One of the greatest mausoleums at Woodlawn Cemetery, this one memorializes John H. Harbeck, a wealthy turn-of-the-century businessman, who is now otherwise forgotten. Having inherited some money from his father, he divorced his first wife in a scandalous, messy, divorce, fodder for tabloid headlines, after he took up with a younger woman. (Reminds of Donald Trump, whom I hope eventually falls into even darker obscurity than Harbeck.) Harbeck’s second wife, Kate, commissioned this magnificent memorial chapel for Harbeck when he died in 1910.
It’s a magnificent Gothic Revival octagonal structure, richly detailed, one of the biggest mausoleums among the many clustered around the Jerome Avenue entrance.
Bronze doors, accurate replicas of Ghiberti’s famous doors on the north face of the Baptistery in Florence. My friend Alan still marvels at the length of time I spent scrutinizing those doors in 1987. I should have just gone to the Bronx instead!
Gotta love the gargoyles!