Outside and Inside the Walls
In 1852, the author of a popular guidebook mused: “Perhaps the chronicler of 1952 … will note ‘the cities of the dead,’ which we place at present at a distance from the city, as being in the midst of the ‘living tide,’ and the solitude of Laurel Hill and the Woodlands be no more.” Indeed, factory villages were already growing to Laurel Hill’s north. What the writer failed to foresee was that cemeteries themselves might be part of the encroachment. In 1856, Mount Vernon Cemetery sprang up directly across the street!
During the Civil War the sheer number of dead dispelled the aura of festive curiosity and sentimental domesticity that had surrounded rural cemeteries. While Laurel Hill absorbed its share of casualties and, ultimately, of war celebrities, it also lost visitors. Urbanites seeking recreation were more likely to go to Fairmount Park, which expanded after 1867. The Gilded Age left the cemetery grander but emptier. In time, even the tending of graves fell to the company.
The Charter, By-laws and Regulations of the Woodlands Cemetery Company. Philadelphia: James B. Chandler, 1857.
James E. McClees, photographer. Entrance to Woodlands Cemetery (1858).
Re-purposing the estate of William Hamilton, Woodlands Cemetery was Laurel Hill’s most direct imitator and competitor. Surveyor Philip M. Price was one of its designers and founders. Architect John McArthur Jr., who had conceived South Laurel Hill’s entrance, performed the same service at Woodlands in the late 1850s.
Regulations of the Mount Vernon Cemetery Company. Philadelphia: T. K. and P. G. Collins, 1856.
The drift of people with business ties to Laurel Hill continued at Mount Vernon. John Notman designed the fanciful marble entrance and plantsman Robert Buist was the treasurer.
Plan for Mount Vernon Cemetery in Regulations of the Mount Vernon Cemetery Company (1856).
The plan of Mount Vernon Cemetery bore more than a passing resemblance to nearby Laurel Hill’s. Surveyor Griffith M. Hopkins was working at South Laurel Hill in the same period. He would later lay out Central and West Laurel Hills.
Rules and Regulations, and Description of West Laurel Hill Cemetery. Philadelphia, 1882.
The extension of Fairmount Park in the late 1860s ended managers’ hopes of expanding the original Laurel Hill Cemetery. By then, however, John Jay Smith knew the formula: establish another cemetery of the same name. West Laurel Hill took shape on the opposite side of the Schuylkill beginning in 1869. It benefitted both from associating with the older institution (to the annoyance of other managers there) and from novel access by steam train.
Map of West Laurel Hill Cemetery, from Atlas of the County of Montgomery and the State of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Griffith Morgan Hopkins, 1871. The Burlington Smiths.
West Laurel Hill’s design looked forward and backward. Laid out to handle “funerals by rail,” the site received the gently curving drives, circular islands, and rolling expanses that characterized post-bellum “landscape lawn” cemeteries. But the earliest sections resembled Central Laurel Hill (surveyor-cartographer Griffith M. Hopkins was the link). And sections not named for elite suburbs nodded instead to famous Schuylkill River villas.
Disston Family Mausoleum (1915). Laurel Hill Cemetery.
As it developed in the late 19th century, the main axis of Central Laurel Hill became a corridor of stone. Statue-capped obelisks, ponderous sarcophagi, and granite enclosures typified high-end production of the era. But the freestanding granite mausoleum was perhaps most emblematic of all. Saw maker Henry Disston’s Francophile variant anticipated similar construction on nearby “Millionaire’s Row.”
Jack E. Boucher, photographer. View through Central Laurel Hill Cemetery (1999). The Historic American Buildings Survey.
Laurel Hill (ca. 1910). Laurel Hill Cemetery.
While Laurel Hill had always offered lots at a range of prices, the physical differences between the ends of the spectrum were more pronounced by 1900. Newer, less expensive lots generally clustered in low-lying areas.
Laurel Hill Cemetery: Special Care of Lots (1918). Laurel Hill Cemetery.
The shift to lot maintenance performed exclusively by the cemetery company was in keeping with national trends. It was not especially peaceful, however. When Laurel Hill’s managers moved to ban “outside gardeners” in 1913, a storm of protest followed from lot-holders. Their lawsuit ultimately failed.
Aero Service Corp. Aerial View of North and Central Laurel Hill Cemetery (ca. 1927). Laurel Hill Cemetery.
Using technology developed to plan WWI bombing raids, these panoramic aerial views show how built-up Laurel Hill had become by the onset of the Great Depression. As foliage decreased, gridded paths and lot divisions became more apparent.
Aero Service Corp. Aerial View of South Laurel Hill Cemetery (ca. 1927). Laurel Hill Cemetery.
Aerial views of Laurel Hill Cemetery. Laurel Hill Cemetery.
Apparent in these smaller views are several businesses related to the cemetery’s operation. At the intersection of the tree-lined Hunting Park Avenue and Ridge Avenue, the company’s greenhouse complex suggests the extent to which lot gardening had become an “inside” concern. To the north, the shop and yard across from the cemetery’s main entrance are those of monument dealer Thomas Delahunty, long a neighborhood fixture.
