Ohio/Michigan Vacation Pt. 1

I wanted to share some pictures of our recent trip to Ohio and Michigan. Some of you may remember that Carl and I (and our son Joel) are stained glass fanatics and also love graveyards. Since I haven't been feeling 100%, and the Yellowstone trip was canceled, we decided to take a smaller trip instead.  One of the places we had always wanted to visit was Lakeview Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio.

I know, it sounds really odd to drive all the way from Wisconsin to Ohio to visit a graveyard, but there is so much beauty to see! Lakeview Cemetery is beautifully landscaped and the memorials are absolutely stunning. We spent over two hours touring the grounds there last week Sunday. 

Lakeview Cemetery is home to the Wade Memorial Chapel which is one of the few chapels to have an interior completely decorated by Louis Comfort Tiffany.  We were really anxious to see this chapel.

 

Jeptha Wade sign

As we approached the open door of the chapel, we caught just a glimpse of the beautiful stained glass window.  The doors are bronze and weigh two tons.  (I was amazed at how heavy they felt, but they swung quite easily on their massive hinges.)

We went in through the doors and...........

There I am, in awe, staring at the most beautiful Tiffany stained glass window I have ever seen in person!

This window is named 'The Consummation of the Divine Promise'

It was so difficult to capture all of the glory of this window, due to the lighting conditions, but the tour guide was very helpful and let us take as many photos as we wanted.  It is actually quite dark in the building, and I had to bring up the light with an editing program to show the interior decorations more clearly.

 There are two 8' x 32' glass mosaic murals on the walls of the chapel, depicting the 'Voyage of Life' and they were unbelievably beautiful.  Taking into account how much work went into their design and how many individual pieces of glass are involved, the sheer amount of  hours of labor becomes almost hard to comprehend.

I know it is not possible to see extreme details of the glass from this photo, but tiny, individual pieces make up the entire mural.

The other side of the chapel:  One side depicts the Prophecy and Law of the Old Testament and the other side depicts The Fulfillment and Light of the New Testament.

There are large lanterns hanging in front of the chapel, each one carved from a single piece of alabaster and one of the first electric lights in Cleveland.

The interior decorations were phenomenal, but back to the window---what a gorgeous sight!

Once our knowledgeable guide found out we were interested in stained glass and especially in Tiffany's work, he let us go behind the roped off area to get a closer look at the window where we could see how many different layers of glass went into the construction of the window to depict light, shading and shadow.  So very beautiful; almost surreal.

The sky was overcast when we were there, but our guide told us he thought the window looked the best in this light as sunshine tends to make it too bright.  Either way, it is a masterpiece!

We were so glad we were able to see Lakeview Cemetery and especially, the Wade Chapel.

What a priceless piece of history!