I had my doubts as to whether or not I could identify this photo because it offered no clues, aside from the fact that the image was taken in a cemetery. Fortunately, Google Image Search was very kind to me and included one correct hit amongst a sea of bad results.

I was able to preliminarily identify my image as an 1879 mausoleum located at the Maple Grove Cemetery in Ravenna, Ohio. The Victorian Gothic structure had been photographed by Ian Adams and featured in a book titled This Place of Silence: Ohio’s Cemeteries and Burial Grounds. (Photo Credit: Ian Adams Photography)

This photo shows a rear view of the vault which allowed me to compare more intricate details to help me validate the location. (Photo Credit: Flickr, Dave drei88)

An antique postcard identified this as the cemetery’s Receiving Vault, a place where caskets were temporarily stored over the winter months when the ground was too hard for burials. The postcard shows the same fountain in my image, as well as a second fountain further to the right. Both fountains have long since disappeared. (Photo Credit: Measure Treasure, eBay).

I’ll end this story with a final view of this magnificent, stone vault. (Photo Credit: Priscilla Calanni, Pinterest)