Mt. Hope

Old cemeteries have long held a place of importance to me. Maybe it was my interest in genealogy that first caused me to take note as I made long, long drives just to wander aimlessly in the cold through the grass reading stone after stone looking for that one of my great, great, great, great...well, you get the point.

Then we had this professor in architecture school who introduced us to the idea that cemeteries were once considered more of a park for remembering. They were made to be beautiful, quiet places in communities not for the dead, but for the living to stroll through and reflect. This is too often not the case in our Midwestern culture, really our American culture in general. But there are some cemeteries here in Indiana that evoke that park-like atmosphere. Crown Hill in Indianapolis is probably the premier cemetery created as a memorial park for many famous past Hoosiers. But recently I came upon a small city cemetery that could be Crown Hill's rival.

Mt. Hope Cemetery, high above Logansport's north side, was located across the street from a building I needed to check on this past Thursday. The architecture quickly got my attention, so I drove across the street and spent nearly the next hour walking through the cemetery taking pictures. Mt. Hope has a beautiful stone arch entry at the base of the hill, through which you are greeted by one of the more impressive war memorials I have seen. The drives continue up the main hill and through the wooded hilltop that has a variety of other smaller hills crowned with massive granite obelisks. The Catholic portion of the cemetery had cross after cross in a wide variety of styles on its east side and a number of highly ornate mausoleums were located to the north and west. Interspersed were a number of other highly unusual grave markers including specific locations for Elks and Knights of Pythias members to be buried.

Hopefully this and the upcoming posts on Mt. Hope won't present too morbid of a picture. I thought I would focus on a few of the types of monuments found here in upcoming posts. For now, just some general perspectives. And if you are in the Logansport area, visit Mt. Hope on Pleasant Hill Road and do so before the trees leaf out.....the view down on the church spires in the city below is fantastic.