Set in the Red Lodge Cemetery at the northwest corner of town, it was the Consolidated Mausoleums Company of Billings which proposed to the citizens of Red Lodge that a communal mausoleum be built in the town's cemetery. The company, of course, had a vested interest in such a project, but the citizens believed the construction of a communal mausoleum to be a fine idea, with over 200 signing up for crypts in the building. We'll see below that they had a sound reason for doing so.
Construction of the Prairie School style mausoleum commenced in the fall of 1921, with final completion coming about in the fall of 1924. Very sturdily constructed, the building was built with 38" thick walls which taper to 30" at the top, standing on a 38" thick concrete foundation. Inside are 232 concrete crypts, each 2'2" wide, 2'8" tall and 7'6" long. With clerestory windows along the upper walls, the interior is finished almost entirely in marble. The mausoleum was built without a heating system, electrical service or running water, all of which remain lacking today.
Somewhat rare in Montana, only two other community mausoleums are known to have been built in the state during the era, the others being in Billings and Great Falls. The following helps to explain why this mausoleum was built.
The Red Lodge City Cemetery adequately served the Red Lodge area the first two decades of the twentieth century. A significant water drainage problem, however, plagued some of its grounds. Heavy rains would pool and virtually transform the lands into a marshy swamp. Seepage out of a private irrigation ditch that ran just above (west of) the cemetery exacerbated the problem. For some, the potential that their bodies and those of their loved ones could possibly be subject to water decay made the mere thought of burial in the Red Lodge City Cemetery less than desirable.
In the early Spring of 1921, the citizens of Red Lodge heard the first news of a bold new undertaking intended to improve conditions at the Red Lodge Cemetery — construction of a large multi-crypt mausoleum for the general public.
Consolidated Mausoleums proposed to finance construction of the Red Lodge Communal Mausoleum by a tried and true method, the presale of crypts to the public. Ads in the Journal-Picket informed the public that work on the building would not commence until all of the crypts had been sold, but payments were not due until construction started... ...On the 10th of August 1921, Consolidated Mausoleums announced that all the crypts as "originally planned" had been sold.
From the NRHP Registration Form
RED LODGE COMMUNAL MAUSOLEUM
RED LODGE COMMUNAL MAUSOLEUM
The Consolidated Mausoleum Company made the case for constructing a communal mausoleum in a full-page newspaper advertisement in 1921. “The present high state of civilization demands for the masses a more humane and sanitary method of taking care of the dead, than found in earth burial,” it asserted. Intrigued by the “opportunity … to sleep through eternity … secure against the ravages of time,” over 200 people subscribed to the project, and construction of the 232-crypt mausoleum began. Designed as a “time-defying” monument, the mausoleum’s architecture emphasizes strength and permanence. A simple, but massive temple front frames heavy bronze doors flanked by two enormous Tuscan columns. Alaskan marble lines the interior. The reinforced concrete walls, which taper from thirty-eight inches at the base to thirty inches at the top, appear indestructible. Durable and moisture-tight (prime prerequisites for a mausoleum intended to stand in perpetuity), reinforced concrete became accepted as a replacement for stone after 1900. The new inexpensive construction material made building large multiple crypt facilities economically feasible. At the same time, Progressive-era ideology was encouraging individuals to join together for community improvement. Thus, the communal mausoleum movement was born, placing above-ground entombment within financial reach of ordinary citizens. Nationwide, hundreds of communities joined the movement, but the Red Lodge Communal Mausoleum is only one of three identified in Montana. True to plan, the mausoleum housed Red Lodge citizens of all classes. Here lie wealthy businessmen, immigrant coal miners, and their families, entombed together “within the walls of one building … imposing and everlasting.”
From the NRHP plaque at the building
Red Lodge Communal Mausoleum
The Red Lodge Communal Mausoleum was built by the Consolidated Mausoleums Company of Billings. Construction commenced in the fall of 1921, and the building was all but completed one year later, except for installment of some interior finishing materials and fixtures. It took another two years, or until the fall of 1924, before the interior work was completed. The building has seen very few changes, inside or out, over the years.
The mausoleum displays extremely substantial, monolithic reinforced concrete construction. The foundation is a solid mass standing 38" above grade and encompassing the building's 38" thick concrete slab floor. Exterior walls taper in width from 38" at the foundation to 30" at the top. The roofs of the chapel and the three crypt wings are also concrete. The chapel roof is a very low pitched gable formed by a series of slightly arched-topped girders, also made of reinforced concrete. A single, massive 12' wide girder covers the front (east) foray, while a series of five more slender (but still substantial) girders are in the chapel. The later support a series of contiguous concrete rafters. The three crypt wings have low-pitch shed roofs, each comprised of a series of contiguous concrete rafters. The roofs of the chapel and crypt wings were originally surfaced by copper sheeting. Most of that sheeting reportedly "disappeared" decades ago. The city recently removed the remaining pieces and resurfaced the roofs with a skim coat of concrete.
The mausoleum houses 232 concrete crypts. Consolidated Mausoleums reportedly used 12,500 square feet of diamond mesh steel reinforcement in their construction. The crypts are separated from the exterior walls by an air space of 12" or more. Each crypt presumably is of the standard size for the era, which had interior measurements of 2'2" wide, 2'8" a tall and 7'6" long (see Section 8). The crypts are divided into structural bays by reinforced concrete columns. There are two structural bays in the front foray, one on the north wall and the other the south. There are four side-opening crypts, stacked one upon the other in tiers, in both of those bays. Side-opening crypts are orientated so that a long, side wall instead of a short end wall opens into the mausoleum; these are considered the mausoleum's deluxe units. The mausoleum's remaining 202 crypts are divided among the three crypt wings. All of these crypts are arranged so that a short end wall instead of a long side wall opens into the chapel.
The north and south side wings each contain five bays of crypts. The outer two bays of the side wings are "chain" or "companion sections," comprised of six tiers of two crypts each (that is six stacked rows of two crypts each). The interior three bays alternatively each have six tiers of four crypts each. Crypts of six tiers such as these are unusual (see Section 8). The two central vertical rows of the center bay of each side wing are reserved for families. The mausoleum's short rear wing contains two bays, both consisting of five tiers of four crypts each. The front of each crypt, facing into the mausoleum, originally displayed a removable faceplate allowing for the loading of caskets. After a casket installation, workers replaced the faceplate and hermetically sealed it to the crypt. One consulted source described the sealing of crypts by means of plastic asphalt applied with a high-pressure gun.
A mechanical casket elevator, consisting of a long wooden platform in a tall metal frame on wheels, sits in the mausoleum's interior. The platform can be raised, lowered and tilted as needed for the placement of a casket into a crypt.
From the NRHP Registration Form