Modern-Day Pharaohs

Wilhelm’s Portland Memorial Funeral Home, Mausoleum, and Crematory has a burial room fit for a king.  The Rae Room, which is about 15’x15′, contains stained glass, wall-to-floor Italian marble, bronze doors, two massive sarcophagi, and a couple of wicker chairs.   The secrets behind this million-dollar resting place was uncovered by a curious visitor. 

The room was built over 60 years ago and is home to the bodies of George and Elizabeth Rae.  George Rae was the prosperous co-owner of a lumber mill in Oregon.  After his first wife died in a state mental hospital, he married his housekeeper Elizabeth, who was 26 years his junior.  Their union was a scandal, and the scandal only escalated upon George’s death. George’s daughter unsuccessfully attacked Elizabeth’s inheritance rights and her character, even alleging that Elizabeth was a prostitute.  It is said that Elizabeth built the room as a place to escape the scandal that surrounded her life with George. 

The room is open to the public once a year for about 90 minutes on Memorial Day.  For the rest of the year it remains largely un-bothered because only very distant relatives of the Raes remain.

For more information, pictures, and video see Tom Hallman, Jr., Secrets, scandal entombed in Portland funeral home, The Oregonian, May 22, 2009.