1>> CEMETERY EVOLUTION OF 19TH AND 20TH-CENTURY THE BY LANDSCAPE TYPES AS EXEMPLIFIED DESIGNS HARE & HARE'S CEMETERY by BETTINA C. VAN DYKE 1972 B.A., University of Colorado, A MASTER'S THESIS of the submitted in partial fulfillment requirements for the degree MASTER OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE Department of Landscape Architecture KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY Manhattan, Kansas 1984 Major Professor .rt iPt c 2. COPYRIGHT THE EVOLUTION OP 19TH- AND 20TH-CENTURY CEMETERY LANDSCAPE TYPES AS EXEMPLIFIED BY HARE & HARE'S CEMETERY DESIGNS BETTINA C. VAN DYKE 1984 TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents ••• 1 List of Figures v i Acknowledgements . vm Dedication lx CHAPTER 1 Explanation of Study 1 Nature of Study 1 Summary of Chapter Contents 2 Chapter 1 Notes 5 CHAPTER 2 Political, Sociocultural , Economic, and Environmental Influences on American Cemetery Design 6 The Pre-Industrial Period 6 Urban Growth and the Industrial Revolution 7 Mount Auburn - The Rural Cemetery Model 8 Impact of Mount Auburn Cemetery 13 Evolution of the Rural Cemetery Type 19 Social Impact of Rural Cemeteries 20 Burial Practice as Industry 21 Rural Cemetery Subtypes 22 Monument Cemetery Subtype 22 Emergence of Planned Urban Landscapes 22 Chapter 2 Notes 24 CHAPTER 3 American Post-Civil War Cemetery Types 25 Socio-Cultural Values Expressed in Cemetery Literature 27 Weidenmann's Avant-garde Concepts 29 1890's; Decade of Rapidly Changing Cultural Landscapes 35 Rural to Modern Cemetery Type 36 Organization of Cemetery Trade 38 Refinement of Modern Cemetery Type 39 O.C. Simonds 1 Modern Designs 41 Impact of Industrialization 42 Modern Cemetery to Park Cemetery Type 42 Refinement of Park Cemetery Type 43 Automobiles and Cemetery Design 47 Cemetery Renovation 48 World War I and Socio-Cultural Transition 50 Park Cemetery to Memorial Park Type 54 Boom 1920's Transform Landscape 55 Refinement of Memorial Park Type 59 Perpetual Care Funds 61 Cemeteries as Real Estate Speculation 64 Cemetery Designers Aid Speculators 65 Cemetery Trade Disagrees Over Types 68 Influence of Economics on Memorial Parks 71 Cemetery Trade Completes Shift From Service to Business 72 Chapter 3 Notes 76 ii CHAPTER 4 The Evolution of Twentieth-Century Cemetery Types as Exemplified by Hare s Hare's Cemeteries 77 Hare & Hare - Authorities on Cemetery Design 78 Background of Hare & Hare's Practice 78 Hare & Hare's Cemetery Commissions 99 Reading Cemetery Plans 100 Contemporary Publications 104 Hare & Hare's Publications 106 Evolution and Revolution Within the Modern Era 107 Transition to the Park Cemetery Era 108 Hare & Hare Cemetery Practice During Memorial Park Era 109 Speculative Cemetery Era Ill Impact of Hare & Hare's Publications 113 Chapter 4 Notes 11^ CHAPTER 5 Elements of Design in Hare & Hare Cemeteries 118 Elements Which Created Patterns 118 Location 118 Shape and Size of Sites 120 Access Points 121 Entryways 121 Circulation 123 Features 127 Section Layout 129 Lot Layout 131 Monumentation 134 135 Planting Design 141 Cemetery Types 141 Modern Cemetery •*•* 142 Park Cemetery 142 Transition Park Cemetery 146 Refinement of Transition Park Architectural Park Cemetery 147 I 48 Park Cemetery to Memorial Park Naturalistic Memorial Park 149 Architectural Memorial Park 149 150 Impact of Hare & Hare's Memorial Parks 152 Chapter 5 Notes CHAPTER 6 154 Conclusions 156 REFERENCES CITED APPENDICES 178 A. Questionnaire Sent to Superintendents I 80 B. Changes in Office Address 182 C. Lists and Maps of Projects 196 D. Modern Cemetery Type 203 E. Transition Park Cemetery Type 210 F. Naturalistic Park Cemetery Type 214 G. Architectural Park Cemetery Type 222 H. Naturalistic Memorial Park Type 228 I. Architectural Memorial Park Type J. Post-Depression Cemetery Projects 240 K. Additions Which Did Not Reflect Types 244 L. Use of Memorialization 250 M. Use of Proper Names 254 N. Promotions and Advertisements 257 O. Publications on Cemetery Design by Hare & Hare 268 P. Designs for Entry Ways 271 LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE 2.1 Pere-Lachaise Cemetery Entrance 10 2.2 Pere-Lachaise Cemetery - Plan 11 2.3 Mount Auburn Cemetery (1831) - Plan 12 2.4 Laurel Hill Cemetery (1835) - Plan 14 2.5 Green-Wood Cemetery (1838) 15 2.6 Spring Grove Cemetery (1845) - Plan 16 2.7 Llewellyn Park (1852) - Plan 17 2.8 Riverside, IL (1868) - Plan 18 3.1 Weidenmann's Early Recommendations 32 3.2 Weidenmann's Later Suggestions 33 3.3 Weidenmann's Layouts 34 3.4 Scene in Graceland Cemetery 44 3.5 Caparn's Negative Examples 45 3.6 Caparn's Suggestions for Improvement 46 3.7 Weed's Use of Mount Hope Cemetery 49 3.8 Loop Roads Create Site Design 52 3.9 Marble Industry Counters Granite Industry 53 3.10 Monument Designs 56 3.11 Weidenmann's Recommendations 57 3.12 Current Map of Forest Lawn 58 3.13 Advertisement 6 2 3.14 Advertisement 6 3 3.15 Advertisement 6 9 3.16 Burial Dollar 75 4.1 Sidney J. Hare & S. Herbert Hare 81 4.2 Offer to Design Cemeteries 82 vi 4.3 Sid Hare's Business Logo S3 4.4 Cunningham Park - Plan (1907) 84 4.5 Waterway Park - Perspective 85 4.6 Parkwood - Plan (1907) 86 4.7 Wagner Place - Plan (1912) 87 4.8 Point Defiance Park (1914) - Plan 88 4.9 Country Club District - Plan 89 4.10 Longview, Washington (1922) 92 4.11 Civic Center for Houston, Texas (1925) 93 4.12 Rose Garden in Loose Park 94 4.13 Nelson Gallery of Art - Grounds 95 4.14 Perspective, Grounds of Liberty Memorial 96 4.15 Music Temple at Swope Park 97 4.16 Grade Separation at Linwood Boulevard 98 4.17 Sid J. Hare's Signature 101 4.18 House at Harecliff 112 5.1 Goosefoot Pattern at Hampton Court 128 5.2 Sections Defined by Road Layout 130 5.3 Sections Divided into Burial Lots 133 5.4 Monuments Recommended by Hare & Hare 136 5.5 Lot Layout by Hare & Hare 137 5.6 Mausoleums Required Large Lots 138 5.7 Replat of Crown Hill Cemetery (1908) 144 5.8 Replat of Section 1 in Elmwood Cemetery 145 5.9 Parallels Between Hare & Hare's Cemetery Designs, Practice, and National Trends 151 vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS architect, and the To Informants - Chalmer Cooper, landscape staff at Ochsner Hare & Hare, Kansas City, MO. - Cemetery superintendents and owners who sent plans and other information - Newspapermen and other public servants who sent plans and clippings architect; Howard- To Facilitators - Lindy Wolner, landscape Needles-Tammen & Bergendoff - Fayez Husseini for graphic format - Staff of the Missouri Valley Room, Kansas City (MO) Public Library - Typists, especially Jennie Burden, who was part of the light at the end of the tunnel To Advisors - Thesis committee members who reined me in occasionally - professor Kenneth R. Brooks for period reorganization of the text whose To Inspirations - Professor Lynn Ewanow-Clement , scholarly advice almost replaced the absence of Richard W. Longstreth To Friends - who endured the last push Dedication To my dear family who has cheered loudest and longest, Chapter 1 EXPLANATION OF STUDY Cultures alter natural landscapes in conscious or unconscious ways and for a variety of practical and impractical reasons. The resultant places create literal and symbolic images of societies, their attitudes, and their lifestyles. Cemeteries, specifically, symbolize attitudes about life, death, and landscapes. Professionals who designed American burial landscapes in the 19th and 20th centuries included elements which made cemeteries visually distinct places. Historic cemeteries are rich grounds for studying how designers translated cultural attitudes and practices into symbols. More importantly, the sites are archives of concurrent cultural landscape evolution. The extant landscape architectural firm of Hare & Hare in Kansas City, Missouri, has designed cultural landscapes, including cemeteries, since the first decade of the 20th century, and was recognized for innovative design within their first decade of practice. Their work represented many patterns, including 19th- and 20th-century landscape architectural education, and the establishment of professional practice during an industrial era when landscape architects established the expertise and qualifications for designing built environments. The development of Hare & Hare's hometown of Kansas City, Missouri, exemplified how the transformation of urban landscapes affected lifestyles. The evolution of this town also reflected how lifestyles and development were affected by periodic boons and busts in the national economy (Brown 1963; Brown & Dorsett 1978; Ehrlich 1979; Reps 1982; Schirmer 1982). Hare & Hare's practice illustrated designers' role in creating building and landscape types which acccmmodate needs within the constraints of national and local economies. Moreover, the firm's local professional network facilitated their obtaining out-of-town projects, including cemeteries, which led to their national reputation. Nature of Study This study analyzes the cemeteries which Hare & Hare designed during the three decades preceding the Great Depression. Their work demonstrated distinct 20th-century types, including modern, park, and memorial park cemeteries, and the stylistic transitions between these types. Hare & Hare's cemetery plans were the physical manifestations of attitudes and how these attitudes underwent periodic refinement and revolution under the influences of contemporary events. This study synthesizes how Hare & Hare's cemeteries are models of American sociocultural development from the turn of the century to the Depression. Hare & Hare's publications on cemetery design and over fifty of their cemetery plans provided the primary sources of information for documenting the evolution of cemetery types and for evaluating the firm's role in diffusing cemetery types throughout thirteen states and Costa Rica. Secondary publications by design professionals and the cemetery trade documented the firm's influence on others who designed or managed cemeteries. Histories of city development and of concurrent cemetery development provide a framework for comparing and contrasting Hare & Hare's cemetery designs to concurrent cemetery types, and for evaluating the impact of attitudes on physical design.