Cemetery Trivia

Trying to lead up to a post on "monuments to the law of monuments" here: what's the structure at right a monument to and where is it?  Once we get the answer to that, I'll tell you how this is related to the law of monuments.  It's a strange story, about which I know nothing, except for a plaque at the base of those stones has some law on it.  

And because faculty lounge readers have been so good about picking off trivia -- see  lawyer house trivia,  judge house trivia; courthouse trivia; Freedom Riders trivia, and now antebellum building trivia -- no hints this time!

Update:  I've added a picture of the plaque that I refer to in the comments.  It now occurs to me that the Hollywood Cemetery might be able to get a heck of a lot of money from the state of Virginia each year, because of the statute that provides cemeteries with Confederate soldiers $5 per year per soldier.  Or maybe that's what the plaque was all about -- the state promising perpetual care in exchange for not providing funding to the UDC.  One of these days this is worth investigating further.

Comments

[b]

Found it with google images as a top return for "cemetery pyramid." This is a strange one.

[Alfred Brophy]

B, You're good! You want to tell everyone what it is and where or shall I?

[Brando]

The Hollywood Cemetery Pyramid in Richmond, VA.

[Alfred Brophy]

Nice. That's it -- the pyramid built to commemorate the Confederate soldiers buried in Hollywood cemetery. Long time readers may recall that I blogged a little bit about Hollywood in a post about Mount Auburn last spring: http://www.thefacultylounge.org/2011/03/mount-auburn-cemetery.html

Now, to get to the "monument law" part of this -- there's a plaque in front of the pyramid that says "The Legislature of Virginia of 1914 has at the solicitation of the ladies of the Hollywood Memorial Association and the United Daughters of the Confederacy placed in perpetual care this section where lie buried eighteenth thousand Confederate Soldiers." Thus, this appears to be a case where the legislature either donated property (or perhaps passed a special statute for perpetual care). What's exciting to me about this is that we have a plaque commemorating legislative action to preserve a monument. A monument to the law of monuments!