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Tomb of the Month Blocher Mausoleum Forest Lawn Cemetery Buffalo, New York It’s impossible to stroll by the Blocher mausoleum in Buffalo’s Forest Lawn Cemetery without wondering what the story is behind this one-of-a-kind tomb. Indeed, the circumstances that led to the tomb’s construction are an intriguing mix of fact and fable. It’s a tale of love and passion and loss and sorrow. The center of attention inside the tomb is Nelson Blocher, laid out for viewing, clutching a bible. Looking at his prostate form are his parents, John and Elizabeth Blocher. Hovering above is an angel, who, some say, bears a striking resemblance to a maid employed by the Blocher family. It’s said that Nelson died of a broken heart. Accounts of the day say that his mother, Elizabeth, goaded her husband, John into constructing the tomb as a memorial for their heartbroken son. John Blocher was born in 1825 in the small town of Scipio, New York. At age 10, he became “the man of the family” following the death of his father. This left him with little formal education, but the adult responsibilities that he assumed at a young age charged him with entrepreneurial spirit. At age 18 he opened a tailoring business, which he soon developed into a general store, supplying ready made clothing, dry goods and groceries to Buffaloans. At age 20, John married Elizabeth Neff. The union produced one son, Nelson, who was born in 1847. John Blocher enlisted in the Union Army at the outbreak of the Civil War, and served one year in the 78th New York Regiment, before being discharged for ill health. Returning to Buffalo after his stint in the army, Blocher turned the war to his advantage and proceeded to manufacture shoes and boots for the army. His prosperous footwear business and some shrewd real estate investments soon turned John Blocher into one of Buffalo’s wealthiest citizens. Fittingly, he installed his family in an elegant residence on Delaware Street, Buffalo’s answer to Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue. The Blocher residence, of course, needed the usual compliment of servants. One young maid in particular, 20 year old Katherine, ultimately became the force behind the construction of the Blocher mausoleum. And herein lies the tale. It seems that Nelson Blocher either wasn’t inclined toward marriage or was inept at the social skills necessary to secure a bride. Not only was he still a bachelor at age 34, he was living at home. Nelson made frequent buying trips to Europe to purchase leather goods for the family business and art and furniture for the family home. But, when he returned to Buffalo, he was assigned to the rather mundane day to day duties of attending to the Blocher business. Then one day, in the spring of 1881, the Blochers hired a new maid. Katherine was 20 years old, pretty and unattached. Nelson was immediately smitten. He was attracted to her and made no attempt to hide it. During the spring and summer of 1881, Nelson found ways to be near Katherine and to spend time with her. There is reference to an injured kitten Nelson and Katherine nursed back to health. Some say that Katherine wasn’t particularly attracted to Nelson but encouraged and continued the flirtation to keep her job, while others say they fell in love. But, whatever the case, it’s clear that it simply wasn’t proper for a well bred man about town to consort with a lowly maid, no matter how charming she may be. Nelson’s parents did not approve of the romance and quickly made plans to put an end to it. In the fall of 1881, Nelson’s father John announced that there was business to be attended to in Europe and Nelson needed to make plans to leave for an extended trip. Clearly, Nelson’s father wanted to separate the couple and put an end to the romance. One story says that Nelson proposed marriage to Katherine on the eve of his departure to Europe, but Katherine said she needed time to think, while other accounts say that Nelson barely had time to say good-bye. Once again, the facts become muddy in the story. One account says that Katherine had second thoughts about marrying Nelson and took the opportunity presented by Nelson’s absence to take leave of her duties at the Blocher residence. But a more accepted account says that immediately after Nelson’s departure, the Blocher’s fired Katherine with a strict admonition never to return. What is clear, however, is that in the spring of 1882, when Nelson returned from his travels, Katherine was gone and nobody seemed to know where she went. Nelson’s parents said she had left in the middle of the night two weeks after he left for Europe leaving nothing behind but her bible. Whatever the reason for Katherine’s departure, Nelson was heartbroken. He couldn’t believe she had simply left. There must have been a reason and he was determined to find her and win her back. Throughout the remainder of 1882 he searched for her. And like the lovelorn for generations before him, he neglected his business and his health in pursuit of love. By the fall of 1883, Nelson was tired and wornout from his search. Broken in spirit and feverish, Nelson took