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Survey of
Historic Sites and Buildings
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Monroe Tomb
Virginia
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Monroe Tomb
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Hollywood Cemetery, 412 South Cherry Street,
Richmond.
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This tomb, a small-scale architectural masterpiece,
contains the remains of President James Monroe. Upon his death in New
York City on July 4, 1831, his body was interred in that city's Marble
(Second Street) Cemetery. In 1858, the 100th anniversary of his birth,
municipal officials and representatives of the State of Virginia decided
that the remains should be returned to his home State for reburial. The
Virginia legislature appropriated funds for this purpose. On July 5 the
body, accompanied by the 7th Regiment of the New York National Guard,
arrived in Richmond on the steamboat Jamestown. That same day, an
impressive burial ceremony, highlighted by a speech delivered by Gov.
Henry A. Wise of Virginia, was held at the gravesite, on a high bluff
overlooking the James River, in Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery.
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Monroe Tomb (National Park Service, Edward F. Heite,
1969.) |
The tomb is an ornate Gothic Revival structure.
Designed by Alsatian architect Albert Lybrock, it was erected in 1859.
The innovative and imaginative use of cast iron, obtained from the
Philadelphia firm of Wood and Perot, provided the opportunity for a
delicacy and intricacy of design that was not possible on the same scale
in stone.
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The exhumed body of President
Monroe, who had died in 1831, lies in state in New York City's City Hall
in 1858, before being returned to his home state, Virginia, for
reburial. (Engraving, in Frank Leslie's
Illustrated Newspaper, July 17, 1858, Library of
Congress.) |
The tomb is in the form of a rectangular "cage"
surrounding Monroe's simple granite sarcophagus. Each facade is
decorated with a lancet arch in the style of a cathedral window. At the
top of each of these arches is a rose window tracery; below each tracery
are three round arches. On the two longer sides of the rectangle, two
subordinate lancet arches flank the main ones. At each of the four
corners, a colonette supports a small tabernacle that rises above the
top of the facades. The "cage" sits on a solid but elaborately decorated
base and is surmounted by an ogive canopy featuring delicate tracery. A
low stone wall encircles the tomb.
Hollywood Cemetery, on a rolling ridge overlooking
the James River, also contains the graves of President John Tyler, near
that of Monroe; Jefferson Davis; Gen. J. E. B. Stuart; and thousands of
other Confederate soldiers.
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/presidents/site62.htm
Last Updated: 22-Jan-2004
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