Glidden Memorial Chapel

Daniel and Josephine Glidden moved to Sioux Falls, South Dakota in 1878 making them part of the beginning of the city's history.  The couple had only been married for seven years when they became pioneers to the area, and they would end up spending the rest of their years together here with Daniel dying in 1920 and Josephine in 1921.  

In life they were strong members of the community belonging to many organizations and had a hand in the beginning of the public library in Sioux Falls. In death their achievements didn’t end. Located within the gates of Mt Pleasant Cemetery is an eye catching quartzite building that looks like a small scale version of a lot of the other quartzite buildings in Sioux Falls. Josephine Glidden left a bequest of $13,000 to build a chapel and receiving vault in 1921.  

Plans and artist renderings of the chapel were shared within a few months, but it would take several years to get the 22 feet by 42 feet Glidden Memorial Chapel built due to access to the money that had been left for the chapel.  

Late December of 1924 the first body is held in the receiving vault as the ground was too frozen to dig a grave. As you can imagine this receiving vault would get a lot of use because we can have such cold winters.  

For several decades this chapel is well used and maintained. Eventually though it does fall into disrepair and even starts to be used as a maintenance shed. There has been talk in the past of tearing the building down due to several structural issues which is why Mt. Pleasant Cemetery is raising funds to restore the chapel.