to his bed. By early winter of 1884 he was drifting in and out of sickness and depression. Soon he became bedridden. His only solace was the bible Katherine had left behind Then on January 24th, 1884 Nelson’s time in this realm was over. He died with Katherine’s bible clutched to his breast. Nelson’s mother, Elizabeth, no doubt driven by a combination of love and guilt, immediately insisted that a suitable memorial be erected to her son. And John Blocher, would be the man to design it. At the time of Nelson’s death, John Blocher was semi-retired. He had taken up sculpting as a hobby and would use those skills in designing the Blocher monument. The spirit of the Blocher monument belongs to an architectural style all its own. The closest type of architecture that the Blocher mausoleum can be compared to, is the “follies” of 19th century Victorian architecture. A folly is defined by Penguin’s Dictionary of Architecture as “A costly, but useless structure built to satisfy the whim of some eccentric and thought to show his folly...” The story goes that John Blocher just couldn’t find a designer to correctly interpret his vision, so without any formal training in construction, he took it upon himself to design the mausoleum.. Perhaps Blocher’s design which looks more like an elaborate confection rather than a mausoleum, was simply ahead of its time. Nowadays, it would be easy to imagine a structure like the Blocher mausoleum gracing an avenue in a theme park like Disneyland. Blocher had two elements to design. The first design was for the exterior of the mausoleum and the other design was for statues of the Blocher family sealed behind glass in the mausoleum’s interior. He contracted with the firm of John McDonnell to cut and assemble the pieces of the mausoleum from quarries in Quincy, Massachusetts. Blocher ingeniously designed the mausoleum so that the entire structure could be built with only twenty stones; thus minimizing maintenance problems. The roof, which is frequently a maintenance nightmare in stone structures is formed by just one piece, a bell shaped affair, plus the cap stone. The bell was cut from a 90 ton slab of granite and whittled down to 29 tons. The bell is supported by five pilasters. The pieces of the mausoleum were hoisted into position by massive rigging equipment. All of the elements were precisely set in place. But as the ball, the tomb’s crowning glory, was being lowered into its nest at the top of the mausoleum, the timbering gave way and the ball came crashing down cracking the bell. A lawsuit ensued; the contractor claimed that Blocher’s design was at fault, resulting in an inherently weak structure and Blocher claimed that it was a simple case of negligence. Eventually Blocher prevailed and another bell was manufactured. The capstone was finally ever so gently lowered into place without incident. In the openings between the pilasters, Blocher specified four one inch thick panes of glass, which were manufactured in Paris and another one inch thick piece of glass with hidden hinges that serves as a door. Before the mausoleum was assembled, work had already begun on the statuary. For the statues on the inside of the mausoleum, Blocher commissioned one Paul Roche of Westerly, Rhode Island to come to Buffalo and carve the statues out of Carrara Marble.. Blocher designed a model of Nelson Blocher lying on a couch in plaster and instructed Roche to carve a life size replica. Roche carved away under John Blocher’s constant supervision, but Blocher was less than pleased with Roche’s carving skills. In fact, when Roche unveiled the finished product, Blocher took an axe to it and chopped it to pieces. After sending Roche packing, Blocher contracted with noted artist Swiss born, Italian sculptor, Frank Torrey in Carrara, Italy. Torrey wasn’t about to travel to Buffalo, so Blocher supplied the sculptor with photographs, models and measurements of Nelson, Elizabeth and himself. For close to three years, Torrey toiled away, chiseling and shaping the statues. They were finally completed in 1888 and shipped to Buffalo where they were installed in the mausoleum. The first resident of the mausoleum was Nelson, who had spent the years since his death in the cemetery’s receiving vault. Following him were his mother, Elizabeth Neff Blocher who died March 31, 1904 at age 78 years, 2 months, 24 days, of pneumonia and John Blocher, who died on June 30, 1911 at the age of 85 years, 11 months, 8 days. But where exactlt are the Blocher’s spending eternity? They are underneath a movable slab in the floor of the mausoleum. According to a Buffalo newspaper report published when the mausoleum was being built, there are six crypts. this led to a rumor that in the safe of the cemetery office there is a quit claim deed that states one of the other crypts is reserved for Margaret Katherine Sullivan—the maid. This story was responsible for romantic stories that although Nelson could not have her in life but he might have her in death. Alas, Forest Lawn mamagement tells us that there are only three crypts and Nelson never escaped his parents in life or in death. The whereabouts of the maid in unknown.