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

Date unknown
Architect/Builder: unknown

The Catlett mausoleum has the oldest date in the cemetery and is built in a restrained Gothic Revival style of granite stone blocks. The structure is rectangular with a tall gabled roof facing the roadway. The massive stone blocks are all rock-faced (with a few exceptions noted in the description).

The roof is composed of stepped long blocks of stone, each projecting beyond the one below creating an appearance that imitates rows of shingles. The stone is smooth dressed and rises in a steep pitch to the triangular capstone at the apex of the gable. The ends of the stone roof slabs are exposed in the gable with a smooth dressed finish contrasting with the rock-faced masonry of the facade elevation. Rising from the cap is a large cross of smooth dressed stone, the face of which is incised with Masonic symbols.

The roof slabs rest on corner buttresses at the four corners of the structure. At the facade, there are large skew blocks supporting the corners of smooth dressed stone that project past the corners with a cavetto shape and incised molding. These in turn rest on battered buttresses, which flare outward from the vertical walls of the structure and rest on huge base blocks of smooth dressed stone. Each block of the facade is rock-faced with corner smooth dressed molding. The smooth base of the buttresses continues around the structure on each elevation. In front of the facade is a large flat block in a single slab. A solitary stone step rises from this block between the buttress bases to form a step to the entrance. In the face of this stone is incised the date "1886".

Centered in the facade is the blunt-arched entry. The voissours of the arch are smooth dressed and feature carved raised letters of the name "CATLETT" - one letter in each stone voissour. The arch springs from engaged polished gray granite columns with elaborate Corinthian capitals. The columns rest on molded engaged bases recessed from the facade.

The entry jamb and door are of wood, the only one remaining in Mount Mora. Inside the entry arch is a transom of ruby red glass in a single light, etched with the Masonic symbol. The door has decorative brass strap hinges and has a single, large clear glass light above molded paneling. Through the glass light it is possible to see into the interior. Recessed approximately 12" beyond the entry door are two tombs of plain white marble.