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New mausoleum keep living in mind |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Sunday, 09 November 2003 |
By Jack Naudi
Post-Dispatch
11/06/2003
Consumers are bombarded with a dizzying array of product choices - from burgers to beer, cars to airlines, life insurance to mutual funds. So it is with death.
Which funeral home should I pick? What kind of casket? How extravagant a funeral? Cremation or burial?
Hold on. There's another option for your final resting place - above-ground mausoleum crypts.
Two mausoleums being built in the St. Louis area represent the latest in style and construction. The exteriors aren't necessarily striking - anything too elaborate can turn off people with reserved tastes. But inside, it's clear that the mausoleum business has changed dramatically.
"We don't want to make it your grandpa and grandma's mausoleum," said Mike Butler, chief financial officer of Forever Enterprises Inc. "We want to make it more pleasant."
Certainly, entombment is nothing new. Egyptians built elaborate tombs for fallen pharaohs. In 19th and 20th century America, wealthy families built small, private mausoleums. And some cemeteries offered public mausoleum space for anyone else.
Those structures typically were monuments to death: imposing outside, narrow dark hallways inside. They were cold and uninviting to the living.
No more.
Forever Enterprises, a for-profit company based in Clayton, is building its second mausoleum in Forever Oak Hill Cemetery in Kirkwood. It will be patterned after another 1,000-crypt mausoleum the company operates in Forever Bellerive Cemetery in Creve Coeur.
Both Forever mausoleums are built for the living, with skylights brightening the interiors, plush furniture and - the Forever Enterprises hallmark - touch screens that show videos of and about the people whose bodies are behind the walls.
"They have set the standard for the rest of the world to catch up to," said Lisa Baum, who manages Stygar Mid Rivers funeral home in St. Charles. "It is remarkable. It is very comfortable. It is peaceful. There's a great deal of warmth."
A ringing endorsement from a funeral-home operator is music to the ears of Randy Murray, chief marketing officer for Forever Network, which owns seven cemeteries and several mortuaries nationwide.
Marketing mausoleums can be tricky business for a cemetery, because families often don't consider their options until a loved one dies.
If Murray could send any message, it's that mausoleums are welcoming places.
"Ours are designed to encourage (mourners and visitors) to linger," Murray said. "That's why we have up-to-date sofas, rather than marble benches. It's always airy, and the interior colors are designed to be bright and cheerful."
Indeed, a lot has changed in mausoleum design, said Chris Mekus, president of Mekus Studios Ltd., a Chicago architectural firm that designed a new mausoleum in St. Peter's Cemetery near Wellston. They're less elaborate on the outside, warmer on the inside.
"I think the objective in any mausoleum is to have it be appealing to the masses," Mekus said. "But you can still have a variety of opportunities of where you would inter someone. (At St. Peter's) they have a chapel building that will have crypts inside. They (also) will have crypts on the outside."
No wasted space
Variety is the hallmark of cemeteries in general and mausoleums in particular. Strip away the walls of a mausoleum, and you would see honeycomb-like vaults facing both the interior and exterior of the building.
The exterior vaults, usually called garden crypts, are less expensive than those inside, because visitors must deal with the weather.
Some vaults can accommodate two caskets. Vaults also can be turned sideways, to allow for more space for inscriptions on the crypt front.
Very little space is wasted.
Small niches are carved throughout the St. Peter's and Forever Enterprises mausoleums to hold urns containing cremated remains. The new mausoleum at Forever Oak Hill will have room for 1,000 of these urn niches.
At Forever Bellerive, some outdoor benches even have hollow legs to hold urns.
The most obvious mausoleum trait is height. Crypts can be stacked six or seven high. Unlike living quarters, where the penthouse commands the highest rent, the price for mausoleum space goes down with height. Call it an allowance for neck craning.
There are no readily available statistics on whether more people are choosing above-ground entombment than in the past. In Missouri, death certificates must state the disposition of a body. While the form lists "burial" and "cremation," entombment is nowhere to be found.
But there is a general consensus that crypts seem to be gaining in popularity. And cemetery operators are well aware that new, visitor-friendly mausoleums could snatch business from competitors.
