Missouri Crematory

The Missouri Crematory was the sixth modern crematory built in the United States and holds the distinction of being the first crematory built west of the Mississippi River. The crematory is located at 3211 Sublette Avenue in St. Louis, just across from the State Mental Hospital off of Arsenal Street. Now called "Valhalla's Hillcrest Abbey" it is owned by the Zell Family, who also own the Valhalla Chapel and Memorial Park on St. Charles Rock Road.

Establishment

In 1885, an informal association of cremation advocates was formed, and for several months, meetings were held in various places and the idea of building a facility and apparatus for performing cremations in St. Louis was discussed thoroughly. More precise action followed and, in July, 1887, the Missouri Crematory Association was organized and incorporated with a capital stock of $10,000. When enough money had been raised, a 5-acre (20,000 m²) plot of land was purchased on Sublette Avenue, just south of Arsenal Street, near the State Mental Hospital.

Prior to the completion of the crematory, those desiring cremation had to have their remains transported to Lancaster, Pennsylvania for this process to be done. Many of those who supported and desired this method for themselves had to be buried, as there was not a local crematory and their family did not want to incur the expense and stress of traveling to Lancaster.

The First Families of Cremation - Cremation's Pioneers in St. Louis

The Albert Todd & John Terry Families

One of the earliest pioneers of the Cremation Movement in St. Louis was Albert Todd, who was regarded by many as being one of the earliest supporters of cremation in the west. His advocacy of cremation created much of the support and sentiment that existed in St. Louis in its favor. Before his death in 1885, he had witnessed this sentiment grow so much that a cremation society was formed and a Crematory projected. Unfortunately, he did not live to see the Crematory’s completion. He did, however, request that his body be held after death until the Crematory could be completed. His body was held in a vault for a full year after his death – and the completion of the Crematory was not yet nigh. Thus, his remains were buried, uncremated, in the family plot at Bellefontaine Cemetery.

All of the members of Mr. Todd’s family followed in his footsteps and had become “Cremationists” – supporters and advocates of this method of disposing of the dead. His daughter, Elizabeth Todd Terry, wife of noted St. Louis attorney John Terry, especially regarded this method as "the only proper one." However, she was also unable to see the Crematory come to fruition – she died at midnight on April 14, 1888. With the completion of the Crematory on the horizon, her remains were held in the private vault of George A. Lynch, a local undertaker, following Funeral Services held at her home on April 15, officiated by Rev. John Snyder of the Church of the Messiah.

The Otto Wilhelmi and Christopher Stifel Families

Otto J. Wilhelmi, a native of Franklin county, Missouri, was raised and educated in Missouri and later pursued his studies at Washington University and abroad at Polytechnic, Karlsruhe, Germany, in France and Italy. Upon the completion of his studies he became an architect of national reputation. For a time he was the architect for the St. Louis public schools and several of the most beautiful and attractive school buildings of the city stand as monuments to his skill and handiwork.

A founder and originator of the Missouri Crematory Association, he served as Secretary of the Association from its inception until his death in 1925, and designed both the Crematory and Columbarium Buildings. November 23, 1882, he married Amelia Stifel, daughter of Christopher A. Stifel, who was also on the Board of the Crematory Association.

The Inauguration of the Missouri Crematory

Although Mrs. Terry’s was the inaugural cremation at the new facility, Mr. Terry requested that as few persons be present as possible, other than the immediate relatives. So it was that the only persons besides the family that were present that day were Charles Speck, Judge J. G. Normile, and from the Crematory Association, John M. Dutro (Vice President), E. P. Olshausen and Dr. Henry S. Chase (Directors), Otto J. Wilhelmi (Secretary), and the attendants who were necessary to the actual work of the incineration.

The Undertaker arrived in his carriage at the Missouri Crematory at approximately 9:00 a.m. with Mrs. Todd’s casketed body. The family was then assembled in the Chapel on the upper level of the building, and the casket was lowered to the cremation room below.

Following the cremation, Mrs. Todd’s ashes were placed in a lead casket provided by the Undertaker, and were subsequently buried alongside her father in the family plot at Bellefontaine Cemetery.

Design & Construction

The Crematory, whose work and construction began in August 1887, was completed in May 1888.

The Missouri Crematory is Doric in design. A square building which measures approximately forty feet deep, thirty-six wide, and twenty-six high, it was designed by Otto Wilhelmi, a prominent citizen and Architect in St. Louis who also served as the secretary of the Missouri Crematory Association from its inception until his death in 1925.

