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PARK AND CEMETERY. 
INTERESTING SCULPTURED PRIVATE COLUMBARIUM 
The Prehn mausoleum, lately erected 
in Cedar Lawn Cemetery, Paterson, N. 
J., is in several respects one of the 
most remarkable mausoleums in the 
country. In the successful use of the 
circular form of construction, in the re- 
markably effective and appealing use of 
sculpture in the exterior decorations, and 
in the manner in which the utilitarian 
matter of ventilation has been combined 
with the sculptures, this structure prob- 
ably stands unique among mausoleums. 
This mausoleum, or private columbar- 
ium, was erected to hold the ashes of a 
little child, and this fact has been 
sculpturally recorded in a series of beau- 
tifully wrought panels that form a frieze 
around the upper part of the structure. 
The theme of the frieze is that of the 
children mourning for their lost play- 
mate. The chubby little figures have 
been handled in a remarkably appealing 
and expressively symbolic manner, and 
at the same time utilized to form a 
rarely decorative and harmonious ele- 
ment of the exterior construction. 
The mausoleum is the joint work of 
Henry Bacon, architect, and Karl Bitter, 
sculptor, of New York. The design as 
a whole is an excellent example of the 
adaptation of the classic to modern feel- 
ing — not a putting of new wine into old 
bottles, but rather a pouring of our new 
wine into the best bottles we can find, 
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PREHN COLUMBARIUM, NEWARK, N. J. 
Karl Bitter, Sc.; Henry Bacon, Arch. 
which happen to be very old ones, and 
which do not break at all during the 
ages. This mausoleum takes the form 
of a little circular temple, about ten 
feet in diameter, in the center of which 
rises a small Greek altar in which are 
placed the ashes of the child to whose 
memory the temple is erected. The 
altar is constructed of dark green mar- 
ble and is crowned by a figure of a 
mourning child in black bronze; with 
this exception the entire structure is 
carved in Tennessee marble, by Piccirilli 
Brothers of New York. Mr. Bitter’s 
frieze of the children is introduced be- 
low the architrave; these very little boys 
and girls, divided into panels of three 
each and skillfully so arranged that the 
central figure in each panel is the most 
“displayed” or the most important, lend 
a touch of pathos to their purely deco- 
rative function. All of them are mourn- 
ing, some are weeping openly; each 
takes his share in bearing the contin- 
uous heavy garland which runs through 
the whole frieze. Through the perfora- 
tions in the wall behind them pass all 
the light and ventilation for the interior 
of the temple. 
The structure is 8 feet 4^2 inches in 
diameter on the exterior and 20 feet 8 
inches high from grade to the top of the 
finial. On the interior the structure is 
6 feet 4^2 inches in diameter and 13 feet 
4^2 inches high. It has one crypt to 
accommodate five cinerary urns. The 
memorial cost $14,410, exclusive of the 
sculpture. 
TWO PANELS OF THE FRIEZE OF MOURNING CHILDREN ON PREHN COLUMBARIUM. 
Karl Bitter, Sc. 
