Tower of Memories

Rising over one-hundred-fifty feet above the Olinger Crown Hill Cemetery, The Tower of Memories is home to approximately six thousand crypts and five thousand niches for cremated remains. Construction on the Tower began in 1926, and the original designer of the structure was Charles A. Smith of Kansas City. In 1928, the failure of Smith's company led to major architectural changes to the Tower, as construction could not be halted due to entombments having already been made. Architects William and Arthur Fisher of Denver were commissioned to carry out the project moving forward. The form of the building remained generally the same as designed by Smith, but the gothic detailing was replaced by modernistic detailing and articulation of the Tower.  

The construction of the Tower of Memories mausoleum was well along when the architectural plans were changed, and certain gothic features were already in place. The Fishers worked within the context of Smith’s original plans. Construction and revisions continued until it was interrupted due to labor and material shortages during World War II. The building was almost complete, save for the lack of windows or front stairs leading to the chapel.  

In 1948, a new owner hired the architect John Monroe to design and oversee the completion of the project. Monroe made alterations to the tower fenestration and slightly changed the tower proportions by increasing the height of the central portion by eight feet and by adding height as well to the flanking portions of the tower. The front chapel stairs were also added by Monroe during this time. Since the design drawings created by William and Arthur Fisher were lost, it is not clear how much Monroe was carrying out the intentions of the Fishers and how much was his own design. The changes do not detract from the essential modernistic characteristics of the building.  

The Tower of Memories is significant as an unusual type of building, and one which was carried out at a large scale and in the regionally rare modernistic style. The Tower’s noteworthiness is enhanced by the contributions to its design by the premier Denver architectural firm, Fisher and Fisher. In 1928 an advertisement called the Tower of Memories, then under its prolonged construction, “America’s Largest and Most Beautiful Mausoleum”. Although it was unique in its technique of preserving the dead, the Tower was still an uncommon building when it was built. The Tower of Memories was the first mausoleum built in the Denver area and remains one of only two. The Olinger Crown Hill Cemetery was opened in December of 1907 and the Tower is a monument on its landscape. Very few buildings in Denver were built in the modernistic style, and none were close to matching the scale of the Tower of Memories. 

Tower of Memories, National Register of Historic Places. Accessed December 11th 2020. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/84130823.

Tower of Memories, Atlas Obscura. Accessed December 11th 2020. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tower-of-memories.