This 30-foot-tall empty box, made of concrete slabs, was designed by big-deal architect Phillip Johnson, who called it an "open tomb." Visitors can walk through gaps in the walls and read an inscription to Kennedy on a block of granite in the enclosed courtyard. Johnson said that the design would provide visitors with a spot of quiet privacy, although it has never been popular. Dallas evidently felt guilty enough to provide a faux-grave for JFK, but didn't build it until over six years after his death and then skimped on the original marble walls and substituted the cheap concrete.
Still, you can stand inside and listen to your own echoed screams of "Why? Why?"
The Cenotaph reminded us of another, similar, "open tomb" that is much smaller and older, and that shelters an inhabitant far more obscure than JFK. Maybe Phillip Johnson saw it when he was growing up in Ohio?
