Price Mausoleum - Topeka, Kansas - Victorian Style Architecture on Waymarking.com

PLOT 6

Margaret Davis Price originally owned the Price Mausoleum and it is dated c. 1895. Price, the wife of a Topeka Cemetery superintendent, purchased the plot on January 12, 1895, for the sum of $190.00. The first interment was December 13, 1894. The mausoleum is in Section 62 on Plot 6, which is 22’ wide by 24’ deep. The mausoleum façade measures 22’ wide by 18’ , 6’ high.

Built of limestone and rose granite, this structure is sixth along the row of tem mausolea. An inscription of date is not apparent. Price is carved in relief on the epistyle of a temple form entry porch. The structure is adjacent to the curbed drive and engaged to the fieldstone retaining wall. The architectural style is Victorian Romanesque.

Elements of the composition are symmetrically disposed about a central axis and rest on a stone plinth that breaks at the gateway. The façade shows superimposed pediments, triangular in shape, with the smaller front pediment forming a temple style porch placed over the larger pediment of the façade. The central gateway is the focal point of the composition. Lateral walls of quarry-faced, coursed ashlar abut pilasters framing the gateway. These walls descend at an angle toward the sides of the plot. A narrow band of dressed-faced limestone horizontally divides the walls at midpoint.

The porch is composed of polished rose granite columns resting on a base and pedestal that support an epistyle and the smaller triangular pediment. The limestone column capitals show carving in foliage motif. Before the porch, a walk is marked on either side by stone urns, with carved ornament similar to that of the column capitals. The dressed-faced limestone epistyle is edged by fillet and fascia detail, but directly over the gateway this detail changes to the ovolo egg and tongue pattern. The ends of the epistyle are ornamented by a geometric object in relief. Above, the limestone tympanum is decorated in relief by geometric objects superimposed upright and inverted triangles within a circle, in the center of which is a grouping of star and crown. This combination represents symbols from Freemasonry, the crown represents the Knight’s Templar level of Freemasonry. The crown is surrounded by a hexagon or the Star of David inscribed within a circle. The apex of the raking cornice of the lesser pediment is ornamented by a scroll. The tympanum of the larger pediment is dressed faced limestone.

A stone threshold, jambs, and a lintel with fillets and fascia frame an iron double gate. Two equal leafs are divided in panels. The lower panels are ornamented by symbolic forms in relief and the upper panels are filled by ornamental grillwork.

The gate opens into the vault which has a front loading arrangement of nine caskets, stacked three high andwide, each with an access panel of stone. The walls and arched ceiling are of limestone and the floor is ceramic tile.

- National Register Application