Monday, July 19, 2010

The Wade Chapel


The Wade Chapel, located in Cleveland’s Lakeview Cemetery, is named in honor of Jeptha Wade, the founder of The Western Union Telegraph Company. It was completed in 1901. The chapel is best known for its interior, which was designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany, and is one of very few interiors in the world designed completely by Tiffany. (The building exterior was designed by architects W. Dominick Benes and Benjamin S. Hubbell, and is in the Greek Revival style.)

The interior is what draws most visitors to the chapel - to see the large Tiffany window titled “The Flight of Souls.” The color and iridescence of the window comes from the Favrile technique Tiffany used while creating the glass by exposing it to chemicals and fumes of molten metals. This method gave the glass the rich color and that special Tiffany opalescence and glow as light shines through.

What visitors may not know is that the interior walls are also covered in mosaic tiles which glow in bright hues as light shines on them. In the dim light of the chapel they do not look as colorful as compared to the Tiffany window, yet light shining directly on them brings out the vibrant color. The murals depict themes from the Old and New Testament.

The chapel is only open from April to November, so it is best to check the Lakeview Cemetery web site for specific days and hours when planning a visit.










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Sunday, July 4, 2010

Lakeview Dam

Hiding in plain sight in Cleveland’s Lakeview Cemetery is Lakeview Dam. At the time of its construction in 1978, it was the largest concrete filled dam east of the Rocky Mountains. A current Lakeview Cemetery pamphlet lists it as the largest concrete filled dam east of the Mississippi. The Lakeview Cemetery web site says “The dam is 500 feet across, 60 feet above grade and 30 feet below grade…The dam can hold back 80 million gallons of water.” It’s a lot bigger than I expected.

Here are a few photos I took of the dam when visiting the area last week. By the way, Lakeview Cemetery has some fantastic sights and I’ll be highlighting a few more of those in the near future.


Wide view of the dam (the curve is from camera distortion)


View from above the dam - the top of the Garfield Monument is also visible



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Check out my blog home page for the latest Cleveland information, All Things Cleveland Ohio, here.