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Webb Mausoleum Woodlawn Cemetery Bronx, New York The Webb mausoleum is one of those structures that defy coherent explanation. Viewing the bottom half of the structure, one could make a good case for classical revival. Its doubled Corinthian columns, the carvings above the door, and the door itself could have come straight from a Roman temple. But from the column capitals on up the mausoleum begins to look quite different, like some sort of exotic confection rather than architecture. The odd looking dome, which seems to be melting and dripping over the edges, can be found on a number of mausolea throughout the country. Perhaps one of the mausoleum manufacturers had a particularly zealous salesman adept at convincing his clients to purchase this dome as an “out of the ordinary” statement. Its not hard to imagine this mausoleum appearing in the pages of Alice in Wonderland. All it needs is a rabbit with a watch and a Cheshire cat. William Webb (1816-1899) was a master shipbuilder, whose clipper ships set speed records that still stand. So swift were his ships that one advertisement proclaimed, “Flying Craft for San Francisco, Now Up” In 1853 he launched his last clipper ship, Young America, his personal favorite, saying to the mate, “Take good care of her mister, because after she’s gone there will be no more like her.” She later set a Liverpool to San Francisco speed record for sail. Fittingly, she did not end her life as a broken down vessel sold for scrap, rather, Young America was lost at sea in 1886. Webb was realistic and saw steam and steel replacing sail and wood. To that end, he used a considerable amount of his fortune to endow the Institute of Naval Architecture.