Allegheny Cemetery


Allegheny Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery and is one of the largest and oldest burial grounds in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
It is a nonsectarian, wooded hillside park located at 4734 Butler Street in the Lawrenceville neighborhood and bounded by the Bloomfield, Garfield, and Stanton Heights areas. It is sited on the north-facing slope of hills above the Allegheny River.
In 1973 the cemetery's Butler Street Gatehouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and in 1980 the entire cemetery was listed on the National Register.

History

Incorporated in 1844, the Allegheny Cemetery is the sixth oldest rural cemetery in America and has expanded over the years to now encompass.
Allegheny Cemetery memorializes more than 124,000 people. Some of the oldest graves are of soldiers who fought in the French and Indian War, which were moved here from their original burial site at Trinity Cathedral in downtown Pittsburgh. Many notables from the city of Pittsburgh are buried here. The cemetery was amongst those profiled in the PBS documentary A Cemetery Special.
In 1834 three members of the Third Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, Dr. J. Ramsey Speer, Stephen Colwell and John Chislett, Sr. tried to establish a rural cemetery near Pittsburgh. Dr. Speer later visited several famous rural cemeteries, Mount Auburn Cemetery on Boston, Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia, and Green-Wood Cemetery in New York. In 1842 the 100 acre farm of Colonel Bayard was selected for the site. An Act of Incorporation passed the Pennsylvania Legislature and was signed by Gov. David R. Porter on April 24, 1844.
"Mt. Barney" was selected as the site of a memorial to naval heroes in 1848 and Commodore Joshua Barney and Lt. James L. Parker were reinterred there. Another memorial was erected on Memorial Day, 1937 to the memory of over 7,000 servicemen buried in the cemetery.

Notable interments