Baptist. Blockley Cemetery, Meeting-House Lane, between Lancaster Avenue and Haverford Street; ground given, 1804. Church is at Fifty-third Street and Wyalusing Avenue. Dunker, Germantown, on Germantown Avenue above Sharpnack Street; oldest meeting-house of the German Baptists, or Dunkers, in America; erected, 1770. Burial ground opened, 1793; in it lie Alexander Mack, founder of the sect, and Harriet Livermore, the “Pilgrim Stranger” of Whittier’s “Snow Bound.” Mennonite, Germantown Avenue above Herman Street; church was built, 1770; many early Germantown settlers are buried in the yard. Pennypack, or Lower Dublin, Krewston Road near Pennypack Creek, one mile from Bustleton; here is oldest Baptist church edifice in Pennsylvania, built about 1707; in the old time graveyard are many curious moss covered tombstones.
Friends. When the graves are marked the stones are always small and inconspicuous. Fairhill Meeting, Germantown Avenue and Cambria Street; ground granted by William Penn; a large and beautiful old cemetery and near “Fairhill,” the great Norris estate. The Meeting House, Fourth and Arch Streets, was built in 1804, but the ground was used for burials many years before; it is one of the oldest cemeteries in Philadelphia. Some of the most prominent citizens of very early days lie here with nothing to mark their resting-place; it is computed that twenty thousand persons are interred here.
Jewish. Mikveh Israel, on Spruce Street, near Ninth; ground was granted to Nathan Levy by John Penn in 1738; here lies the beautiful Rebecca Gratz, original of Rebecca in Scott’s “Ivanhoe.” In August, 1913, the little burial ground was opened for the interment of her grandniece, the first burial for thirty years. Mount Sinai, Frankford Avenue, near Bridge Street, has imposing entrance, erected, 1854.
Lutheran. St. Michael’s, Germantown Avenue and Phil-Ellena Street, joins the church built about 1730; a notable grave, with flat marble stone resting on four columns, is that of Christopher Ludwig, “baker general” to the American army during the Revolution.
Methodist. St. Paul’s, Catharine Street near Sixth. Church is now used as an Italian mission; has a small graveyard.
Presbyterian. Of First and Third Churches, Southwest corner of Fourth and Pine Streets, First Church, Seventh and Locust Streets, has the eastern section. When the First Church abandoned its old Market Street site for the present locality, the bodies were moved whenever possible, and many of the old headstones were inserted in the south wall of the new graveyard. The Third Church, called “Old Pine,” divides the grounds, using the west section; both are most interesting, with many people of note interred, including David Rittenhouse; William Hurry, who is said to have rung the Liberty Bell when proclaiming independence; Dr. William Shippen, Director General of Hospitals during the war for Independence; many Revolutionary soldiers; and Captain Charles Ross of the First City Troop.
Protestant Episcopal. All Saints, Bristol Turnpike, Torresdale. Established 1772-73, when the first church edifice was built. Christ Church has two burialgrounds, one attached to the church on Second Street, North of Market, dating from the earliest days of the church, the other southeast corner of Fifth and Arch Streets, where first interment was made in 1730; graves of Benjamin Franklin and Deborah, his wife, are in the northwest corner; may be seen from Arch Street through an iron railing set in the brick wall; in these graveyards are buried many distinguished Americans; among them Peyton Randolph, first President of the Continental Congress; Commodores Truxton, Biddle, Bainbridge, and Dale; Robert Morris; several signers of the Declaration of Independence; Dr. Benjamin Rush, Dr. Philip Syng Physick, Bishop White, and Dr. William Augustus Muhlenberg. Gloria Dei (Old Swedes’), Front and Swanson Streets, south of Christian; church built, 1700, being the oldest church building in Philadelphia; a most interesting graveyard surrounds it; the celebrated ornithologist, Alexander Wilson, is buried here. St. James, Kingsessing, Sixty-eighth Street and Paschall Avenue; church erected, 1762; General Josiah Harmer, of the Revolution, is buried in the graveyard. St. James the Less, Hunting Park Avenue and Clearfield Street; this beautiful little Gothic church, brownstone, built 1847, has a number of fine monuments in the burial ground; John Wanamaker is buried here. St. Luke’s, Germantown Avenue and Coulter Street, church dates from 1818; the famous Philadelphia annalist, John Fanning Watson, is interred in the churchyard. St. Peter’s, southwest corner of Third and Pine Streets; in the graveyard lies the body of Commodore Stephen Decatur, the grave surmounted by an Ionic column supporting an American eagle; other notable names here are Chew, Cadwalader, Mifflin, Binney, Biddle, Peale, Waln, Meade, McCall, Duché, Norris, Kuhn, Montgomery. Trinity, Oxford, near Fox Chase, east of old Second Street Pike; present church dates from 1711; began as a log meeting house, 1698; tombstones date as early as 1708; the inscriptions on some are quaint and original.
Roman Catholic. Holy Trinity, northwest corner of Sixth and Spruce Streets, dates from 1789; on the old tombstones may be deciphered names of many of the early German and French inhabitants of Philadelphia. Stephen Girard was buried here until 1851, later his body was removed to Girard College. Most Holy Redeemer, Richmond Street, opposite Hedley Street, Bridesburg; many of the Redemptorist Fathers are buried here.
