- It was commissioned by a doctor s wife, Dr. Pettit.
And that's where it got its name.
She commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright
to design a chapel that would fit in this location.
Her husband is buried
just a few feet to the north of the building.
There was a few burials on this exact location.
And she got agreements with the families
to move the internments that were here
so she could have the building built.
Over the years there's been restoration in kind of spurts.
The building went through a period of neglect.
And there wasn't the interest in this style
so much at the time.
For a while it kind of died out.
And then when it came back,
there was a women's group that got involved.
They put the money together.
And then they also got contractors to come in.
And they literally restored the building from the basement up.
Just recently we had the entire outside of the building,
the stuccos all been repaired to like brand new.
And then repainted to give it the appearance it has today.
And the windows behind here,
they were all restored about eight years ago
by a local person.
And they took the windows apart and reconstructed them,
painted them and then put them back together.
There's specific guidelines that you have to follow
and material replacements
have to meet the standards of when the building was built.
Even the colors are maintained in the original coloring.
And our selection of furniture that goes with this style.
It's typical of what Wright may have designed for this building.
In fact, we have two chairs that are from his design
that were constructed new.
This is a great style.
It's very popular today throughout the country.
It's a great place to visit.
It's a beautiful cemetery
with acres and acres of interesting artifacts
and headstones for people that enjoy researching.
This is a great place to do it.
It's the oldest cemetery in our county and it's a gem.