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Merritt Mausoleum Mountain View Cemetery Oakland, California The Merritt mausoleum is perched at the very top of Millionaires Row in Mountain View Cemetery. The mausoleum is an unconventional temple form. It would have been considered a daring and high-style expression of personal individuality. There is an interesting play of smooth and rough masonry accented with delicately sculpted Romanesque ornament. Dr. Samuel Merritt was one of the early residents and promoters of Oakland, California—among other things a lake, a hospital and a college are today named after him. He served as mayor of Oakland in 1868, was a Regent of the University of California and a founder of the Oakland Savings Bank and the California Insurance Company. Trained as a physician, he apparently didn’t look after his own health too well. The 340 pound Merritt died in 1890, of diabetes, complicated by uremic poisoning.