Howard Mortuary Chapel

The Howard Mortuary Chapel was a gift to the City of Burlington from Hannah Louisa Howard (1808 - 1886), a local philanthropist. She was a native of Burlington and was the daughter of John Howard, a successful early hotel proprietor there. Most of Louisa Howard’s philanthropic efforts were focused on helping the poor people of the City of Burlington. She made gifts to the Home for Destitute Children, formed the Louisa Howard Mission, endowed scholarships at the University of Vermont for disadvantaged students, and, in her will, left money to form the Burlington Cancer Relief Association. Her brother, John Purple Howard, made a fortune as a hotel owner in New York City and was also a major Burlington philanthropist. 

Louisa Howard made her offer of a chapel in August of 1881, and the Burlington City Council accepted the offer that same month. Construction of the chapel began the next spring in Lake View Cemetery on North Avenue. Land for the cemetery had been purchased in the 1860s to relieve overcrowding in the two older public cemeteries. The grounds were laid out according to plans by architect E. C. Ryer, and the cemetery was consecrated on June 14, 1871. The cemetery soon became Burlington’s most prestigious. The wealthiest businessmen of the city purchased family plots and installed elaborate memorials and mausoleums. Lake View, like Victorian-era lawn park cemeteries in other cities, became one of the leading local attractions. The natural beauty, the artistic quality of the monuments, and the opportunity for peaceful meditation away from the chaos of the city were all reasons for the popularity of visiting cemeteries. John P. Howard’s donation of a fountain and entrance gate in October of 1874 established a precedent for his sister’s later offer. 

Burlington architect and builder Alfred Benjamin Fisher designed the chapel. Fisher was the city’s most prolific architect in the 1880s. He moved to the city in 1877 after receiving a commission to design a mansion for General William Wells. The next year he designed the Howard Opera House near the head of Church Street for John P. Howard. The Wells-Richardson Building, St. Paul’s Chapel and Rectory, and many stylist homes were among his other commissions.  

The chapel was dedicated in November of 1882. The Howard Mortuary Chapel is significant for its association with nineteenth century funeral practices. Burial grounds in the older cities of the United States were filled to capacity by the early years of the century, as such burial grounds were considered unsightly and unhygienic. A solution to this problem appeared near Boston in 1831 when Mount Auburn Cemetery was laid out on rural land outside the city. This cemetery was much larger than city burial grounds, was privately owned by an association, and was carefully landscaped to highlight its natural beauty and to downplay its function. The rural cemetery became widely popular and soon appeared in any area populous enough to require expanded burial space and to provide sufficient private and/or municipal money to develop and maintain the grounds. The lawn park cemetery landscaped into a different aesthetic ideal than the rural cemetery, but very similar in other respects, became popular in the late 1850s. The need for a suitable shelter for burial services arose from the fact that these new cemeteries were located away from the city and its churches.  

Mortuary chapels appeared in response to this need. These chapels are most invariably Gothic in design, both for religious reasons and because Gothic was the style that best fit the romantic landscape aesthetic that guided cemetery design in that period. Chapels are also often located near the entrance of the cemetery, to allow the funeral service to take place before passing further along to the grave site. Vermont’s cities began to take part in this movement generally later than the rest of the nation. This delay was in part because Vermont’s later settlement resulted in smaller cities that filled their burial grounds more slowly. However, Vermont’s few large cities and villages began to develop cemeteries in the new style by the middle of the nineteenth century. Cemetery overcrowding in Burlington resulted in the development of Lake View Cemetery in the 1860s. Lake View, with its winding paths snaking downhill past trees, lawns, and monuments to the shore of Lake Champlain, is an excellent example of a lawn park cemetery. As with rural and lawn park cemeteries elsewhere, Burlington’s citizens felt the need for a chapel. 

The Howard Mortuary Chapel also reflects another important aspect of Victorian-era funeral practice philanthropic gifts to cemeteries. Rural and lawn park cemeteries in their heyday played a role like that of later public parks. A cemetery was a peaceful oasis away from the city, where one could be refreshed spiritually and physically. Cemeteries became popular attractions as well as sources of civic pride. Wealthy industrialists and businessmen of the period would donate to local cemeteries, often one in which they had their family plot.  

Accessed January 6th 2021. https://www.burlingtonvt.gov/sites/default/files/PZ/Historic/National-Register-PDFs/HowardMortuaryChapelandPics.pdf.

Accessed January 6th 2021. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/84285293.