Geiger Mausoleum - Mount Mora Cemetery - St. Joseph, Missouri - NRHP Historic Districts - Contributing Buildings on Waymarking.com

date unknown
Architect/Builder: unknown

The Geiger monument is a fanciful creation in stone whose stylistic source was Medieval Europe, specifically the great late Gothic cathedrals of the 14 and 15th centuries, built in what is termed the flamboyant style. A confection of open work stone tracery surrounds the raised sarcophagus. The tracery is carved from a light colored limestone, while the sarcophagus is a red veined marble, creating an interesting contrast.

The structure is rectangular in shape. The stone tracery has a single bay facing the row and two bays at each side. At each corner rises a tall column, each of which has four horizontal sections. The lowermost has multiple facets, each with a recessed panel incised with a single pointed arch top and simple spandrel. Carved stone fillets separate this Gothic style base from the narrower second section. This Classical Revival section is also multiple-faceted, with raised engaged Ionic columns and Romanesque arches defining each facet. A more elaborate rosette-faced cornice separates this from the narrower still third level. This Egyptian Revival level has fewer facets, and is carved with engaged columns with lotiform detailing. The top segment is a true flight of fancy with scrolled acanthus leaves tapering and rising to a heavily carved floreate motif finial.

It is interesting to note that the "orders" used as decoration on the four levels are arranged in reverse chronological order of their period in history: Gothic below Greek below Egyptian below "nature." Was the designer attempting to make a point? Or was the use of a variety of motifs intended to portray the cultural knowledge of the world-traveled Dr. Geiger within?

Half-round stone arches spring from the junction of the first and second corner column segments. The stonework is massive and highly ornamental with crockets adorning the upper edge of the sweeping curves and gothic foliation forming a crocket arch on the inner side. The arch rises to a centered finial with a rosette incised in the face of the spandrel. On the long sides there is a centered faceted column supporting either arch end rising to a single finial with a more elaborate rosette carved into the spandrel.

The flamboyant stone tracery and sarcophagus rest on a large flat base that has a multiple-carved upper lip and base. The broad face of the base is decorated with incised repeated patterns derived from Gothic sources. Beneath this is a narrower base to which is affixed numerous bronze posts, with bronze chains surrounding the whole of the monument. The monument rests on a broad pavement with limestone edge stones into which is set a lozenge-pattern of white and black marble with corner blocks of black marble.