Green Mount Cemetery

Green Mount Cemetery was one of the earliest rural or garden cemeteries in the United States. Samuel Walker, a Baltimore tobacco merchant, led the campaign to establish the Cemetery after visiting Mount Auburn Cemetery in 1834. After a successful campaign, Walker, and a group of gentlemen drew up the plans for a public cemetery. The site they chose was the country estate of the late merchant Robert Oliver. Oliver’s estate, known as “Green Mount”, was a hilly location at the then northern boundary of the city of Baltimore. During his life, Mr. Oliver spared no expense in beautifying his estate, and aided by its natural advantages, he left it, at his death, a picturesque and highly ornamented locale. The Proprietors of Green Mount Cemetery purchased about sixty acres from the heirs of Robert Oliver and Green Mount Cemetery was officially established by an act of the General Assembly of Maryland on March 15, 1838. Benjamin Latrobe, a civil engineer with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, laid out the early design of the Cemetery. His efforts produced a place for reflection with shady avenues and beautiful gardens. Green Mount Cemetery was officially dedicated on July 13, 1839. Those involved with the service included the Reverend William Wyatt, Congressman John Pendleton Kennedy, and the Reverend J.G. Hamner. Special hymns were written for the occasion by Frances H. Davidge, Esq. and J.H.B. Latrobe, Esq. The Musical Association of Baltimore sung a chorale from the Oratorio of St. Paul by Felix Mendelssohn. The first person laid to rest in these hallowed grounds was two year old Olivia Cushing Whitridge. Since that time, Green Mount has become the final resting place of more than 65,000 individuals. Many have had a profound influence on our Nation’s History. Within the walls of the Cemetery you will find Statesmen, Captains of Industry, Philanthropists, Artists, Authors, Military Leaders, and even a Presidential Assassin and his Co-conspirators. The Cemetery was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Special! John Wilkes Booth Exhumation Trial & Commentary Watch: Author Frank Gorman with Civil War Round Table

Officially dedicated on July 13, 1839 and born out of the garden cemetery movement, Green Mount Cemetery is one of the first garden cemeteries created in the United States. After seeing the beautiful Mount Auburn Cemetery in Connecticut in 1834, Samuel Walker, a tobacco merchant, led a campaign to establish a similar site in Baltimore. During a time in which overcrowded church cemeteries created health risks in urban areas, Walker's successfully garnered support and commissioned plans from architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe, II to establish the Green Mount Cemetery on sixty acres of the late merchant Robert Oliver's estate. Walking into Green Mount Cemetery, the first thing visitors notice is the imposing Entrance Gateway designed by Robert Cary Long, Jr. An example of the Gothic style, the gateway features two towers reaching forty feet and beautiful stained glass windows. The haunting chapel, designed by John Rudolph Niernsee and James Crawford Neilson, is made of Connecticut sandstone and features flying buttresses and an impressive 102 foot spire. Green Mount Cemetery is famously known as the resting place of a large number of prominent historical figures ranging from John Wilkes Booth, to local philanthropists Johns Hopkins and Enoch Pratt. The graves and sculptures that scatter the cemetery make Green Mount Cemetery a treasury of nineteenth century art. William Henry Rinehart, considered the last important American sculptor to work in the classical style, had many commissions at Green Mount, and is credited with some of the cemeteries most awe-inspiring pieces. Commissioned by Henry Walters for the grave of his wife, Ellen Walters, Rinehart's "Love Reconciled as Death" depicts a classical Grecian woman cast in bronze strewing flowers. Poetically resting on Rinehart's own grave is his bronze statue of Endymion: the beautiful young shepherd boy who Zeus granted both eternal youth and eternal sleep. Perhaps the most striking sculpture in the Green Mount Cemetery is the Riggs Memorial, created by Hans Schuler. Schuler was the first American sculptor to win the Salon Gold Medal in Paris, and his mastery shows in the Riggs Monument depicting a grieving woman slouched over a loved one's grave, holding a wreath in one hand and a drooping flower in the other. The large Gothic gatehouse for Green Mount Cemetery is a well-known landmark on Greenmount Avenue. Source: Baltimore Heritage Date: 2017 June 26 E. Sachse & Co.'s bird's eye view of the Green Mount Cemetery (1869) Drawing taken from the large and comprehensive E. Sachse & Co.'s bird's eye view of the city, this perspective map shows Green Mount Cemetery in 1869 (not drawn to scale). Source: Library of Congress Geography and Map Division, g3844b pm002540 Date: 1869 "Memory," which graces the Riggs Memorial of 1911, is one of several commissions Hans Schuler had at Green Mount Cemetery. One of several William Henry Rinehart sculptures at Green Mount Cemetery, "Endymion" rests in eternal sleep over Rinehart's own grave. Chapel at Green Mount Cemetery designed by John Rudolph Niernsee and James Crawford Neilson. Source: Frederic C. Chalfant Audio file of Wayne Shaumburg discussing graves in Green Mount Cemetery, including A. Aubrey Bodine's.