Laurel Glen Cemetery and Mausoleum

Laurel Glen Cemetery and Mausoleum

Construction on the mausoleum began in August 1880. It comprised 750 tons of granite, 50 tons of marble, 20,000 bricks, 535 barrels of plaster, and 100 wagon loads of sand. It cost Bowman $75,000, roughly $2,200,000 in today’s valuation. 125 skilled laborers, masons, and stone cutters worked on the edifice. Italian-American artist Giovanni Turini (1841 - 1899) sculpted the members of the Bowman family – busts of Ella and Jennie, and a life-size representation of infant Addie. (It is interesting to note that her “likeness” is of a seated infant; four-month-olds are not usually physically developed enough to sit as independently as the baby represented by the statue. Given the year of her death, it isn’t surprising that no photo of her exists.) Turini’s son, John, is responsible for completing the larger-than-life sculpture of the grieving Bowman that stands on the steps of the Mausoleum. The structure was completed in 1881.