Old Bland Cemetery Arch - Bland, MO
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 38° 18.737 W 091° 37.518
15S E 620184 N 4241358
The original main entrance to the cemetery.
Waymark Code: WM14FBQ
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 06/28/2021
Views: 1
County of cemetery: Gasconade County
Location of cemetery: State Hwy A, just north of Bland
Number of graves: 630
This arch is made of local stones, with thick mortar - this construction style is called giraffe style construction.
The arch is about 20 feet high, with wrought iron gate, open in my pictures. Lots of plants and weeds growing up around this arch since most traffic uses the new entrance just south of this site. At the very peak of the arch is a Latin cross in the stones.
Bland, now Old Bland, was founded in 1877. The post office, blacksmith shop, this cemetery, the Methodist church and cemetery were all here.
Then the railroad built a line one mile south of this town, so to survive the town picked up lock-stock-and-barrel and moved to where the City of Bland is today, and this site became known as Old Bland.
"Giraffe houses boast a certain claim to fame, but there are also public buildings with this stonework, which resembles the colors and patterns of a giraffe.
'"It's native sandstone," said historian Beth Herrington. "The materials were readily and cheaply available."
"The rock was abundant in the Ozark Mountains area, so these structures can be found throughout the region. Herrington, who was born in 1930, has not researched this type of building, but she remembers the houses being popular throughout this area and into Arkansas when she was growing up.
"Giraffe houses are generally thought to have first appeared around 1910, but their acceptance grew during the 1930s by Missouri agricultural extension bulletins, which described how to build a house from indigenous stone," wrote Foster." ~ Tahlequah Daily Press,