1878 - Receiving Vault - Mountain Home Cemetery - Kalamazoo, MI
N 42° 17.612 W 085° 36.190
16T E 615150 N 4683311
A receiving vault dated 1878 stands near the front gate at Mountain Home Cemetery, 1402 W Main Street, Kalamazoo, MI.
Waymark Code: WMMPY4
Location: Michigan, United States
Date Posted: 10/22/2014
Views: 3
Receiving vaults are relics of days gone by, when burials often had to be delayed due to weather or related issues like frozen ground. These vaults, generally with niches inside, would serve as temporary holding places until final arrangements could be made. Both Warren G. Harding and Abraham Lincoln were interred in receiving vaults, for example, until their tombs could be constructed. In some cases, interment would take place in the receiving vault until such time as the survivors were satisfied that the decedent's body had decayed to the point that it would no longer be a target for grave robbers. In other cases, disease may have been a factor, with a body's being stored in the vault until such time as it could be handled. Today, technology has evolved to the point that we can break into frozen ground without trouble, and we're not storing smallpox victims away from everybody else because we don't see smallpox here anymore.
Documentation on this one is scant, but this Gothic-style vault was built in 1878, and the date is visible over the front entrance. The two angels that flank that entrance have been battered by time and the elements, but they are still discernible as such, each holding books. At the rear of the vault is a modern-day garage door, and it is probable that the vault is used today for storage of maintenance equipment.
Year of construction: 1878
Cross-listed waymark: Not listed
Full inscription: Not listed
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