The Belmont Building (Columbus, Ohio)

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  Kim Rintling (guest)

  The statement "The older sections of this building once housed a casket factory" is definitely an understatement: it housed the renown Belmont casket company (which had also a plant at Shadyside, Ohio) - originally famous for its lead-coated, corrosion-resistant steel caskets and later for having manufactured the luxury-casket in which Marilyn Monroe was buried: that was Belmont's 15 ga (or 48oz, i.e. extra strong, around 300 lbs heavy) solid bronze "Masterpiece" model with a hermetically sealing double lid. The design had been patented in 1957. Nevertheless, the Belmont company closed down in the 1980s, probably because too much expensive handcrafting was involved in its production process. The tooling machinery and the design of the "Masterpiece", known as the "Cadillac of caskets", eventually ended up with the VerPlank casket company of Iron City, Tennessee. The design underwent only very minor changes (concerning the handles, e.g.). Thus the "Masterpiece" shown in the company's online-catalog (see:: www . verplank. com ; look for: caskets - bronze) looks virtually the same as the silver-finished double lid "Masterpiece" chosen for Marilyn (of which unfortunately only black and white pictures are available); the only major difference is that the catalog picture shows a light-blue interior while that of Marilyn's casket was champagne colored. The wholesale price of the "Masterpiece" is said to be around 10.000 US $ today.

  11 years ago | reply | hide comment
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  Glenn S (guest)

  LBJ was buried in a Belmont Casket. I worked there in the mid 70's.

  10 years ago | reply | hide comment
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  Sarah L. (guest)

  I also worked there. I may have known you back then. I also remember George Thomas.

  10 years ago | reply | hide comment
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  Will (guest)

  Me, too! R. Olin Ross, George Thomas, Twila Tharp, Mr. Ferber...

  8 years ago | reply | hide comment