The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1919-05-21
BEAyTIFY|NG
GROUNDS ABOUT
EVERETT TOMB
Magnificent Memorial at Park
Lawn Cemetery
WORK NEARLY FINISHED
Famous Parthenon at Athens Repro.
ductlon In Modified Form in
Vermont Granite


vate tomb which Edward H. Everett
has erected in Bennington's Park
Lawn cemetery in memory of his
wife, Amy King Everett. is nearly
finished. The completed memorial is
the result of two years Of strenuous
endeavor and unceasing effort ne
cessitated in the quarrying, cutting,
transportation and setting of the
mammoth sections of granite entering
into its construction.
The roof stones are the largest
ever taken from the famous granite
quarries in Barre, VT, and the dimen-
sinns reach the limit Of transportation
by railroad. The measurements are
3S feet and four inches for length, 10
feet and inches for width and ap-
proximately two feet for thickness.
When taken from the quarry they
weighed go tons each and AZ tons af-
ter being finished and ready to be
placed in position.
The mausoleum is 33 feet and
inches wide, 46 feet and inches long
and II feet high The architecture is
of the Grecian Doric order and the
memorial is reproduction in modified
form and size of the Parthenon at
Athens, with all the refinements in
line and proportions of that famous
temple. Even the details of the
slight canting or leaning of the col
umns toward the building and the
entasle or bulge in the columns were
carefully reproduced In order that the
same results might be obtained that
have made the Parthenon master
piece of architecture for all time.
Twenty-six fluted columns form
lperistyle or colonade about the struct-
ure and the side walls are each q
single stone, rs feet and six inches
long and 9 feet and inches high.
| The floor Is one huge block and the
base courses were cut in four secl
tions, each weighing nearly forty
tons, aairas sHr so gaAo3d eIae
The exterior is hammered light
! granite but the interior walls are cons
structed of the darker material and
are highly polished. There are 20
crypts for interments, 10 on eacksideg
In every detail the memorial de-
monstratqs that the predominating
thought OF the architect and of the
builder was permanence. Massive,
but harmonious in every line, in many
respects severely plain, the structure
gives one the impression of age; as
though it had been a part of the en-
inence on which it stands for CEN
turies and would so continue for
centuries to come. Extreme SIM
lplicity characterizes the interior but
the austerity ever associated with a
memorial of this nature is beautifully
softened by the artistic and inspiring
landscape window in the north por-
tai and which illustrates the first
verse of the AID Psalm: "As, the hart
panteth after the water brooks, so
panteth my soul after Thee, o Cod"
CHANGING at the scene one is up
lifted by the atmosphere of rest and
quiet, except for the supposition of
the little murmuring brook that wends
its way in and out among the mossy
nooks of delightfully."- shaded wood.
In the foreground a graceful hart
leisurely drinks from the pure noun
tain stream. The slender trunks of
4 the various trees rising on either
bank are surmounted by mass of
autumn foliage, the color scheme rich
and harmonious in all that nature
provides for the years closing season,
browns, reds, and partial greens pre-
dominating.
The site Of this work of art in
stone is the crest of the hill in our
beautiful Park Lawn cemetery. Up.
on each side of the Everett lot is a
fifteen foot reservation to be devoted
solely to the planting of shrubs and
blooming plants. In rear and to
the north of the tomb ten acres of
slop'@S hillside will be planted to
trees that an appropriate background
may be secured, and when the plans
for the landscape gardner have been
carried out the work and its setting
will be complete.
When looking upon this dignified
and chaste building and upon the
wide panorama of mountain and val
ley that surrounds It, making up Gods
beautiful out-of-doors, one can truly
say with the poet:
"And Is she dead whose glorious mind
lifts ours on high;
To live in hearts We leave behind is
not to die"