In January 1889, the crematory took fire through some fault in the cremation apparatus. The building was almost totally destroyed by the fire but immediately work began on reconstruction of the facility, and a new, fireproof edifice was completed in a matter of months. Although the building that stands today is not the original, it is identical in size and style as its predecessor.

The Chapel of the Missouri Crematory

A Chapel, at one time an example of the grandest of any of its use, composes the entire upper level of the building. The floors and ceiling are covered with intricate mosaic marble tile-work, and the walls are frescoed. Fourteen stained glass windows provide the space with natural lighting, and later, a drop-ceiling was added and fluorescent lights installed to light the area.

At the far end of the Chapel, opposite the entry doors, stands a small platform, two steps above the floor level. Three of the stained glass windows are above this area, and one on the left and right side walls. Above the three windows, in the arch of the ceiling, is a relief of the Alpha and Omega symbol. In the center of the platform is a catafalque, raised about three feet above the floor – which serves as a lowering device. Upon arrival of the remains at the Crematory Chapel, the pallbearers carried the casket or coffin into the Chapel and it was placed on the catafalque and covered with a black drape which reached to the floor. The casket or coffin was thence concealed from the view of those in attendance while it was quietly and discreetly lowered by hand-pulley to the crematory room below.

This chapel was used frequently while crematory operations were still performed at the Missouri Crematory, but when a new chapel was built on the grounds as part of a mausoleum addition, funeral and memorial ceremonies were held in the new chapel rather than the one that had served for so many years. Since then, the chapel has sadly fallen in disrepair – and like the crematory apparatus, it is no longer necessary for it to be kept up.

The Cremation Apparatus and the Process of Cremation

Originally, two retorts were in use by the Missouri Crematory. Of the “Venini” pattern, they were invented by one Giuseppe Venini, who personally came from Italy to the Crematory to oversee their construction and installation.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch gave the following dissertation of the crematory apparatus, reporting the day Mrs. Terry’s remains were cremated:

“The furnace is a cylinder about three feet in diameter and five feet long. It has grate bars at the bottom and an under draft. Above it is a hopper into which wood is placed, a panel is withdrawn and the wood falls into the cylinder. A fire is started in this cylinder in the usual manner, and it is kept up until the furnace has attained the heat of from 1,200 to 1,400°F. The principal object is to heat the furnace, but the surplus heat is conducted into the oven or retort where the body is to be incinerated. Having gotten the furnace to the required heat the lower door is put up and hermetically sealed with fire clay. Wood is then put into the furnace through the hopper until it is quite full, when the top is also tightly closed. The heated furnace distills the wood, and the gas generated passes into the retort. The fire was started yesterday an hour and a half before the incineration was to begin. When the gas was ready it was lighted in the retort, and instantly the place was filled with a glow of orange flame. The retort was somewhat heated by the preliminary fire but when the gas began to combust, the temperature rapidly rose to the required 2,200°F.”

After the casketed body had been lowered to the crematory room, it was taken to the “Preparing” room, which stood adjacent to the “Incinerating” room. In this room, the body was removed from the casket or coffin and was wrapped in an alum-saturated sheet. The alum-treated sheet prevented the clothing and the body itself from immediately igniting when placed in the furnace. Thus, it allowed proper placement of the remains in the cremation chamber, and allowed the opening of the retort to be sealed properly for maximum combustion.

After the body was wrapped in the alum-treated sheet, it was placed in an iron cradle-like device and conveyed by hoist into the cremation vault or retort. At this time, the process of incineration was begun.

By a process of slow combustion and distillation, a gas was generated from ignited wood in another area of the apparatus (as explained by the Post-Dispatch, above), and this, with an admixture of air, was conducted into the retort in the form of a clear, bright flame at an extremely high temperature.

Again, the Post-Dispatch spoke of the scene within the cremation vault through a portal in the door of the furnace:

"There is an opening in the door of the retort about two inches in diameter, through which the process can be seen. As the decomposition advances the crumbling form is seen, and that is all. The orange flame plays all about the retort, the gases from the body burn, adding other colors to the fiery scene. Soon as the gases cease to arise from the body, the flame is extinguished, and only the Bunsen burners which had been lighted to consume the noxious gases are left burning. These burners are three. Two are set in the points in the retort where there are openings which lead into the chimney. They consist of two pipes, one within the other. The inner pipe contains wood gas, the other pipe contains atmospheric air conducted from outside the building. The flame from these burners consumes all the gases that would escape from the body during incineration, and what gases may escape into the chimney unburned are there met by another Bunsen burner which consumes them.”

