Roger Williams Mausoleum

De Mortuis Nihil Nisi Bonum

            Apartment complexes may seem like a comfortable place to live. Some people enjoy being close to other people in an above ground building. Over 500 Rhode Islanders thought that a death apartment would be a pleasant and safe place for eternal rest. When purchasing a room, or in this case a sepulcher, one would expect the upkeep to be taken care of. The mausoleum at Oakland Cemetery in Rhode Island did not live up to these expectations. The Roger Williams Mausoleum fell into disrepair after the last owners died in 2002 without naming someone to take over or leaving any money for upkeep. As of 2007 the building became condemned leaving families to mourn behind a chain link fence.  In 2015 closure has finally come for some families. The families have the choice to remove their loved ones from this condemned death house and bring them to a more respectable place. Of course, this procedure comes at a price, $6000 to be precise.

            WPRI 12 had done a previous investigation in 2014 and it took a year until families were able to give their family members a respectable burial. The conditions inside the mausoleum were very unsafe, workers had to wear hazmat suits to protect them from asbestos and mold. The building was secured just long enough to remove about a dozen bodies. Eventually it will become to dangerous to continue removing the dead.

            My curiosity in this matter has left me searching for more information. I have not been able to find any information after 2015. The video is titled as “Finding Closure” yet with the little information I can find I feel the frustration of not having closure of my own. I am left with more questions than answers. Is the building still standing today? Have all the corpses been removed? I need answers. Finding any follow up articles has proven to be much harder than I expected.  I have messaged WPRI 12 on twitter asking for any follow ups, I have attempted to call Roger Williams Park.

            I am a person with little patience. Due to this fact I decided to find out for myself what happened to the mausoleum. I got into my car and drove to Oakland Cemetery to see if the building was still standing. The mausoleum is still standing but is crumbling and begging for someone to care for it. I did a walk around the building with a camera in my hand snapping shots of the exterior and signs warning that the building is condemned.  I did not expect to get more than some interesting shots of the buildings crumbling architecture but to my surprise I found something that filled me with adrenaline. My heart raced as I saw that a board covering a window had been removed.

            On the left side of the building someone had removed one of the wooden boards exposing a view of the interior. Inside I saw broken concrete and I saw a casket. My eyes opened wide and my heart jumped to my throat. This is the single most exhilarating moment I can remember. Nothing I have seen, nothing I have read can top this discovery. I have read many books on death and watched many videos, I have been to a wake and a funeral. This, this is much different. I was not expecting to make a find like this and that is what made it so powerful.

            This experience is indeed life-changing, mind opening, amazing. Watching the video about this building gave me feelings of sorrow, frustration and curiosity. These feelings led me to do some of my own investigating. These feelings led me to finding something amazing. I have never felt so alive.

            The deceased that reside here had no idea about the fate that lay ahead. Many choose a mausoleum as a final resting place because they do not want to be underground with the worms and bugs. I wonder if those who were interred here would have preferred burial among the bugs and the worms to what has become of this once beautiful death palace.

            After returning home I looked at one of the photos I took. On my computer screen I can see many more details than what I saw in person or on my camera screen. I did not travel inside the building for fear of getting caught, inhaling asbestos and or mold, and the possibility of the whole building collapsing. I went through the hole in the fence after attempting to get a good photo from there. It was too far away so I went closer and stood right in front of the entry and snapped a picture before hurrying off back to my car. Excitement filled me the entire way home.

    I want to do something to fix this issue. It has been nearly three years since the last story came out about this. Maybe they have been forgotten or have no family left. It is said that it only takes three generations to be disappear completely. I will not forget what I saw. I am not going to just let this go. I plan to go to the local news stations in hopes that something can finally be done to move the bodies into a more dignified eternal resting place.