Squabble Over Ben Bradlee's Resting Place at Georgetown Cemetery: Report

PHOTO: Oak Hill Cemetery from Web site

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WASHINGTON, DC -- Is there trouble brewing at the Oak Hill Cemetery in Georgetown? According to Washingtonian magazine, the mausoleum built for legendary Washington Post executive editor Ben Bradlee did not go through proper architectural planning channels.

The mausoleum sits in a prominent spot, just inside the gates of the historic cemetery at 3001 R St. NW.

“You go through the gates now and ‘Bradlee’ reads like a billboard,” Charles A. Birnbaum of the Cultural Landscape Foundation, which advocates for historic outdoor spaces, told the magazine. “That’s a major impact on the arrival experience at Washington’s most historic rural cemetery.”

But Dave Jackson, superintendent for Oak Hill Cemetery, told CityLab in October that there isn’t any formal approval or permitting process for building new mausoleums.

CityLab reports that Thomas Luebke, secretary for the U.S. Commission on Fine Arts, says that funerary elements would only fall under its jurisdiction if the D.C. government referred a building permit to the commission.

On Wednesday, Oct. 21, the District of Columbia’s Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs determined that a building permit is required, the Cultural Landscape Foundation reported; that means various regulatory agencies including the D.C. Historic Preservation Review Board and the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts would now be able to determine whether the new mausoleum is appropriate and any remediation that might be required.

Further snarling the issue: Stephen Muse, an architect and member of the Old Georgetown Board, the body entrusted with design review in Georgetown, designed the Bradlee mausoleum.

It appears that all involved parties are trying to resolve the issue. “At this point,” Matt Orlins, DCRA’s legislative-and-public-affairs director told Washingtonian, “the property owner and DCRA’s general counsel’s office are meeting to try and resolve the remaining questions.”

The Oak Hill Cemetery was created by William W. Corcoran, also founder of the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, in 1848.