Syracuse High Points 7: Longstreet Pyramid in Oakwood Cemetery

Syracuse, NY. Oakwood Cemetery. Longstreet Mausoleum. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2020.

Syracuse, NY. Oakwood Cemetery. Longstreet Mausoleum. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2020.

Syracuse, NY. Oakwood Cemetery. Longstreet Mausoleum. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2020.

Syracuse High Points 7: Longstreet Pyramid in Oakwood Cemetery 

Luna and I recently spent a good part of the day in Oakwood Cemetery. We wandered the paths, looked for the new tree trail, and traversed the uneven terrain of the oldest sections. Does Oakwood Cemetery qualify as a Syracuse High Point? Historically and aesthetically - absolutely! This National Register of Historic Places-listed landscape is a museum of architecture, sculpture, and nature.

Height is a relative concept. Certainly some parts of Oakwood are much higher than others and we climbed a lot of hills. I'll focus on our ascent to the Longstreet Pyramid. It certainly seemed high, climbing up the grassy slope from Dedication Valley - and no one can contest that the architecture comes to a point (surmounted by a cross). Thus, it IS a Syracuse High Point in every respect.

The pyramid is beautifully constructed, and the massive perfectly cut limestone blocks of the lower courses are beautiful in their simple power. This is a true mausoleum, with a full sitting room inside (once elegantly furnished) with one wall of tombs of Longstreet family and friends. We have a view of this in a rare photograph published in 1894 in a book about Oakwood Cemetery, Picturesque Oakwood: its Past and Present Associations, edited by Mrs. Annie C. Maltbie (you can read or download the full book here). Did the Longstreets see themselves as modern-day pharaohs? Or perhaps they made an association with the Protestant Cemetery in Rome where Keats and Shelley are buried, and the ancient pyramid of Cestius abuts the cemetery. There is good amount of poetry about Oakwood in the Romantic tradition.

Syracuse, NY. Oakwood Cemetery. Longstreet Mausoleum. Photo:
Picturesque Oakwood: its Past and Present Associations

The mausoleum was built between 1875 and 1880 for Cornelius Tyler Longstreet and his family, including ancestors, replaced an earlier Gothic Revival family mausoleum. Longstreet was a descendant of Comfort Tyler (1764 -1827), one of the first white settlers of what would become Syracuse. You can read about Comfort Tyler here. His life was mix of success and disgrace, but in Syracuse he was held in high regard, especially in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when the pioneering and engineering spirit was held in greatest esteem. The young Tyler and his family came in 1788 to what would soon be known as  Onondaga Hollow on the future Seneca Turnpike, joining Asa Danforth and Ephraim Webster. Tyler, who was a surveyor and engineer, built a house in Onondaga Hollow and actively engaged in developments to further white settlement. After an eventful life, Tyler was buried in Montezuma, from where Longstreet moved his grandparents remains to this new family resting place.

Maltbie wrote about the inside of the pyramid:

“There is an exquisite vailed statue that chains the beholder’s attention with its delicate beauty. There are also many tablets within this tomb. First to the memory of C. Tyler Longsteet and him immediate family; to the memory of Comfort Tyler and his wife; To Cornelius Longstreet and Deborah his wife; to Mrs. Ann M. Treadwell Redfield, the mother of Mrs. Longstreet; to James Longstreet, his brother; to Jonathan C. chase, a valued friend who is still living in this city; and one to Henry Davis, Jr., a dearly-loved relative and friend who died in Graefenberg, Silesia in Austria, September 1844. He was a member of the Bar of this city, splendidly educated, highly respected in his profession and in the community. He was considered one of the most elegant men of day and time. There begin no monument to his memory in this cemetery, this tribute of respect has been offered that he may be remembered with the friends who loved him and who now rest in Oakwood.”

Syracuse, NY. Oakwood Cemetery. Longstreet Mausoleum. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2008.

Comfort Tyler as represented in Annie C. Maltbie,
Picturesque Oakwood : its past and present associations (1894).

Syracuse, NY. Oakwood Cemetery. View from Longstreet Mausoleum. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2020.

Syracuse, NY. Oakwood Cemetery. Longstreet Mausoleum. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2020.

Syracuse, NY. Oakwood Cemetery. Longstreet Mausoleum. ESF students having a picnic lunch. don't worry, they'll clean up their mess!  Photo: Samuel Gruber 2020.

 

 

Syracuse, NY. Oakwood Cemetery. Longstreet Mausoleum. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2020.

 

There are hundreds of other beautiful and curious monuments throughout Oakwood Cemetery. During this period of COVID-19 semi-lockdown, I can think of no Syracuse locale more beautiful in which safely to stroll. You can learn more and help protect and preserve it landscape and monuments by supporting the Historic Oakwood Cemetery Preservation Association. If you have never particiapted in any of the HOCPA walking tours - it is never too late to start. We all hope they will begin again in the spring of 2021. 

I just renewed my membership - you should join, too!