Richmonders call it The Birdcage: the James Monroe Tomb, burial place of U.S. President James Monroe in Hollywood Cemetery. Right here the principal feature is that architecturally unusual cast iron cage, designed by Albert Lybrock and installed in 1859 after Monroe’s body was moved from Marble Cemetery in New York City. Locally, Richmonders have long called it "The Birdcage.
Monroe’s remains rest inside a simple granite sarcophagus set on a granite plinth, but it is the elaborate Gothic Revival ironwork that draws the eye: a cage roughly 9 by 13 feet (2.7 by 4.0 meters) with lancet-arched faces like the tracery of Gothic stained glass and a rose-window pattern crowning each arch. On the long sides the main arch is flanked by narrower arches, and at the corners delicate colonettes rise to tabernacle-like structures, lending the whole a chapel-like silhouette. The tomb’s unique architecture earned it recognition as a National Historic Landmark in 1971.
The ironwork, the circular drive that frames the site, and the view overlooking the James River wait for your gaze.