A crypt is a stone
chamber that is sometimes buried under a floor of a church or other building…it
usually contains coffins, sarcophagi, or perhaps even some religious relics…
sometimes churches would be built high enough so that they could accommodate a
crypt at the ground level…in more modern terms, a crypt is most often a stone
chambered burial vault, which is used to store the dearly deceased…crypts are
usually found in public cemeteries, but are sometimes located on personal
property…such as on the Ringling Estate in Sarasota, Florida…though John and
his wife Mabel Ringling aren’t in it for a variety of reasons…these wealthy
families will often have what is termed a 'family crypt' in which all members
of the family are interred…Abraham Lincoln’s immediate family has one in
Springfield, Illinois…in this crypt, only Robert Todd Lincoln is buried
elsewhere…some say as punishment for having his mother Mary Todd Lincoln
committed to a mental asylum…he did however find a resting place at Arlington
National Cemetery…in some places, an above ground crypt is more commonly known
as a mausoleum…which also refers to any elaborate building intended as a burial
place, for just one or many people…often on family estates, crypts are place at a
corner of the grounds…this tends to be problematic for anyone buying the property
as the house deeds may prohibit the crypt to be destroyed and re-developed…making
for an unusual problem for real estate buyers…sometimes abandoned crypts in old
cemeteries which can be creepy enough on their own, make resting places for recent
murder victims whom the perpetrators wish to hide from authorities.
