Historic Site Visit

Before 1836, the options of burial for the deceased were limited in Philadelphia. Most people were either buried in churchyard burial grounds or in small family plots. Just within the center city, there were over seventy of these types of burial grounds. Overcrowding in the churchyard burial plots became a serious problem and it was common for previous burials sites to be accidently uncovered while digging new sites. Burial grounds also had to contend with the expansion of the city, numerous burial grounds were sold in order to make room for new construction. Unfortunately, this did not sit well with Philadelphians who had loved ones buried in these cemeteries. In fact, it was reported that on April 2nd, 1836 a riot broke-out at Arch and Fifth Streets over a church burial ground which had recently been sold for development purposes.

It was at this point when John Jay Smith, a librarian at the Philadelphia Library Company, and amateur horticulturalist, offered Philadelphians another option for the deceased. His rural cemetery would be located well outside the city, allowing it to be safe from development. The site would be expansive, which would keep congestion to a minimum. The setting would also be picturesque; it would include verdant plantings, large monuments and breathtaking vistas of the Schuylkill River. Originally developed on twenty-acres of land, Laurel Hill has grown over time and currently spreads across almost eighty acres.

Laurel Hill is currently open to the public on a daily basis for multiple uses and this has actually been the case since the cemetery’s founding. Entrance to the cemetery is free of charge and the public is encouraged to use the site for running, dog walking and even picnics. The cemetery does still serve as a burial site with approximately thirty burials per year which provides a consistent flow of revenue for the cemetery. The cemetery also has an affiliated non-profit organization, The Friends of Laurel Hill Cemetery, which organizes various fundraising events such as: Halloween nighttime flashlight tours, family fun-days, spirit-channeling, dinners, a 5-K run and their annual Gravediggers’ Ball. These events serve a dual purpose. First, they provide the cemetery with extra revenue to maintain the site. Second, it allows the public to interact with the space because a cemetery is not the first place people think of as a historic and cultural institution. This provides Laurel Hill with a level of exposure that hopefully encourages more people to interact with the space.