Oak Hill Cemetery

Oak Hill Cemetery

Oak Hill Cemetery Chapel
Details
Year established	1848
Location	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 (89,000 m2)
Find a Grave	Oak Hill Cemetery

Oak Hill Cemetery is a historic 22-acre (8.9 ha) cemetery and botanical garden located in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It includes the Oak Hill Cemetery Chapel and Van Ness Mausoleum which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Oak Hill began in 1848 as part of the rural cemetery movement, directly inspired by the success of Mount Auburn Cemetery, when William Wilson Corcoran (also founder of the Corcoran Gallery of Art) purchased 15 acres (6.1 ha) of land. 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

A

• Dean Gooderham Acheson (1893-1971), United States Secretary of State under President Harry Truman
• Frederick Aiken (1832-1878), attorney for Mary Surratt

B

• Spencer Fullerton Baird (1823-1887), founder of the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and second secretary of the Smithsonian Institution

C

• Wilkinson Call (1834-1910), U.S. Senator from Florida
• Samuel S. Carroll (1832-1893), United States Army general
• Joseph Casey (1814-1879), U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania
• Richard Cutts (1771-1845), U.S. Representative from Massachusetts, Comptroller of the Treasury

D

• Rachel Davies – see Rachel Davies (Rahel o Fôn) under "F"
• Josiah Dent (1817–1899), third president of the Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia
• Lorenzo Dow (1777-1834), frontier preacher and author
• William M. Dunn (1814-1887), U.S. Representative from Indiana, Judge Advocate General of the United States Army

E

• John Eaton (1790-1856), U.S. Senator from Tennessee, