Tabassum Blog 10

The Carrie Eliza Getty Tomb, located in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago. It was commissioned in 1890 by the lumber baron, Henry Harrison Getty, as a memorial for his wife, Carrie Eliza. One of Louis Sullivan’s most delicate and curved decorative designs of all time. The Getty Tomb is one of three mausoleum structures created by the firm of Adler and Sullivan between 1889 and 1892. The Getty tomb is located at the north end of the Graceland cemetery, near West Montrose Avenue, and occupies a small triangle created by the intersection of three small roads. It’s constructed of blocks of grey Bedford limestone, with bronze gates and inner door. The rectangular block of the monument rests on a sty lobate of four single stones, and the lower half of the wall is of smooth ashlar masonry. The upper half of the wall has an over-all incised pattern of octagonal panels enclosing eight-pointed stars, and above it, is an enriched cornice with three scallops establishing the roof. The outer gates and the entrance door have superb designs, one in pierced bronze and the other in low relief. On the front and two sides there are large arches springing from the ashlar base to cover the door and the side lunettes. The wedge-shaped voussoirsex incline through the whole depth of these arches, but the faces are incised with four bands and lines of ornament alternating with plain surfaces. This design has a little resemblance with the Richardson's entrances of the Austin Law School at Harvard, but this particular one is very flattering, feminine and more delicate. On March 10, 1971, the tomb was designated as a Chicago Landmark by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks.