Harrisburg Cemetery
Harrisburg, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
This 35-acre cemetery, chartered by the Commonwealth and opened in 1845, is the oldest and largest in the capital city. It is noted for its ornate statuary, original caretaker's house designed by A.J. Downing, and late Victorian landscape architecture. More than 30,000 persons are interred here, including Revolutionary War dead, Pennsylvania Governors, and others of local, State, and national renown.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Chartered by the Commonwealth and opened in 1845, the Harrisburg Cemetery is the oldest and largest burial ground in Pennsylvania's capital, spreading across 35 acres of carefully composed late-Victorian landscape. Its ornate statuary and its caretaker's house — designed by A.J. Downing, the era's foremost American landscape gardener — reflect the rural-cemetery movement's ideal of the graveyard as a serene, park-like place. More than 30,000 people rest here, among them Revolutionary War soldiers, Pennsylvania governors, and figures of local, state, and national note.
Why it matters
The cemetery is both a designed landscape from the golden age of American garden art and a physical record of the people who shaped the capital, the state, and the nation.
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Related people
- · A.J. Downing
Themes & tags
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