The History of the American Cemetery: From Churchyards to Memorial Parks

A modern cemetery looks like a quiet park, with lawns, trees, and winding paths. It did not start that way. The shape of the American cemetery is the result of about two centuries of changing ideas about health, nature, and how to remember the dead.

Where were the dead buried before the 1830s?

Mostly in churchyards or on private land. A Brooklyn neighborhood history notes that before 1831, cemeteries were most often in churchyards or on private property. As cities grew, these burial grounds became crowded. The Rosehill Cemetery exhibit explains that overcrowded urban graveyards were increasingly seen as a problem, and that people wanted a more sanitary place for the dead outside the city.

What was the rural cemetery movement?

It was a new kind of burial ground, a landscaped park on the edge of the city. It began with Mount Auburn Cemetery, which the Massachusetts legislature allowed the Massachusetts Horticultural Society to establish on June 23, 1831, on the border of Cambridge and Watertown. A Boston doctor, Jacob Bigelow, first suggested the idea in 1825. Mass Moments describes Mount Auburn as the first rural cemetery in America, which pioneered burying the dead in a beautifully designed, natural landscape instead of in urban churchyards.

Why did the idea spread so fast?

Because it solved two problems and fit the mood of the time. A National Park Service account says the movement was inspired by romantic ideas about nature, art, national identity, and the sadness of death. Other cities soon followed:

• Laurel Hill, Philadelphia (1836)
• Green Mount, Baltimore (1838)
• Green-Wood, Brooklyn, and Mount Hope, Rochester (1839)

By the 1860s, according to the Rosehill exhibit, rural cemeteries could be found on the edge of most American cities.

How did cemeteries lead to public parks?

Before cities had parks, cemeteries were where people went for fresh air and quiet. The Rosehill exhibit says rural cemeteries gave city dwellers of every class a place to be among nature and see works of art. Mass Moments and the National Park Service both note that the success of these cemeteries led to the creation of public parks. The University of Northern Iowa adds that the movement also helped launch the profession of landscape architecture.

What came after the garden cemetery?

Two more stages. The University of Northern Iowa describes three stages of change in American cemeteries starting about 1831. The rural or garden cemetery dominated from roughly 1830 to 1855. From about 1855 to 1920, the lawn cemetery and the memorial park took center stage. Promoters of the lawn cemetery pictured an open, grassy lawn as the ideal. After 1920, the “memorial park” style appeared, with Forest Lawn in Los Angeles as an early example. The National Park Service says these later cemeteries grew out of the rural cemetery ideal, with natural beauty and low maintenance cost as their guiding ideas.

How does this history shape cemeteries today?

Most of what you see in a cemetery today came from these changes: lawns kept neat for easy upkeep, plots sold with long-term care, and a park-like feel. The Association of American Cemetery Superintendents was organized in 1887, as the National Park Service notes, a sign that running cemeteries had become a profession. Today, many people are going back toward the older, more natural idea. See Natural Burial Grounds for that trend, and How Cemeteries Work for how cemeteries are run now.