1918 – Mount Pleasant Mausoleum, Toronto, Canada

“The plan provides in all 1100 crypts and is divided into a central part consisting of a narthex or vestibule, 19 x 28 feet, and a 24 x 48 feet chapel with 10 ft. aisles on either side leading to a system of transverse corridors. The building itself is 220 feet long by 95 feet deep and Greek in character, being constructed of reinforced concrete with granite exterior walls.

The chapel which is 21 feet high is lighted on both sides with clerestory windows having amber colored leaded glass and is finished with a panelled ceiling cast in reinforced concrete. Both hero and in the treatment throughout the dominant note is one of dignity and extreme simplicity. The pulpit platform at the end is in a recess under a marble arch lined with a deep maroon velour hanging suspended from a richly carved oak moulding. Below the clerestory the walls are carried out in Tokeen marble with French grey pilasters and columns registered by a simple moulding. The floor is of terazzo tile and the furniture consisting of eight pews, pulpit and three platform chairs is of carved walnut.

Both aisles are separated from the chapel by marble screens eight feet, six inches high. These aisles lead directly to the crypt corridors consisting of three on each side and one at the rear of the building. The accommodation includes in part sixteen private rooms of different sizes. These private rooms contain five, ten and twelve crypts for family burial, and have small memorial windows in richly colored stained glass left to the selection of the owner.

All corridors are lined with Rex and Regina marble from the Mississquoi quarries, and have floors of Ohio stone. The crypts are of reinforced concrete being arranged in tiers and cast in units of twenty-five— five wide and five high. Each crypt is ventilated and drained and sealed with a concrete slab and then faced with marble. The crypt fronts offer a suitable space for memorial inscriptions and have a ledge or shelf for vases and floral containers formed by the marble projection marking the horizontal divisions between the tiers. The family crypts in the rear aisles are fenced off by bronze railings, and all private rooms have bronze doors.”
Construction, September 1921

Share!

More!