Portland Memorial Mausoleum

 

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kate m.

Portland, OR

The Mausoleum is now closed to the public.  It may be really cool inside (I'll never know), but you're not getting in unless you've got family on the inside or it's "tour day."  Too bad, cause I was REALLY excited to check it out.  Anyone have a family member they'd like to lend me?

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Cedric J.

Portland, OR

This is one of my favourite places in Portland. A friend of mine showed me through its depths about 2 years ago; in May of 2007, I led a tour of out-of-town goths through the place on Memorial day.  This place is a treasure of history; the lower floors are in a perfect state of decay and are absolutely gorgeous.  I'm hoping it opens up to the public again--people seemed to be fairly respectful of it.  It should be a public space it is so cool... maybe we can lobby the City to help with maintenance and make it a semi-public park?

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chelsea g.

Portland, OR

This place is beautiful and amazing. It's one of my favorite things about Portland.  I know a lot of people like to check it out because it's "spooky" or whatever, but I think it's really important to be reverent of the place.  You should whisper, and tiptoe. Unfortunately not enough people feel this way, because it's closed to gawkers now. It's a real bummer, but I understand. I went there today and lied about having family buried there in order to get in, and felt so guilty about lying I couldn't really enjoy it. I don't know if I could do that again, even though I have some of the names on the graves memorized and could get away with it if I wanted to.

Anyway, if you do manage to gain entry, be sure to check out the statues, bizarre grave emblems, stained glass, 100 year old furniture, the basement, the view from the upper floors spanning Oaks Bottom and the amusement park, everything. Try to get into the crazy Art Nouveau tiled rooms underneath the chapel that are themed for different flowers. In some of the wings you can hear faint distant screaming from the roller coaster echoing off the marble.  Extra points if you find the resting place of  Fairy Jane and her husband Denver, my favorite people there.

I was so bereft after my visit I decided to drown my sorrows in alcoholic energy drinks from the convenience store. I found one called CORE that tastes EXACTLY like this place smells. If you're ever feeling nostalgic, put a hardcore Shriners medallion on your chest, stuff your ears with cotton, lay down on an ancient marble floor, and crack open one of these. It's as close to the experience as you'll ever get.

(In case you're wondering why this review is so awesome, I just drank two of them.)

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courtney g.

Portland, OR

Awesome, awesome place!! But that smell. Oh Gawd, it still lingers a year after I toured the facility.

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PDX N.

Portland, OR

The Necropolis.

Absolutely incredible place.  My friend and I liked it so much we spent a recent lazy Sunday creating a really cool "treasure hunt" inside here.

For those who would like to (re)visit this place with a ready-made adventure to go on, please check out details at the site we created for it:
http://www.pdxnecropol...

(Non-commercial / free - just for the fun of it.)
(Not a kiddie hunt - grownup level of effort required, but not arduous!)

Our hunt is designed to take the visitor to all of the coolest nooks and crannies in this place.  It's like a fun guided tour with a payoff at the end.  Have a great time!

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Elite '08

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Mark S.

Portland, OR

First of all, thanks to fellow Yelpers Kelly M. and Christen M. for their excellent reviews that motivated us to come take a look!

The mausoleum is an amazing place!  It's old, it's got serious vibe.  

Down in the lower levels, you really get a sense of time gone by.  You'll often see messages left for the dead, left behind on cards, attached to the marker.  We saw people like us who were just curious. We also saw family members, visiting their late relatives. So this is very much like visiting an indoor cemetary.

However, it does seem more spooky.

I am haunted now by my memory of earlier this afternoon when I noticed an old woman watching me as I took these very photos of the mausoleum grave markers!  Don't forget to see the photos.

We had to take an outside stairway down from the 2nd floor to the 1st.  The upper floors are more modern looking.  Don't miss the great views of Oaks Bottom park and Oaks Amusement Park off in the distance!

I strongly recommend that you come take a look... Already I am dieing to come back...  

Make sure you're out before closing time!

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Kelly M.

Portland, OR

Above the Japanese Garden, the Chinese Garden, the Art Museum, and the Zoo, The Portland Memorial Mausoleum is my favorite attraction, even though it may be sacrilegious to think of it as such.  The Mausoleum is a huge complex comprising eight floors built into the side of a bluff that overlooks Oaks Bottom swamplands and the Ferris wheel at Oaks Park and is the resting place for thousands of dead bodies from the late eighteen hundreds to the present.  

From the street, you will walk by the funeral home (don't make the mistake I did and accidentally interrupt a funeral in progress) and enter the mausoleum at ground level, which is also the fifth floor.  Begin walking north along the long hallway and you will immediately be struck by the quiet and the cold.  The fifth floor and the three above it are all well-kept, clean and site for those deceased within the last fifty years or so.  Unless you have all day to spend, don't bother with the upper floors, and start heading down the stairs (notice the nuclear fallout signs in the stairwells).  

With each floor heading deeper into the ground the mausoleum becomes darker, damper, and creepier.  Although they have replaced much of the carpet within the past six months, there is still significant water damage at the lower levels that add to the dankness.  There is a quote carved in marble on the walls of one of the mezzanines that alludes to the presence of ghosts--something along the lines of "This is the trysting place between the seen and the unseen, life and death."  

Explore all the nooks and crannies of the lower floors and rest for a moment on one of the many vintage couches to enjoy the silence.  After exploring the depths, return to the fourth floor.  At the south end of the mausoleum near the oldest elevator (picture the kind where you pull a spring-hinged metal gate) you'll notice a white-tiled corridor in the corner which leads to an additional part of the mausoleum, even older than the rest.  Take your first left and head up the stairs to the flower rooms - the Violet and Lilac chambers, among others.  These rooms are among the most photogenic and are packed with old urns from the late eighteen hundreds resting on satin.  

After you've gotten your fill, be sure to find your way out before 4 pm when they lock the doors.  I wouldn't want to be stuck in here at night.

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Christen M.

Portland, OR

The Portland Memorial is a funeral home and mausoleum. And the mausoleum is huge: 3.5 acres. It houses more than 58,000 bodies and has room for another 120,000.

The mausoleum was started in 1901, melds a variety of architectural styles (Victorian, art deco, etc.) and contains floor after floor and wing after wing of strange, spiraling architecture, Portland history (many pioneer families are entombed here). It's a fine place to marvel at history, at the variety of ways in which people choose to memorialize their lost loved ones, or just to chill -- literally.

The mausoleum is kept at chilly, refrigerator-like temperatures. I came here in the middle of winter, but if you're the kind of person who thinks an afternoon stroll among the dead might be fun, I highly recommend coming here on a midsummer afternoon, when the heat of the city gets to be too much for you.

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