Cecil Eldridge Bryan (March 26, 1878 – March 24, 1951) was an American architect and inventor active in the first half of the 20th century. He designed over eighty

mausoleum A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be consid ...

s, at least one of which is now on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. Upon his death, the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' called him the "dean of mausoleum builders."

Life and career

Bryan was born on March 26, 1878, in

Irving, Illinois Irving is a village in Montgomery County, Illinois, United States. The population was 495 at the time of the 2010 census. (The 2000 census had shown a population of 2,484 because the inmates of the Graham Correction Center at Hillsboro were includ ...

, to Louis Negallian Bryan and Martha Alice Davis. He was the first of their two known children; Mabel was born four years later. After completing his education, he went to work under

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...

for a year, followed by another year with

Ralph Modjeski Ralph Modjeski (born Rudolf Modrzejewski; January 27, 1861 – June 26, 1940) was a Polish-American civil engineer who achieved prominence as "America's greatest bridge builder." Life He was born in Bochnia, called Galicia at the time, on Janua ...

, known for his work with reinforced concrete. Bryan married Ethel Goembel, with whom he had two known children: Cecil Eldridge Bryan Jr. and Paul Goembel Bryan. By 1912, Bryan was building

s for the National Mausoleum Company (later the International Mausoleum Company). He went on to build over eighty such structures in seventeen states; nineteen of these were in

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. Many of them included

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

Louis Comfort Tiffany Louis Comfort Tiffany (February 18, 1848 – January 17, 1933) was an American artist and designer who worked in the decorative arts and is best known for his work in stained glass. He is the American artist most associated with the Art NouveauL ...

Notable selected works

* Evergreen Mausoleum,

Morris, Illinois Morris is a city in and the county seat of Grundy County, Illinois, United States and part of the southwest Chicago metropolitan area. The population was estimated at 15,053 in 2019. Description Morris is the Grundy County seat and has a larg ...

(1913; demolished in 1967) * Beecher Mausoleum. Washington Township, Illinois (1914; now listed on the

) *

Hamilton Mausoleum Hamilton Mausoleum is a mausoleum located in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It was the resting place of the family of the Dukes of Hamilton.West Salem, Illinois West Salem is a village in Edwards County, Illinois, United States. The population was 786 at the 2020 census, down from 897 at the 2010 census. History The West Salem area was settled in the 1830s and early 1840s by Moravians primarily from S ...

(1914) * Odd Fellows Mausoleum,

Modesto, California Modesto () is the county seat and largest city of Stanislaus County, California, United States. With a population of 218,464 at the 2020 census, it is the 19th largest city in the state of California and forms part of the Sacramento-Stockton- ...

(1914) * Mountain View Mausoleum,

Altadena, California Altadena () ("Alta", Spanish for "Upper", and "dena" from Pasadena) is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in the Verdugo Mountains region of Los Angeles County, California, approximately 14 miles (23 km) from the downtown ...

(1923) * Sunnyside Mausoleum,

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

* Westview Abbey Mausoleum,

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

(1943; his final work)

Death

Bryan died on March 24, 1951, aged 72. He was interred in the Mountain View Mausoleum in Altadena, California, one of his own buildings, as were his wife and children. In his obituary, the ''

'' called him the "dean of mausoleum builders." Cheryl and Cecil E. Bryan III have been attempting to locate all of their grandfather's Community Mausoleums. Bryan has a suite named for him at the Central Schoolhouse Inn in

Geneseo, Illinois Geneseo is a city in Henry County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,539. Geneseo is 20 miles east of the Quad Cities, at the intersection of Interstate 80, U.S. Route 6 and Illinois Route 82. Geneseo is well k ...

. He restored the building in 1914.

References

External links

''Community Mausoleums'', Cecil E. Bryan (1917)
- Beecher Mausoleum
Transcript of a speech on mausoleums given by Bryan at the AACS Annual Convention, 1929
- Beecher Mausoleum {{DEFAULTSORT:Bryan, Cecil E. 1878 births 1951 deaths People from Irving, Illinois Architects from Illinois American inventors 20th-century American architects