Laurel Hill Cemetery
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Laurel Hill Cemetery
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William Warner memorial sculpted by Alexander Milne Calder
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| Location | 3822 Ridge Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
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| Coordinates | 40°00′14″N 75°11′15″W / 40.00389°N 75.18750°WCoordinates: 40°00′14″N 75°11′15″W / 40.00389°N 75.18750°W |
| Built | 1836-1839 |
| Architect | John Notman |
| Architectural style | Exotic Revival, Gothic, Classical Revival |
| NRHP Reference # | 77001185 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | October 28, 1977 |
| Designated PHMC | May 20, 2000 |
Laurel Hill Cemetery is a cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that was the second major garden or rural cemetery in the United States. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1998, one of only a few cemeteries to receive the distinction.
Located in Philadelphia's East Falls section, the 74-acre (300,000 m2) cemetery overlooks the Schuylkill River. Laurel Hill contains more than 33,000 monuments and more than 11,000 family lots. Its thousands of 19th- and 20th-century marble and granite funerary monuments include obelisks and elaborately sculpted hillside tombs and mausoleums.
The cemetery was founded in 1836 by John Jay Smith, a librarian and editor with interests in horticulture and real estate who was distressed at the way his deceased daughter was interred in a Philadelphia churchyard. He and other prominent citizens decided to create a rural garden cemetery five miles north of Philadelphia, a location that was viewed as a haven from urban expansion and a respite from the increasingly industrialized city center. The property was acquired from businessman Joseph Sims.
Designed by Scottish-American architect John Notman, Laurel Hill introduced new landscape ideas and burial concepts and became a model for the rural cemetery movement. The cemetery was developed and completed between 1836 and 1839. To increase its cachet, the cemetery's organizers had the remains of several famous Revolutionary War figures moved there, including Continental Congress secretary Charles Thomson; Declaration of Independence signer Thomas McKean; Philadelphia war veteran and shipbuilder Jehu Eyre; Hugh Mercer, hero of the Battle of Princeton; and David Rittenhouse, first director of the U.S. Mint.
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