172 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
ASKED AND ANSWERED 
An exchange of experience on practical matters by our readers. You 
are invited to contribute questions and answers to this department 
Interior Construction of Mausoleums. 
Editor Asked and Answered Department : 
“Are the usual wood coffins or caskets 
permitted to be placed into the crypt of a 
mausoleum, or is it compulsory that the 
casket must be concealed in a metallic 
vault? 
How much larger than the casket are 
the stone crypts made? 
Is free ventilation or air circulation 
through the inside of the stone crypt nec- 
essary ? 
Are openings at the bottom of the stone 
crypts necessary for drainage? If so, 
should the drain be through the floor of 
the mausoleum into the ground or should 
crypts be air-tight and air circulation only 
to the inside of mausoleum? Is there any 
definite standard regarding the thickness of 
stone walls and stone roofs of a mauso- 
leum ?” — A. B. N. 
When the usual wood coffins are placed 
in the crypts of a mausoleum they should 
be enclosed in a copper or zinc outside 
box. We do not know that this is de- 
manded by all cemeteries, but it is by many 
of the leading ones. The crypts should be 
at least an inch larger in all dimensions 
than the outside of the outside box, and if 
the crypts were still larger it would be 
better. We do not believe in ventilating 
the crypts at all, although some cemetery 
authorities suggest it. We think it is bet- 
ter to have the crypt absolutely air tight. 
We do not think it is necessary to drain 
the crypts if they are properly made, al- 
though this is also called for in the rules 
of some cemeteries. We think it is neces- 
sary to have a space between the backs of 
the crypts and the outside granite wall of 
the building, and also in the interior of 
the building, connecting with air vents un- 
der the roof stones to provide for a proper 
circulation of air in the interior of the 
building in order to keep it as dry as pos- 
sible. We do not know of any standard 
rules for the thickness of the walls or 
roof stones of mausoleums, but we think 
the outside walls and the roof stones 
should be at least ten inches thick or 
more, depending on the size, style and con- 
struction of the building. 
C. E. Tayntor Granite Co. 
New York City. 
* * 'Jfi 
The following answers to your corre- 
spondent’s questions concerning mauso- 
leum construction are in conformity with 
our requirements here: 
1. Only hermetically sealed caskets or 
metal lined boxes are permitted in mauso- 
leum crypts. 
2. Crypts should not be less than 7 feet 
6 inches long, 2 feet 8 inches wide, and 2 
feet 2 inches high; a few inches larger all 
around is better. 
3. We recommend and insist on top and 
bottom openings in each crypt for circula- 
tion of air to connect with air space behind 
the crypt construction. We prefer the 
crypt construction in slate or stone, though 
concrete is not prohibited. If slate or 
stone are used the joints are not cemented, 
thus also furnishing opportunity for cir- 
culation of air. 
4. We do not advocate any provisions 
for crypt drainage. If proper precau- 
tions are taken with caskets and boxes 
there will be no necessity for drainage. 
However, we do have the shelves set with 
a slight incline toward the rear, so that 
any possible moisture must run toward and 
drip into the air space. 
5. As to any standard regarding thick- 
ness of walls and roof stones, there is 
none. It might be said that the minimum 
thickness of the former should be 10 inches 
and of the latter 12 inches. These things 
depend on design, size, material and con- 
struction. Frank Eurich, 
Supt., Woodlawn Cemetery. 
Detroit, Mich. 
* * * 
In considering the queries of your cor- 
respondent, so many other equally vital 
questions relating to these mortuary build- 
ings occur to one’s mind that I am sorely 
tempted to enter into a discussion of the 
whole subject principally with a view to 
contributing, if possible, in some small 
measure to the universal protest against 
mausoleums, raised, it is safe to say, by 
the management of every cemetery 
throughout the land where even one of 
these structures has been erected. Possi- 
bly your correspondent is one who deplores 
the sentiment favoring this method of 
burial, a sentiment apparently more preva- 
lent among the rich and therefore per- 
haps more of a fad than an expression of 
honest conviction. He, in common with 
the most of your readers, is probably well 
aware of all the evils and serious ob- 
jections incident to the erection of these 
buildings in our cemeteries. Recognizing 
the fact that so long as there is any in- 
sistent demand on the part of lot owners 
for permission to erect mausoleums, this 
demand must, in some instances at least, 
be acceded to in most cemeteries, he is for 
the present more particularly interested in 
knowing how these buildings should be 
properly constructed to answer all require- 
ments from an artistic, substantial, perma- 
nent and hygienic standpoint. I shall, 
therefore, endeavor to confine myself to 
direct answers to his questions so far as 
my limited experience will enable me. 
It has been and is still somewhat a 
prevalent practice to place bodies in crypts 
of mausoleums and vaults encased only in 
wooden caskets. The use of metallic her- 
metically sealed caskets is the exception, 
whereas it should be an invariable rule in 
every cemetery that all bodies to be per- 
manently immured in vaults or mauso- 
leums should be hermetically sealed in some 
practically imperishable form of receptacle. 
Crypts should also be hermetically sealed 
when occupied and should be constructed 
as nearly air tight as possible. Ventilation 
of crypts should not only be unnecessary, 
but is dangerous. For the same reasons 
drainage of crypts is unnecessary and not 
advisable. I am not losing sight of the fact 
that human remains are subject to the in- 
exorable laws of nature and must submit 
to dissolution and ultimately be resolved 
into the native elements constituting the 
structure of the body, principal among 
which, and in a large percentage, is water, 
but as dissolution is slow in hermetically 
sealed receptacles and especially in em- 
balmed bodies, and since experience has 
shown that evaporation or absorption is 
always present in some degree, although 
slow, yet sufficient to dispose of all fluids 
and gases, the need of vents or drainage 
apparatus is unnecessary. On the other 
hand, in the case of bodies not in hermet- 
ically sealed caskets or in imperfectly 
sealed receptacles, it is still unwise and 
dangerous to have the crypt ventilated or 
drained, permitting the escape of gases or 
fluids in varying but perhaps in perceptible 
and deleterious quantities. Better far to 
confine them in a safe degree to each crypt 
occupied. It is usual in the construction 
of crypts wffiere ventilation is provided to 
make an opening in each crypt directly into 
the air space separating the stack of crypts 
from the exterior walls of the building; 
consequently there may be a free circula- 
tion of air communicated by this air space 
through all the crypts in the structure. In 
the event of an escape of foul air from 
any one crypt, even if the door is prop- 
erly sealed, such air is more than apt to 
find its way into the interior of the build- 
ing through any or all of the unsealed 
doors of the crypts; therefore, if ventila- 
tion is provided, each crypt should have a 
separate conduit. Where that should lead 
to is the next question. If it is necessary 
to provide for the escape of gases or fluids 
of any perceptible or dangerous quantity, 
it would appear that some provision should 
be adopted to destroy or properly dissi- 
pate them so as to render them harmless. 
Here the promotor of the so-called com- 
munity mausoleum will offer his services 
and come to the rescue with his patented 
and elaborate disinfecting and purifying de- 
vice, guaranteed by him to meet all re- 
quirements, but doubtful in its results in 
the minds of almost all practical and ex- 
perienced persons. Fortunately, a more 
practicable and simple remedy has been 
found, namely, the hermetically sealed, un- 
ventilated crypts. If anyone is skeptical 
about drainage, let him provide a small 
bronze tube from each crypt leading di- 
