While in Cincinnati last month, Ritchey and I visited the beautiful Spring Grove Cemetery.  It was established in 1845, and contains 733 acres of beautiful trees, lakes and walkways.  One could spend days, walking around, looking not only at the gravestones, but the natural habitat as well.

Today I want to share with you photos of the Dexter Mausoleum.  It is so huge that many people mistake it for a chapel.  Designed by the architect James Keys Wilson in the late 1860’s for the Edmund Dexter family, it was not finished until 1870.  The inspiration was the beautiful Sainte-Chapelle in Paris – particularly the sides with the flying buttresses.  The mausoleum cost $100,000 to build in the 1860’s.  Can you imagine what the cost would be today?

Edmund Dexter was born in England in 1801 and came to the United States at an early age.  In the 1820’s he moved to Cincinnati, and in 1829 married Mary Ann Dellinger of New York.  The couple had five sons – Charles, Edmund, George, Julius and Adolphus.  Edmund was a whisky baron and an extremely wealthy man.  His will lists shares of stock in all the important Cincinnati companies.  Mary Ann Dexter died in 1875.Kentucky

About twenty family members are buried in the crypt of the mausoleum.