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

Date unknown
Architect/Builder: unknown
1 contributing building

The family of William C. Powell is buried here.
The Powell mausoleum is a simple rectangular structure built in a Classical Revival style, with suggestions of Egyptian Revival. The walls have a slightly battered shape of smooth dressed limestone blocks; these rest on a rock-faced base course with a smooth-dressed outward bevel. The short side of the rectangle faces the drive and is topped by the end wall of the distinctive stepped-corbel roof shape that is constructed of a single slab of limestone. The four roof corners are decorated with acroterion.

Inside the stepped shape of the gable are recessed rock-faced blocks, resting on a broad and slightly projected frieze. The frieze is decorated with carved rosettes that are flanking an empanelled area with "POWELL" incised in large, simple letters and centered above the doorway. Flanking the doorway are engaged columns that are fluted to give the appearance of stalks, topped with palmetto-styled capitals. The columns are resting on large block plinths from which project flanking stones to either side of the two-step entryway. The tops of these flanking stones are carved with an undulating ogee shape. The paired doors in the deep, recessed entry are bronze with round pull handles and open latticework windows.

The interior is perhaps the simplest found at Mt. Mora. There is a single engaged crypt, lengthwise along the south long wall, with a smooth-dressed limestone cap. A freestanding-framed photograph of a woman on the top, common in Europe, but unusual in the US, rests against a small box. (In 2003 the rusted metal box containing cremains was replaced by one constructed of material which will not disintegrate.) The whole of the interior is faced with smooth-dressed (but not polished) limestone slabs. The floor is a single limestone slab.