I must have walked by the Collis Potter Huntington mausoleum, thinking it was just another neo-classical structure (I’m pretty much of the mind that once you’ve seen one you’ve see them all). I later discovered that it has a pretty impressive bronze door of a standing woman created by Herbert Adams in 1932.

However, I didn’t miss the delightful piece above, a cenotaph (i.e. a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere) commemorating Arabella Huntington. According to Find a Grave, she’s actually buried in a rather impressive mausoleum in Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, Los Angeles County, California, USA ). According to Wikipedia:

Arabella Yarrington “Belle” Huntington (c.1851–1924) was the second wife of American railway tycoon and industrialist Collis P. Huntington, and then the second wife of Henry E. Huntington. She was once known as the richest woman in America, and as the force behind the art collection that is housed at the Huntington Library.

…

Arabella Huntington was the second wife of Collis P. Huntington. After his death, she married his nephew Henry E. Huntington, who was also a railway magnate and the founder of the famous Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, in San Marino, California. She had a son, Archer Milton Huntington.

Compared to her famous family, information about Arabella is scarce. She was apparently born in 1850 or 1851, probably in Richmond, Virginia…However, in the 1921 passenger list for the ship Aquitania, sailing from Cherbourg to New York, Arabella identified herself as being born in Mobile, Alabama on February 9, 1851. Her first husband was a Mr. Worsham, of New York, who died shortly after they were married, leaving her with a young son, named Archer (some other sources have suggested that they were not actually married, but that she was his mistress). (It has also been suggested that Archer’s father was actually Collis Huntington, who legally adopted the boy when he was a teenager.). In 1877 she was able to purchase some property in New York, which was later sold to John D. Rockefeller. She married Collis Huntington in 1884, in San Francisco, California, and was left a widow a second time when he died in 1900. Following Collis’ death in 1900, Arabella continued to spend lavishly—on homes, furnishings, jewelry, and art. She also gave generously to the Hampton Institute, Tuskegee Institute, Harvard University.

The inscription reads “Madre. Alas, we know your deeds, your words make warm the memory of our loss so, in the night we dreaming find the dark in starlight’s spell and know that from your eyes the starlight fell”.

According to the Woodlawn Conservancy website the cenotaph is:

…a work of art depicting an older woman transferring the fruits of a bountiful life to the couple protected by her outstretched arms. The monument is filled with the symbols found in a cemetery; a lamp with an eternal flame, volumes of books illustrating diving knowledge, and a dial showing the passing of time.

The sculpture is by Anna Hyatt Huntington (Arabella’s daughter-in-law), who also created one of my favorite local sculptures: that of Sybil Ludington in nearby Carmel, NY (see first picture in: In and around Carmel, NY). She is buried in the Collis Potter Huntington mausoleum.

Closer view.