The Wade Memorial Chapel is a historic chapel and highlight of a visit to Cleveland’s Lake View Cemetery. There are other interesting sights in the cemetery, like President Garfield’s tomb, but the Wade Chapel is well worth the visit.
The chapel was commissioned by Jeptha Wade II, grandson of Jeptha Wade, the founder of the Western Union Telegraph Company and the first president of Lake View Cemetery. The chapel was built between 1898 and 1901 as a tribute to his grandfather. The chapel’s architecture was inspired by Greek temples and it’s built of white Vermont (Barre) granite. It has hefty four-ton bronze doors. The chapel was dedicated on December 31, 1900, and was built to last. Besides the granite stone construction, foundations have been dug 25 feet to bedrock. The chapel has lower-level vault originally used for winter casket storage.
Of interest, it was the first fully electric building in Cleveland.
While the exterior is interesting, the chapel’s interior is a thing of beauty. While small, it was brilliantly created and entirely crafted by Louis Comfort Tiffany and his Tiffany Glass & Decorating Company, one of the few intact examples of Tiffany’s work remaining anywhere in the worldwide.
The highlight of the chapel is its centerpiece stained-glass window titled “The Flight of Souls” (or “Resurrection”), which is considered one of Tiffany’s finest works. The window illustrates Tiffany’s innovative Favrile glass technique—layered opalescent, iridescent, and translucent glass that produces rich, glowing colors with multicolored striations and a shimmering, jewel-like depth. The window is a focal point over the altar. It was exhibited at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris, where it won a gold medal before it was installed in the chapel in 1901. I took a lot of photos of the window with the hopes that they might convey some of its amazing beauty.
There are two large glass wall mosaics, each about 30 feet long, made with iridescent and opalescent glass tiles. One panel depicts “The River of Life”, and the other “The River of Death”. The mosaics depict funerary barges rowing towards the end of the chapel. Some details of both mosaics are shown below:
There are other interesting details, like the light fixtures — hard to all take in during one visit.
The chapel was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and has been a landmark for more than a century. It seats about 60 people and is still used for funerals, memorials and small weddings.
The chapel is typically open daily from April 1 through November 19, 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM, with docents available for insights. I found our docent especially helpful in explaining the details to the chapel.
Admission to the cemetery and chapel is free.