The decision to build a 760-space mausoleum at St. Peter's Cemetery was a simple matter of economics, said superintendent Bill Baumgartner. Clients were demanding mausoleum space, mainly through funeral home directors, he said.
The cemetery is nonprofit - it's owned by St. Peter's Evangelical Church in Ferguson - but it still must be run like a business. And it must have sufficient reserves to remain open forever.
"Our client base seems to be leaning in the direction of entombment," Baumgartner said. "Some people don't want to be in the ground. They worry about skin worms. They visualize your body is going to be sitting underground in water, which isn't necessarily true. This church has always tried to meet the community's demands."
A special feeling
St. Peter's new mausoleum will cost $1.3 million, and Baumgartner figures it will prove popular.
"When you go to a crypt front, you know the remains are there and have been sealed in," he said. "It gives (families) a warm and special feeling. It's comfortable."
Of course, mausoleums aren't for everybody. While crypts on the upper tier are likely to cost about $4,000 - comparable to the total cost of burial in cemetery plots - the average cost is several times higher.
Some crypts at Forever Bellerive go for $50,000, Murray said.
"It's not an inexpensive option," said Baum, the funeral-home manager.
But cemetery operators insist mausoleums are not exclusive resting places for the rich. "It's actually more middle-of-the-road (families) that tend to spend more," Murray said, adding that many rich and famous people choose simple burial plots that don't draw a lot of attention.
Mausoleums also can be lucrative for cemeteries. A typical cemetery can handle a maximum of 1,500 burial plots an acre. Mausoleums can increase that to as many as 10,000 an acre.
As space becomes scarce, especially in urban areas, mausoleums are likely to play increasingly greater roles for cemetery operators. For Forever Enterprises, buying Oak Hill Cemetery wouldn't have made financial sense otherwise, Murray said.
The 168-year-old cemetery is rapidly running out of burial space.
"We would not have bought that cemetery if we could not put that mausoleum on the corner," Murray said. "There was a limited amount of land left there. It extends the economic life of that cemetery."
Mausoleum facts
What is a mausoleum? It's a building where caskets and urns are enclosed in vaults of various sizes and shapes.
What's the difference between public and private mausoleums? Private ones are usually built by families. Public mausoleums are available to people of all faiths.
Do all cemeteries have public mausoleums? Funeral and cemetery experts figure that most cemeteries do not have mausoleums. They're especially rare in rural areas, where family burial plots are prevalent. Some cemeteries, such as Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, have only private mausoleums.
What is a garden crypt? A crypt whose front is outdoors.
What is a columbarium? It's an area within a mausoleum or other locations, such as churches, containing niches for urns that contain cremated remains.
What does entombment cost? Prices vary widely, but range from about $4,000 for upper-level crypts to $50,000 for a double-wide, lower-level position. A columbarium niche costs about $800.
How does that compare with burial plots? The price for mausoleum space typically includes everything, including inscription on the crypt front. Burial plots cost as little as $300 in some local cemeteries. But there are added costs for burials, including vaults and tombstones, that could add thousands of dollars to the final price.
Who should I talk to about mausoleum space? As with burial plots, people can buy mausoleum space in advance. Most cemeteries have marketing and sales teams that work directly with clients.
Can my crypt epitaph say whatever I want? Typically no. First, space is limited on the fronts of crypts. Second, cemetery directors frown on inscriptions that might offend visitors to nearby crypts. Inscriptions generally are limited to name, dates of birth and death, and a small symbol, such as a Christian cross or Jewish Star of David.
How do they keep odors out of mausoleums? Tubes in back of the crypts vent gases as bodies decompose.
If my loved one is on the seventh level, how high is that? Each crypt level is about 3 feet high. So a seventh level would be more than 20 feet up.
Can I place flowers at a mausoleum crypt? Many mausoleums have a vase attached to the front of each crypt.
Are mausoleums heated and air conditioned? Many do not have air conditioning; some have minimal heating.
How can I be sure my loved one is behind the wall? Many cemeteries allow families to witness a casket being placed into a vault.
Reporter Jack Naudi:
E-mail:
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