The “Venini” pattern afforded the means of consuming all smoke made, as well as all gases formed during the process of incineration. Therefore, at no time could anything, by sight or by smell, be detected issuing from the chimney.

There were later designs in use by the Crematory, as stated below. In a mid-1950s brochure entitled My Heart Grew Rich That Day, which was given out by the Crematory Association, the current process of cremation was described as follows:

“In the beginning, Cremation and its procedure was unquestionably crude and lacked all the refinements of later methods. Today the body is not removed from the casket and both are placed in the crematory chamber, where super-heated chambers leave no ashes, but instead pieces of the limestone bone structure. These are the cremated remains to be placed in a Memorial Urn.”

It is unknown at present writing, how often the retorts’ methods of operation changed or the number of which were employed over time.

While there are two retorts in place at the Crematory, they are not currently utilized. All licenses are purported to be kept current, and the retorts are supposedly kept in working order and ready for use, if needed. At present, any requests for cremation received at the Missouri Crematory are fulfilled by its parent company, The Valhalla Chapel of Memories on St. Charles Rock Road, also in St. Louis.

The two retorts that are in place are fueled by gas and were placed in 1982. In the operation of these furnaces, the deceased was not removed from the casket, and none of the methods previously discussed were employed. Rather, the casketed body was placed directly in the retort, the ash from the casket pulled away by fan – and the body reduced to bone fragments by intense heat and flame – the heat and flame acquired by the ignition of natural gas.

The Columbarium

History

In the mid-1890s, the Crematory Association came to the agreement to design and build a Columbarium for the reception of the cremated remains of those cremated in its facility.

Design & Construction

Building commenced in July, 1895 of a design drawn up by Mr. Wilhelmi, architect and secretary of the Crematory Association, and was subsequently completed in December of that same year. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch carried an announcement describing the new Columbarium in the November 14, 1897 edition of their publication:

“The Missouri Crematory Association has erected a Columbarium for the reception of urns containing the ashes of the dead. It is designed in the Ionic style, is built of granite, iron and Roman bricks and is strictly fireproof. It is located on the Crematory grounds at Sublette Avenue and Arsenal street. The building is imposing in appearance and looks to be as substantial as solid rock. In designing the building the association was even at a greater loss for precedent than when designing the crematory. The officials finally concluded to carry but their own idea, which is at variance with the plans of the four other existing Columbaria at Long Island, San Francisco, Gotha, and Berlin, and succeeded in erecting the most beautiful and appropriate building of its kind in the world. Absolute safety is guaranteed to all classes, but provisions have been made to make the building accessible to families of moderate means, as well as the wealthy.”

The Columbarium’s Ionic design forms a handsome complement to its Doric companion in the Crematory building. The original structure was a simple, rectangular building with a deep, half-circle alcove at the back. Ornate bronze doors adorn most of the niches – with the remainder of the niches being equipped with painted glass or marble fronts. The niches in the half-circle alcove were once equipped with clear glass doors that allowed the viewing of the urns within. Now, they’ve been painted over to form a uniform, gold-colored surface.

In the center of the alcove of this original building, an ornate, semi-spiral walnut staircase descends to the basement. Originally, the entire lower level was equipped with “japanned metal shelves” to generally store or stack urns. Now, the entire basement (save the areas reserved for men’s and women’s rest rooms and storage – accessed from the exterior of the building) is equipped floor-to-ceiling with marble-fronted niches. A continuation of the half-circle alcove on the upper level is behind the staircase.

In 1919, an addition was added onto the west end of the original building. It is a large, rectangular space that is fitted wall-to-wall with marble-fronted niches. In the mid-1950s, a center “island” was added in this west end addition – this “island” is equipped with clear glass- and bronze-fronted niches.

A drop-ceiling has been installed in the columbarium building, thus eliminating many of the ornate architectural features of the interior. In the course of the addition of the drop-ceiling, all of the skylights and windows that once were used to provide natural lighting to the interior, have been covered, and electric fluorescent lights have been installed.

Four columns are used for the support of the ceilings and are the only remainder of the architectural accents. At the base of each of these columns, save one, sits a large, decorative marble urn. These urns originally sat in the four niches in the Chapel of the Crematory building but were moved to the columbarium upon cessation of the use of the Chapel. These urns contain the ashes of four individuals, and they now serve as beautiful focal points for the Columbarium.

One of the most impressive aspects of the Columbarium building is that throughout its interior, niches line all walls, floor-to-ceiling, so that there are no areas that are put to waste.

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  The Missouri Crematory.
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  The Columbarium of the Missouri Crematory.
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  The interior of the Columbarium of the Missouri Crematory.