Portal of the Folded Wings Shrine to Aviation, Aviation memorial at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in Burbank, United States.
The Portal of the Folded Wings Shrine to Aviation is a 72-foot stone, Colorado yule white marble and reinforced-concrete rotunda at the former entrance to Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery, square in plan with 50-foot sides and four pillars. Its Spanish Colonial Revival design carries Churrigueresque cast-stone carving by Federico Augustino Giorgi, and a mosaic-tiled cupola in blue, gold and red crowns the arch.
Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery was founded in 1923 by John B. Osborne and C.C. Fitzpatrick, and architect Kenneth A. MacDonald Jr. built the arched rotunda as its entrance the next year, with cast stone carving by Federico Augustino Giorgi. It was dedicated on March 1, 1925, cost over $140,000, and hosted Sunday afternoon opera concerts through the 1920s and 1930s. A new cemetery entrance opened in 1950, and on December 17, 1953, the 50th anniversary of powered flight, the structure was dedicated as an aviation shrine after two decades of work by enthusiast James Gillette.
Fifteen aviation pioneers are interred beneath the rotunda, among them Charles Edward Taylor, who built the engine for the Wright brothers' first flight, and Matilde Moisant, the second licensed woman pilot in the United States. Jimmie Angel, discoverer of Angel Falls, was first buried here; his ashes were later removed and scattered over the falls. The shrine is administered by the Brookins–Lahm–Wright Aeronautical Foundation.
The rotunda stands at the old Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery entrance in North Hollywood, near Burbank Airport; a new cemetery entrance opened elsewhere in 1950, so approach from the original gateway side. The interior was converted into an aviation museum, and the structure is aligned with the cardinal directions, each of its four sides identical apart from signage.
Fifteen aviation pioneers are interred here, including Jimmie Angel, discoverer of Angel Falls, whose ashes were later removed and scattered over the falls. John Bevins Moisant won the 1910 Statue of Liberty race, and Charles Edward Taylor built the engine for the Wright brothers' first flight.
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