Wednesday, September 28, 2022

The Petit Chapel @ The Belvidere Cemetery in Belvidere, Illinois.






The Belvidere Cemetery has
a unique Chapel, designed by










Ooops... I got distracted by this
beautiful dead tree stump
& its greenery.








The Petit Chapel was restored
by the Belvidere Junior 
Women's Club in 1981.







After Dr. Petit's premature death in March of 1899, Mrs. Petit saw that The Belvidere Cemetery didn't have a place for family and friends to gather for services and be sheltered from harsh weather.  She wanted to create a Chapel to honor her husband and to provide an indoor worship space for mourners.

In 1905 she contacted Frank Lloyd Wright and asked for his assistance in creating this unique Chapel.  The Architect chose to create the memorial in the newly developing Prairie Style.





This is the only memorial the
 Architect ever designed for a
 Cemetery setting.







It was completed in 1907.






This is my favorite approach
to the Chapel.







The stairs at the corner of the building welcome grieving family and friends in need.

The building was closed, so Eric and I didn't get good images of the inside of the chapel.

No comments:

Post a Comment