Entombing Antiquity
Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York City, is home to some of the United States’ most prominent Neo-Antique mausolea, which used Classical and Egyptian motifs in their architecture and decor. Using the lens of Classical archaeology, this paper undertakes a formal analysis of funerary architecture in specific tombs belonging to Jay Gould, Francis Garavan, William Leeds, the Goelet Brothers, Jules S. Bache, and F.W. Woolworth. This discussion examines the architecture of these tombs and their reception of ancient architecture alongside archival material. It also discusses individual patrons’ and architects’ motivations for requisitioning such forms. Finally, this analysis demonstrates that through the appropriation and redeployment of ancient architecture and motifs and through the landscape design of the tombs in Woodlawn, these mausolea were rich nexuses of public and private self-fashioning and place-making, and were an expression of elite culture.