Photo by Tony Valainis
THE LIMESTONE South Gothic Gate dominates Crown Hill Cemetery’s 34th Street entrance, but if you look to the right, you’ll see a stone-trimmed brick structure with a bell tower. It was designed by Indianapolis architect Adolf Scherrer as the gatekeeper’s residence and office. A superb example of high Victorian Gothic style, it was finished just in time for the funeral cortege of Vice President Thomas Hendricks on November 30, 1885. The interior is rich in intricately carved oak and cherry woodwork. Pictured is the “ladies waiting room.” Its wooden Venetian blinds were among the first installed in the country, and it is believed the windows were placed high by design to afford grieving women privacy. The fireplace, like the other four in the building, has a Rookwood ceramic tile surround handmade in Cincinnati. The portraits of Ezra Reed Butler and his wife Rebecca, buried less than a year apart in Section 1, were painted by George Peter Alexander Healey in 1868. In a time when automobiles were rare, people took a streetcar to the cemetery, walking along a tree-lined lane known as Westfield Gravel Road (now Illinois Street) to the entrance. They often waited in the office for funeral processions to arrive, especially in poor weather, where they warmed or dried themselves by a crackling fire. Long before Find a Grave, visitors also had to wait while plot locations were looked up so they could be escorted to the site. As Crown Hill’s reputation for its beauty and its roster of notables interred grew, the office became a rendezvous point for folks from all over the country. Hence, the name “waiting station” took hold. After a new administration building was dedicated in 1969, talk swirled of demolishing the waiting station. The fledgling Indiana Landmarks, a nonprofit started by Eli Lilly, saved it, completing an extensive restoration in 1971. Today, it’s the home of the Crown Hill Foundation
