Green Mount Cemetery – A ‘President-Adjacent’ Visit - Part 1

Every sizable community has a special cemetery where the industrial titans, political big-wigs and other notables rest in peace. A hundred and ninety years ago, our growing country developed a new and improved approach to burying our dead.
   

Albany Rural Cemetery, New York (12 October 2009)

Before the middle of the 19th century, our colonial towns were becoming crowded cities. Urban church yards were filling and health concerns spurred a movement to create public burial grounds away from the populace but close enough to visit. They are called ‘rural cemeteries.’ At a time before public parks became popular, these cemeteries were places where city folk could escape the unpleasant conditions and enjoy a clean, green, natural experience.
    

Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond (28 June 2005)

Another reason rural cemeteries became popular was the impressive sculpture and architecture that regular folks rarely had the opportunity to see. Also changing at that time was our collective attitude toward death. The earlier stuffy puritan view of cemeteries emphasized the death part. In the 1600’s, grave markers had skull and cross-bones carvings. No guarantee of life-eternal. You’re dead and better hope you scored enough points to get into the Good Place.
   

Grave Marker, United Church of Christ (‘Circular Church’)

Charleston, South Carolina (11 March 2014)

By the 1700’s, the view softened as more skulls had wings, hinting a rise to something better...maybe. Rural cemetery depictions were more positive, with angels, cherubs and botanical design elements that emphasized life.
   

Green Mount Cemetery, Baltimore (25 June 2024)

Occasionally, time has a way of eroding positive botanical

design elements into something a little creepier.

But I digress...
   

Green Mount Cemetery, Baltimore (25 June 2024)

Seven years after the first American rural cemetery was established in Massachusetts (Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge - 1831) Green Mount Cemetery opened in Baltimore. Over the years, it has interred eight Maryland governors, seven Baltimore mayors, sixteen Civil War generals, numerous philanthropists like Johns Hopkins, and other notable figures.

Back in the day, it was a short carriage ride away from the town center. Its lawns and mature trees were a refuge from the unsanitary crowding of the growing city. Now, the city has grown around and past Green Mount. The neighborhood has seen better days. A high wall surrounds the entire property and one can enter only with permission.

I was here to find two residents in particular...Harriet Lane and John Wilkes Booth...people who played important roles with two of our presidents...hence the ‘president-adjacent’ title above.

They will be the subject of the next post.