Oak Hill Cemetery (Washington, D.C.)

Oak Hill Cemetery
Italianate gatehouse, Oak Hill Cemetery
Location of the cemetery in Georgetown
Details
Established 1848
Location 30th and R Streets, NW
Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
Country United States
Coordinates 38°54′46″N 77°03′33″W / 38.9127°N 77.0592°W / 38.9127; -77.0592Coordinates: 38°54′46″N 77°03′33″W / 38.9127°N 77.0592°W / 38.9127; -77.0592
Type private
Size 22 acres (8.9 ha)
Website www.oakhillcemeterydc.org
Find a Grave Oak Hill Cemetery
The Political Graveyard Oak Hill Cemetery

Oak Hill Cemetery is a historic 22-acre (8.9 ha) cemetery located in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in the United States. It was founded in 1848 and completed in 1853, and is a prime example of a garden cemetery. A large number of famous politicians, business people, military people, diplomats, and philanthropists are buried at Oak Hill, and the cemetery has a number of Victorian-style memorials and monuments. Oak Hill has two structures which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Oak Hill Cemetery Chapel and the Van Ness Mausoleum.

The cemetery's interment of "Willie" Lincoln, deceased son of president Abraham Lincoln, was the inspiration for the Man Booker Prize-winning novel Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders.[1]

History

Oak Hill began in 1848 as part of the rural cemetery movement, directly inspired by the success of Mount Auburn Cemetery near Boston, Massachusetts, when William Wilson Corcoran (also founder of the Corcoran Gallery of Art) purchased 15 acres (6.1 ha) of land.[2] He then organized the Cemetery Company to oversee Oak Hill; it was incorporated by act of Congress on March 3, 1849.

Oak Hill's chapel was built in 1849 by noted architect James Renwick, who also designed the Smithsonian Institution's Castle on Washington Mall and St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York. His one-story rectangular chapel measures 23 by 41 feet (7×12 m) and sits on the cemetery's highest ridge. It is built of black granite, in Gothic Revival style, with exterior trim in the same red Seneca sandstone used for the Castle.

By 1851, landscape designer Captain George F. de la Roche finished laying out the winding paths and terraces descending into Rock Creek valley. When initial construction was completed in 1853, Corcoran had spent over $55,000 on the cemetery's landscaping and architecture.

Notable interments

References

  1. ↑ Kelly, John (2017-04-17). "Perspective | 'Lincoln in the Bardo' novel has people flocking to a Georgetown cemetery". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2017-10-20.
  2. ↑ "The Famous Tenants of Oak Hill Cemetery". The Georgetown Metropolitan. 2010-03-18. Retrieved 2017-10-20.
  3. ↑ "READ EXCERPT: 'The Camel Club,' by David Baldacci". ABC News. 2009-05-26. Retrieved 2017-10-20.

Bibliography

  • Dodge, Andrew R. (2005). Biographical Directory of the United States Congress: 1774–2005. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. ISBN 9780160731761.
External video
Oak Hill Cemetery, Dave Jackson, October 4, 2016
  • National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary
  • "Washington, DC--Oak Hill Cemetery". National Park Service.
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