OTHER NOTABLE BURIAL GROUNDS
North Cedar Hill, Frankford Avenue corner of Foust Street, incorporated, 1857; a soldiers’ monument to the Civil War soldiers from Frankford is in the older part. Crispin, Holmesburg; contains grave of Thomas Holme, who laid out the city of Philadelphia; plot is under care of the Crispin Association, formed of descendants of Holme. Glenwood, Ridge Avenue and Twenty-seventh Street, opened, 1850, has notable monument of the Scott Legion Association, formed among the surviving soldiers of the Mexican War. Greenwood, Asylum Pike and Arrott Street, Frankford; established, 1869, by the benevolent order of the Knights of Pythias, as a burial place for members and their families; occupies the “Mount Airy” estate, once residence of Commodore Stephen Decatur. Hood, or “The Lower Burial Ground,” on Germantown Avenue at Logan Street, opened in 1693, having been presented to the borough of Germantown by Jan Streepers. Many early settlers of Germantown lie here; among them Frederic William Post, the Moravian missionary to the Indians, and Condy Raguet, founder of the Saving Fund in Philadelphia; in 1847, William Hood built the front entrance, of Pennsylvania marble, the wall and railing. Ivy Hill, East Mount Airy Avenue, above Stenton Avenue, chartered, 1867; about 80 acres; the Second Baptist Church has removed to Ivy Hill about 300 bodies from its old burial place on New Market Street; an imposing monument is here in memory of David Lyle, Chief Engineer of the Volunteer Fire Department from 1859-67. North Laurel Hill, East bank of Schuylkill River and Ridge Avenue, organized, 1835; formerly “Laurel,” country seat of Joseph Sims. “Fairy Hill,” seat of Pepper family, now Central Laurel Hill, and “Harleigh,” William Rawle’s place, now South Laurel Hill; historic dead and artistic monuments fill these cemeteries; Commodores Murray and Hull, General George Gordon Meade, and Mrs. Cornelius Stevenson, “Peggy Shippen” of the Ledger, are among those who lie here; the Lea Memorial, sculptor A. Sterling Calder, is very beautiful, the chapel is early English. Just across the Schuylkill River, on Belmont Avenue, at Pencoyd Station, is West Laurel Hill, opened in 1869. General Herman Haupt is among those buried here. Monument, Broad Street and Montgomery Avenue, was laid out by Dr. John A. Elkinton in 1836; an obelisk monument, on a pedestal, erected, 1859, in honor of Washington and Lafayette, was designed by John Sartain, artist, who is buried near base of shaft. Mount Moriah, Sixty-second Street and Kingsessing Avenue, opened, 1855; has grave of Betsy Ross, over which a flag floats perpetually. Mount Peace, Lehigh Avenue and Thirty-first Street, was originally country seat of the Ralston family, known as Mount Peace estate. Mount Vernon, Ridge and Lehigh Avenues, opposite Laurel Hill, chartered, 1856; the Gardel monument was long considered handsomest in the country. National Cemetery, Haines Street and Limekiln Pike, land acquired by the United States Government in 1885, it is well wooded, and the grounds are laid out with flowering plants; about 2700 Union soldiers are buried here; their graves marked by long rows of small granite slabs, bearing their names and the States from which they came. Soldiers of three wars lie here; a granite monument, erected by the United States, marks the burial place of 184 Confederate soldiers and sailors. Palmer, at Palmer, Belgrade, and Memphis Streets, owes its origin to Anthony Palmer; in 1730, he purchased a large tract of land in “The Northern Liberties,” on which he laid out a town and named it Kensington; his daughter carried out his wishes, and bequeathed ground for a burial place for those living in Kensington. Ronaldson’s, Tenth and Fitzwater Streets, now neglected, was founded by James Ronaldson in 1826 as a burial place in which persons of moderate means could find a grave without any of the restrictions which attended interments in the churchyards; he gave the ground, almost a city square, decorated it with trees and shrubbery; so beautifully was it kept that it was considered “The model burial place of the City,” until the opening of Laurel Hill. Upper Burial Ground, or Ax’s, Germantown Avenue near Washington Lane. John Frederick Ax was caretaker from 1724-56; many early settlers are buried here, the oldest known grave being that of Cornelius Tyson, who died in 1716; there are also graves of some American soldiers and officers, killed in the Battle of Germantown; over them, John Fanning Watson placed a marble headstone. Woodlands, Thirty-ninth Street and Woodland Avenue, was in early times the country seat of William Hamilton, known as “The Woodlands”; acquired by Woodlands Cemetery Company in 1840. Many distinguished men and women are buried here, among them Commodore Thomas Stewart, who commanded the Constitution in 1812; General John Stewart, Major Generals D. B. Birney and Abercrombie of the Civil War; Rembrandt Peale; William K. Hewitt and P. F. Rothermel, Artists; John Davenport, Actor; Colonel Thomas A. Scott and J. Edgar Thomson; Frank and Louise Stockton; Dr. S. Weir Mitchell and Anthony J. Drexel.