The cremation of the dead: considered from an aesthetic, sanitary, religious, historical, medico-legal, and economical standpointErichsen, Hugo
Religion
The cremation of the dead: considered from an aesthetic, sanitary, religious, historical, medico-legal, and economical standpoint
Erichsen, Hugo
Cremation
The exterior view shows a handsome Romanesque structure of one story and
a basement. The main height is 16 feet, which rises in four gables on
the sides. A dome, 35 feet in circumference, attains a height of 65
feet. The drawing of the first floor shows an auditorium of octagon
form. Back of the two rear niches are dressing-rooms for clergymen. Two
handsome altars on which to hold religious services will front from
these niches. Two rooms in the lower end of the building, on either side
of the approach, are reserved for toilet rooms, one for ladies, and the
other for gentlemen. In the center of the upper end of the auditorium is
placed a catafalque, resting on an elevator. After a body has been
properly prepared, it will be placed on this catafalque. When the
religious services are concluded, the body will be lowered to the
basement, and the opening in the floor closed with a slide trap.
The plan of the basement shows the same divisions as are made on the
main floor. On the left-hand side is a retiring-room. The front is
divided into four rooms. An ice cellar, a frigidarium, which is
calculated as a place in which to preserve bodies for several days; a
calidarium, a heated room in which bodies can be placed for several
days, to insure against cremation while in a state of trance; and a drug
room, where restoratives will be kept. The right-hand wing is designed
for a preparing room, from which the body is taken directly to one of
the furnaces. The furnaces, of which there will be two, are not yet
definitely designed. It is supposed, however, that they will be after
the plan of the apparatuses at Lancaster, in Pennsylvania.
In the rear of the building it is proposed to build an addition, in the
form of a three-quarter circle, which will be styled the columbarium. On
the inside this will be divided by three corridors, and the walls
divided into compartments for containing urns. There will be room in
this limited space of 40 × 30 feet, it is estimated, for holding the
remains of 8000 bodies.
The building is designed to be built of Ionia red sandstone. Two immense
flue chimneys, one for ventilation, the other for the furnaces, rising
to a height of 75 feet, will give character to the building. The front
will be set off with a handsome porch supported by Roman pillars and
approached by a half-circle road-bed, over which the hearse and
carriages can drive up to the main entrance.
The Michigan Cremation Association was organized at Detroit on the 31st
of March, 1886. Dr. H. Erichsen was chosen temporary chairman, and Mr.
A. N. Low secretary of the meeting. The documents of incorporation were
signed. On motion of Dr. J. H. Carstens, a board of directors was
elected. At the close of the meeting the directors met, and elected the
following officers: President, James F. Noyes, M.D.; vice-president,
Hugo Erichsen, M.D.; secretary, Mr. A. N. Low; treasurer, Mr. M. W.
Field. The treasurer furnished a $10,000 bond, as required by the
original agreement.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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