glass! I love stained class, but my sister REALLY is the one to go all out for it. That's an interesting cemetery, though.

[mistressofmuses]

I love stained glass! The religious imagery doesn't do much for me, though I still appreciate the artistry. But I've always been a big sucker for stained glass of all types.

It is an interesting cemetery!

[ihavenoarms]

nice

[mistressofmuses]

Thank you!

[kn0tme]

You should go onto FindAGrave and upload some of the relevant photos. Since my father passed away a couple years ago I've started researching family history. There are a lot of people who could benefit from photos of cemeteries they cannot otherwise access.

"he thinks horses and deer look like friends". I'm convinced my dog things horses are just weird looking dogs. "ok, he's funny looking, but I'll play".

[kn0tme]

The markings on the headstone of Julius Mitchell are Hebrew. They are the characters Alef (on the right) and Lamed (on the left). Normally they would be combined into a single letter, representing "G-d". "Julius Mitchell" isn't a particularly Jewish-sounding name to me. I'll bet he Anglicized it when he emigrated from Prussia.

[mistressofmuses]

I can usually recognize Hebrew but know absolutely none of the characters specifically, so that's really interesting. This cemetery had a very large Jewish section, some very historic like these, and some much more modern. I'm betting you're right and that must have been an anglicized name.

[mistressofmuses]

Fairmount is pretty well-documented, but I can take a look at FindAGrave, and upload anything that isn't already there. Family history and genealogy is very interesting stuff to work at, but can be a huge challenge.

Cy absolutely thinks horses are like dogs, just big and kinda boring. It's good that it means he's very chill about them, but sometimes he's a little TOO relaxed, and thinks nothing of just... wandering under them and things.
Twice now, he's almost been brained by miniature horses that want to FIGHT.

[kn0tme]

Down in NY, people are constantly placing requests on Craigslist for someone to take photos of headstones. They'll often pay a fee for the service.

[mistressofmuses]

I didn't realize that was such a need! Though in areas with a lot of cemeteries, or a lot of older inactive ones, I can definitely understand why. I'll take a look at Fairmont, and see how good their records are. I *think* they've kept pretty complete records of headstones and burials, but if there are gaps I could fill in, I'd be glad to.

[kn0tme]

Sites like FindAGrave might provided the birth/death dates, but there's other information on the headstones that people researching their family tree can use (especially in Judaism). For example, you can see if the relative was a Cohain or Levite (ancient priests) and you can get the father's name, giving you another generation. Both of those pieces of information would be written in Hebrew, so not obvious.

[mistressofmuses]

That's interesting! I didn't realize that there was information like that that wouldn't be so obvious based on the rest of the epitaph. (Though it makes complete sense, now that you mention it.) I can see how sometimes that might not be included in images or in the text transcribed by the cemetery or by a site like FindAGrave.

[spikedluv]

Looks like a lovely place to go for a walk!

Oooh, the fairy ring! You're right, probably fine. *g*

[mistressofmuses]

It is a lovely place to walk around! Very peaceful, and with a lot of interesting things to see.

But yes, a fairy ring in a cemetery seems... definitely not like a trap. :)