I’ve spent so much time this winter and spring walking around Mount Hope Cemetery with Laura. I never thought I would, but it’s one of the very few things we can agree on to do — I get outdoors every once in a while, she gets to have her Victorian architecture fix, and we wander around, looking for various pieces of lost history. Yesterday was more of the same, with one exception: the chapel doors were wide open! I’d already been a few times, but getting in would be a dream come true for Laura! Or not; she wouldn’t follow me in, because “it was dirty.” I asked one of the construction workers in there if we could come in and look around, and they let us in, and even showed us a way to come back. I guess protecting the place isn’t at the top of their agenda anyway, it’s supposed to be gutted out this spring to start renovations into a mausoleum and crypt, although so far they seem to be mostly working on the roof and stained glass.
While it involves a few sketchy ladders, the climb up to the top of the bell tower is well worth it!
And so is the basement, which once served as a morgue. Yes, this is a casket. Yes, it’s empty.
This contraption would raise the casket and body onto the altar during a funeral service.
And I will leave this place once and for all, with one last excessive HDR.
