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A Striking Mausoleum for Texas' Enterprising Giant

May 18, 2001

When the man recognized to be the founder of the modern day convenience store died in his sleep a year and a half ago, his wife wondered how he could be memorialized.

LeRoy Melcher was an enterprising giant who revolutionized the food brokerage business, transforming grocery outlets into convenience stores that offered hurried consumers with household items and prepared meals. The Texas native acquired the UtoteM Food Store chain when it had only 10 outlets in 1953 and expanded the operation to more than 1,000 locations across 13 states. In the process, he helped facilitate the "to-go" consumer behavior of mobile and busy Americans today. Melcher's business acumen was later exceeded by his philanthropy. He made contributions totaling more then $8 million to the University of Houston, his alma mater.

So what did Melcher's wife, Lucile, do to memorialize a larger-than-life achiever whose legacy is already stamped on our buying habits and on some of America's leading educational institutions? She decided on an 18thcentury French rococo granite mausoleum that was designed according to her express wishes.

The stylistic specifications and touches of the Melcher mausoleum in Houston's Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery are a rarity among today's designs. "You just don't see this type of thing nowadays," says Mark Barthelemy, who designed the whole structure. "The skill and precision required in forming and fitting together cut and polished slabs of granite with this type of refined but ornate design can't be found elsewhere."

Adds Duane LaFollette, general manager of Park Lawndale Cemetery, "The intricacy of the design was achieved after Mark came down here (Houston) to go over all the details with the Melcher family."

Barthelemy, a fourth generation private estates designer of Cold Spring Granite, one of the largest memorialization firms and quarriers in the U.S., says he is the last of the line. "My father taught me the art of designing mausoleums. He learned it from my grandfather, who learned it from my great-grandfather, who was a master stone craftsman from Germany."

About the size of a modest house, the mausoleum features a half-gable roof with circular molding in a triangular pediment that is supported by two Corinthian columns with ornate engravings on the capital (top) portions of the pillars.

The structure faces a walkway surrounded by granite benches, a sculpted granite book etched with designs of Melcher's professional affiliations, such as the University of Houston, and a marble statue of a weeping angel. Sinuous French curves are molded around the mausoleum, which has a base with ornate balustrades and a customized vestibule inside. On the sides are arched stained glass and open windows.

Massive slabs of Carnelian and Azalea granite, respectively from South Dakota and Texas, weighing a total of 82.5 tons, had to be fitted within one-sixteenth of an inch of each other. Color-coordinating the laterite of the Carnelian with the darker red Azalea was one of the most satisfying achievements for Barthelemy, who says he designs about 70 percent of mausoleums made in the United States.

It took Cold Spring eight months to fabricate the mausoleum, which will be standing for a very long time. Made of molten rock from the earth's core, cooled and solidified under great pressure for millions of years, granite is the hardest of all natural stones after the diamond.

After many visits, Lucile noticed that family members paying respects to their late children in an adjacent plot had no place to sit except on the ground. She commissioned the cemetery and Cold Spring to create "a place to go and reflect". The redeveloped section, the Garden of the Innocents Plaza, has granite walkways, benches and sculptures, including a 7-foot-3-inch Good Shepherd. LeRoy would have been proud.

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For an electronic photo of the Melcher mausoleum, contact Linda Mathiasen at lmathiasen@coldspringgranite.com.