Enter the basement

of

Old Mission Mausoleum

Click any photo to enlarge

The south unit was build in 1920 with this beautiful entrance.








As you enter the door you are in a large foyer with two halls leading off to the left and right. Below this large hall is the basement.

Outside and behind this main hall is the opening to the basement, which is covered with a metal door.

Moving the metal door to one side reveals four steps down. At the bottom are two metal doors that are being held shut with a metal bar across them.

With the doors opened you are in a hallway that has nine crypts on each side of this entry way. As you can see, several of the crypts are occupied with just the cement plug in place, no marble shutter or name engraving.

I made some inquiries about who was located within these crypts and was told that when the first unit was being build and someone died, the relatives had them placed in this holding area until the upstairs area was completed. These few poor souls were never moved to their final resting place and no one has put the finished shutter with their name in place, they are just stuck in the basement for eternity. So sad!!


As you pass through the hall with the crypts you enter the large basement room. The original furnace that was used for heating the building is still there but not working now and the basement has become a collecting place for extra cement crypt plugs, a few tools, old lumber and some old publicity information, (that I have searched very carefully.)

Let's leave now and go back outside!!

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