Floyd Mausoleum - St. Joseph, Missouri - Victorian Style Architecture on Waymarking.com

1890
Architect/Builder: unknown
1 contributing building

The Floyd mausoleum, constructed in 1890, is Victorian Gothic in style. The structure has the typical rectangular shape of many of the other mausoleums at Mt. Mora, but is atypical in that there is no attempt to carry the decorative detailing of the facade around the sides and rear of the building. Brick construction is apparent where the concrete face has spalled off at one rear corner. Flush brick side and rear walls are stuccoed with a thin layer of concrete that has been scored to look like blocks of stone. The gabled roof is composed of two thin slabs of granite that have also been overlaid with a topping of concrete - possibly a modern repair.

The front face of the mausoleum is a typical Victorian Gothic assemblage of decorative motifs. A highly decorated applied facade, designed to disguise the brick buttresses behind, rises from a flaring base to an almost Moorish pediment gable that hides the gabled roofline. On this pediment front, composed of dressed granite quoins at the sides and door surround and rock-faced granite blocks between, is displayed a variety of architectural details.

Stylized floral capitals top the polished granite columns surface-mounted at each side of a flush entry niche. The tapered caps resting on the capitals support a Gothic arch that appears to be constructed of alternating voussoirs of dressed and rock-faced granite. This arch is actually carved out of a massive dressed-granite lintel that is keyed to the roof slabs. The spandrel panel in the center of the arch features a double raised medallion with "1890" incised in the center. Above the arch and continuing to a small gabled peak, the pediment combines concave and convex curves of dressed granite framing a trio of rock-faced blocks. "FLOYD" is carved in raised block letters above this decorative rectangle.

Double-leaf polished granite entry doors are shallowly recessed within the arched facade. Incised in the face of each leaf is a simple quarter-arch over a rectangle panel. Bronze hinges are concealed and bronze loop pulls add the only other decoration to the door. It is interesting to note that the paired stone doors have an integrated pintle hinge at top and bottom rather than at the sides, which operates as smoothly today as it did when built. This is more than can be said of most of the other mausoleum doors.

On the interior, the polished white marble-faced crypts are arranged endwise on the end wall with decorative protuberant bronze handles. The walls are veneered with a white glazed brick in running bond pattern capped with a narrow band of polished white marble carved in a reverse curve pattern. The ceiling, in poor condition, has a wide rim band of dark veined marble empanelling a light-colored marble center slab. The floor has alternating squares of highly polished light and dark veined marble.