Hotchkiss Chapel - Bellefontaine Cemetery - St. Louis, MO - People-Named Places on Waymarking.com

County of structure: St. Louis Independent City
Location of structure: Balm, N. of Mausoleum, Inside Bellefontaine Cemetery, St. Louis
Architect: Eames & Young
Architectural Style: Greek Revival
Erected: 1909

The Person:
Almerin Hotchkiss
Born: 6 Jun 1816
Died: 17 Jan 1903

Cemetery designer. Hotchkiss was originally associated with Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York in 1838. He was later Superintendent and landscape architect of Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, where he lived on the grounds and continued his life's work there for forty years.

" ... We mention this not because the author profiles people buried in that St. Louis cemetery, but because the cemetery was designed by Almerin Hotchkiss, ...

"Before Hotchkiss started designing cemeteries, he was the superintendent of Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery, designed by David Bates Douglass (1790-1849). In the 1840s, Hotchkiss and Zebedee Cook worked together to expand the 178-acre cemetery by more than 200 acres. Hotchkiss is credited with incorporating undulating, sweeping curves to the cemetery.

Meanwhile in St. Louis, June 1849, a cholera epidemic swept through the city, killing perhaps 10 percent of the city's population. The high mortality rates necessitated a new cemetery and Hotchkiss was given the commission to design a 138-acre cemetery--Bellefontaine--the first designed large-scale rural cemetery west of the Mississippi River. The site overlooked the great river and had room to expand.

"In 1856, Hotchkiss began planning a university and suburb called Lake Forest, just outside Chicago." ~ Landscape ~ Architect

The Place:
"Hotchkiss Chapel (including receiving tomb/columbarium) is situated near the central east end of the cemetery on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. Designed in 1902 by Eames & Young, the chapel and rear wing (originally used as the receiving tomb) were constructed in 1909. The Greek Revival style building has exterior scored ashlar walls, a metal clad front-gable roof and a stepped foundation. Four Tuscan columns on low pedestals support the overhanging frieze and pediment. The recessed entrance holds paired original wood doors with oversized decorative metal strap hinges. The entrance is framed by an architrave surround. On either side of the entrance are stained glass single-sash lights. Side elevations feature engaged pilasters that separate individual windows of double-hung design. The building has a rear enclosed columbarium within the area constructed as a receiving tomb. The rear wing is lower in elevation than the primary chapel wing and has a low hipped roof. A single wood door with a strap hinge is situated on both the projecting west and east elevations. Multi-light windows (2009) wrap the upper portion of the exterior walls, which extend to create a “T” plan." ~ NRHP Nomination Form

"The cemetery’s chapel (erected in 1909) and receiving tomb (described below) are situated along the Tour at the height of a knoll near the east/central border. Mausoleum Row is located south of the chapel, surrounded by curvilinear roads (in the areas defined as Aramanth Hill and Walnut Hill) lined with obelisks and elegant mausoleums reflecting Classical and Egyptian Revival styles." ~ NRHP Nomination Form

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