Bucyrus Mausoleum

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The Bucyrus Mausoleum is located on the south side of Southern Ave. between Lavina and Martha Avenues. The site was entered on the National Register of Historic Places on Sept. 27, 1980.

Built in 1915, the Bucyrus Mausoleum is a large New-Classical Revival style building built by the Latchaw Brothers. This is a monolithic poured concrete structure with a barrel vaulted concrete roof over the center of the building (center three bays) and flat concrete roofs over the end bays. The roof is tarred over the concrete. The east, west, and south sections are shorter in height than the center.

The walls of the building are also of concrete and are faced with limestone slabs on the exterior. The large slabs on the east, west, and south sides of the building are recessed panels with pilasters separating them to continue the effect of the columns on the north side.

The north side is faced with the large slabs on the east and west wings, but the center entry section has slabs laid in an ashlar pattern. This section has 2 bays with rounded arched openings covered with limestone slabs. The bays appear to be windows but were never designed to have glass, as there are coffins behind them. The door itself is recessed as the center bay. It is a large double door flanked by leaded glass sidelights and fluted pilasters. Above the door is a large three-part leaded glass transom with a stained glass window that does swing open in the center of the middle transom light. There are small windows on the east, west and south side.

The portico on the north side consists of four pairs of fluted Roman Doric columns supporting a three-part entablature. The flat roof is topped by a stone balustrade. The entablature has a simple medallion design above each column and "MCMXV" carved in the center as the date stone.

The interior of the building consists of two aisles on the east and west sides. Coffins can be placed in five rows along the east and west sides of the building on both sides of the aisles, forming a center section that can be reached from either aisle. Coffins can also be placed in three rows at the south end of each aisle and in four rows at the north ends behind the arched fake windows. The south sections are recessed behind a small rounded arch. The small rectangular glass brick windows on the east, west, and south sides are above the coffin rows. The interior of the building is faced with marble, with marble slabs on the crypts, marble pillars and columns with Roman Doric capitals at the north end, and a marble floor. The plaster ceiling is painted with a garland design, and there are murals above the coffins at the north end of the east and west aisles. The murals show five women in classical costumes.

The mausoleum is on the south side of Southern Avenue across from Oakwood Cemetery. It was originally in the midst of a farming area, but this has been developed with housing in the past forty years or so.

Very few changes have been made in the building; some marble slabs that were destroyed or stolen have been replaced. The windows on the south, east, and west sides were originally plate glass, but they have been replaced by glass bricks to prevent vandalism. Plexiglass has been placed over the sidelights at the front entrance to prevent vandalism to the leaded glass windows. The ceiling plaster has been damaged by some roof leakage in a few spots.

The only equipment in the building includes the original hoist which is still used to lift coffins up to the top rows of crypts.

The Bucyrus Mausoleum is significant as an example of the New-Classical Revival style of architecture in Bucyrus. One of five known buildings by the Latchaw Brothers Modern Mausoleum Promotion and Construction Company, this building is larger in scale than the Fostoria Mausoleum which is also on the National Register of Historic Places in Hancock County. Unlike the Fostoria Mausoleum (which is identical to one of the Findlay ones and to the Fremont one), this does not have a triangular pediment over the entrance and does not have a gable tile roof with monitor as that one does. The Bucyrus Mausoleum is probably two to three times larger than the Fostoria site and is also significant for its construction because it is of monolithic concrete with a concrete barrel vault ceiling over most of the building. The limestone recessed slabs and pilasters on the east, west, and south sides carry out the pattern of the north facade, with its ashlar limestone slabs and four pairs of fluted Roman Doric columns supporting a three-part entablature (with "MCMXV"), flat portico roof, and limestone balustrade around the roof. The two interior aisles and the entry way are covered with marble slabs, while the marble floor and classical motifs in the garland designs on the plaster ceiling and murals add to the Neo-Classical Revival features of the building. The history and organization of the Bucyrus Mausoleum Association parallels that of the Fostoria Mausoleum Association until 1950. The preliminary meeting for the Bucyrus Mausoleum Association was held March 25, 1914, and the organization was incorporated August 31, 1916; the first annual meeting was held November 11, 1916. The Latchaw Brothers, a partnership of Issac N. and Charles Forney Latchaw, bought the land where the mausoleum now sits from a farm and finished building the mausoleum in 1915. They organized the mausoleum association and then turned it over to the crypt-holders association to run as a non-profit corporation on September 13, 1919. As in Fostoria, crypt-holders were responsible for maintenance on the building and for selling unused crypts. The Latchaw Brothers supposedly left an endowment of $1000 for the building (they left $2040 in Fostoria), but no record of this has been found in the early minutes. The organizational structure of the mausoleum builders and crypt-holders associations is an interesting example of business promotion in the 1910's, especially when one realizes that this company was operating in at least three counties (Hancock, Sandusky, and Crawford).

The association continued to maintain the building and sell crypts until about 1950, when Paul Auck and Ernest Pfleiderer decided to re-organize the association, raise more money from descendants of those interred, and take care of long-needed maintenance work. The re-organization also increased the public image of the association and mausoleum, arousing increased pride in the building and increased efforts to keep the "right families" as part of the association, since many individuals prominent in early twentieth-century Bucyrus are interred here. The association has increased its endowment since 1950 and has received a $3500 grant from the John Q. Shunk Foundation in Crawford County for further maintenance work. Crypts are still being sold back to the association from original owners' families and then re-sold by the association board, since there are probably 300-400 crypts in the building.

Since the Bucyrus Mausoleum was accepted on the National Historical Register it has suffered from what appears to be neglect. Unfortunately the non-profit Mausoleum Association has lacked the necessary funds to refurbish the structure to its original regalia. Many of the families that were interred in the structure no longer have links to Bucyrus, or, over the last half century, have no family immediately related. The inside has suffered considerable damage from leaking in the roof, causing plaster damage in many areas. The murals that graced the east and west aisles have been painted over and in some areas the marble needs leveling on the crypts. The future of this grand structure is in question when looking into a window 50 years from now. Due to the significance of the Mausoleum from a cultural and architectural standpoint, the Preservation Society of Bucyrus will consider feasibility studies in the near future to determine all aspects of renovation and preservation.