Detroit's Woodlawn Cemetery

By A. Dale Northup

A repository of community memory, exquisite architectural structures, and lasting tributes to the departed, Woodlawn Cemetery serves as a testament to Detroit's multi-faceted history. Considered by many as an outdoor museum of Detroit's architectural, economic, social, and cultural vitality, Woodlawn is the final resting place of the Dodge Brothers, Edsel and Eleanor Ford, Hazen Pingree, and James Couzens, along with countless other historic figures. Through a rare collection of photographs, this book serves as a guided tour along the paths of Woodlawn, from the work of noteworthy architects and sculptors to the legacies of the extraordinary people who have shaped Detroit history.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Aug 20, 2003
• ISBN: 9781439614631

A. Dale Northup

Dale Northup is an architectural historian, journalist, and scholar. He is Professor Emeritus at St. Clair County Community College and has been an adjunct professor at University of Michigan-Dearborn and Lawrence Technological University.

Book preview

One

ENTRANCE, SECTIONS 3, 4, 5, AND 13 (PLOTS 1–13)

1. ENTRANCE TO WOODLAWN, FRANK EURICH JR., ARCHITECT 1927. Whereas many cemetery entrances are stately, Woodlawn is relatively simple. Openings in the masonry piers suggest a Gothic pointed arch.

2. WALDO AVERY, 1850–1914. Starting out as a Michigan lumberman based in Saginaw, Avery went on to become the president of the Alabaster Company of Detroit, Chicago, and Alabaster, Michigan. It was incorporated into the U.S. Gypsum Company in 1902. Gypsum, a form of alabaster, was one of the earliest known Michigan minerals. It was the Alabaster Company that furnished the plaster for the staff in the construction of the buildings at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago (1893). Avery was a major investor in Detroit’s Majestic Building (1895; demolished 1962). It was designed by Chicago’s notable architect Daniel H. Burnham. (Photo courtesy Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University.)

The Avery mausoleum is designed in the Egyptian Revival style. Over the name is a winged sun disk in the concave cornice. It appears on the entrances of many tombs and temples in ancient Egypt and commemorates the victory of light over darkness, along with the life-giving properties of the sun. Cobras are on either side of the sun disk. These can also be seen on the headpieces of ancient pharaohs, serving in a protective capacity. The entrance is flanked by imposing papyrus-capped columns with triangular stalks in the papyrus. Ancient Egypt suggested sturdy, permanent architecture and an impressive tradition of the funerary arts.