Omaha's Egyptian Revival Architecture

Location, Location, Location!  That's what they always say.  In our case, it's Boneyards, Boneyards, Boneyards!  I have yet to spot an example of Egyptian revival architecture outside of a funerary context in our beloved city.  But that is not too strange, since funerary customs have been the primary association with ancient Egypt in the public mind, especially after the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922.

Long before King Tut's discovery, perhaps Omaha's first Egyptian revival tomb is the commemorative Papyrus column over the grave of the Creightons in Holy Sepulchre cemetery.  The Creightons could afford the best, and their column is a fitting monument;  a last minute nervousness about their being mistaken for Egyptian polytheists evidently persuaded them to have a cross carved into the column's shaft (as if the angel atop weren't sufficient).  But I'm glad to see that the founders of the university had the style and education themselves to choose Egypt as the iconographic source for their monument.

Creighton Monument

But for really interesting architecture we must get in the car and head over to Forest Lawn.  Forest Lawn was evidently the final resting place of choice for the WASP patricians of Omaha, and there is a correspondingly large number of impressive mausolea there.  Unless I am much mistaken, the oldest of the two Egyptian revival mausolea in Forest Lawn is that of the Dietz family.  Let's have a look (and please forgive the photo, which was into the sun):

Dietz Mausoleum, Forest Lawn Cemetery, Omaha

The architect must have had a pattern book for the iconography:  the lotuses in the frieze above the architrave are quite lovely, and the papyrus capitals are reasonable approximations of the real thing.  The poor fellow was pulled in two directions simultaneously:  the overall form really wants to be a naos in the Greco-Roman style (the columns in antis are a giveaway) with Egyptian iconographic overlays.  Bear with me for a second before I get to the second design source.

The frieze and winged solar disc deserve a closer look:

Dietz frieze

This photo clearly shows that the architect was aware of the Egyptian trompe l'oeil effect of using reduced abacus blocks to give the impression that the architrave is hovering suspended over the flared capitals, so if he omits a cavetto cornice in the attic it cannot be from ignorance.  But look again at the body of the mausoleum:  those exagerrated ashlar blocks, the battered walls.  The effect could be imitating a mastaba tomb (examples can be found in the Egyptian revival), but I suspect the emphasis on the heavy ashlar blocks is trying to make us think "Pyramids".  I admit that the roof is all wrong, and that, as I myself said above, the form of the mausoleum is essentially a Greco-Roman naos, not unlike the Athenian Treasury at Delphi.  But the portion of the façade we can see which is in ashlar could be continued in the imagination to a point.  I'll have to keep my eyes open for other comparanda.

The other Egyptian revival mausoleum, and a much finer example, is that of the Bostwick family, close to the Dietz monument.  Here it is:

Bostwick Mausoleum, Forest Lawn Cemetery, Omaha

The forms here are in relative agreement:  cavetto cornice, battered walls imitating a pylon as at Karnak or Luxor.  I have yet to find an exemplar for the cavetto at the bottom of the walls, and I'm pretty sure that that, along with the marble steps leading up to the door are unexampled in Egypt:  but I'm still looking.  I cannot identify the molding from my photo:  is it a hollow roll?  Or an astragal?  The winged solar disc is similar to the one on the Dietz mausoleum, and indeed is not unlike this one from a revival tomb in Washington DC (Photo:  Steve Johnstone):

Egyptian revival mausoleum, author, Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington DC

Although here I notice the federal influence on the fasces (of course) but also in the feathering of the wings of the solar disc.  I love the rusticated surface!

But to return to Omaha, the glory of the Bostwick mausoleum must be the two bronze urns which flank the path to the entrance.  Here is a closeup of one of them:

I see lotuses, an ophis snake, amphora handles in the form of drooping lotus buds, tiny lotus forms whose stems articulate the spaces containing the large lotuses and an eternal flame.  Here again, the basic form is Greek, but the surface is thoroughly worked with Egyptian iconography.  I cannot make out the female deity in the register above the lotuses.  It could well be a Hathor head with shakey (or deliberately altered) iconography.

I find the Egyptian revival the most interesting of the revivals, first because it is so exotic, secondly because it is too ridiculous to be pretentious, and third because it is so rare, and a real treat to discover it.

If you've read this far, here is a treat: The Nile Apartments, on Park Boulevard in San Diego, which I came across a few days ago. It appears to be post 1922 to judge by the Tut-esque funerary masks in the frieze of the first story, and to judge by the neighborhood, an art deco date is appropriate.

Note the detailing of the windows at the level of the first-floor frieze below the cavetto cornice. It is also clear that the façade is just that--a false front. The second story has plaster incised to imitate ashlar construction (I don't believe the blocks are 'fireproof' cinderblock construction sized). Judge for yourself:

The solar disc atop is particularly striking (you don't see them painted on mausolea), and the whole facade has been beautifully restored. Here are a few details:

Tut-Mask, Solar Disc, Cavetto Cornice