Cemetery to seek permit after complaint about Ben Bradlee mausoleum

[October 23, 2015]  By John Clarke
 
 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The cemetery housing the mausoleum of longtime Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee has agreed to comply with city regulations after coming under fire for lacking the required permits to build the memorial there, officials said on Thursday.

The tomb recently erected just inside the entrance to historic Oak Hill Cemetery, in the upscale Washington neighborhood of Georgetown, attracted scrutiny after a complaint was filed, according to a spokesman for the city's Consumer and Regulatory Affairs Department.

Building permits are rarely required at a cemetery, the spokesman, Matt Orlins, said.

Critics of the structure say the white-stone mausoleum, featuring four columns and Bradlee's name inscribed above the entrance, has permanently altered the landscape and obstructed views unchanged since the 1800s.The agency decided on Wednesday the Bradlee family now needed a permit for the mausoleum, Orlins said.

"We will comply with what the city has asked," cemetery superintendent Dave Jackson said on Thursday.

Under city regulations, building inspectors would presumably determine once the permit is obtained whether the structure is up to code or needs to be altered.

Bradlee died a year ago at age 93. As executive editor of the Post from 1968 until 1991, he became one of the most important figures in Washington while transforming the newspaper from a staid morning daily into one of the most respected news publications in the United States.

Under his tenure, the Post won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the Watergate scandal, which led to the 1974 resignation of President Richard Nixon. He also presided over the Post's decision, with the New York Times, to publish stories based on the Pentagon Papers, a secret government account of Vietnam War decisions, despite heavy legal pressure.

(Editing by Steve Gorman and Peter Cooney)

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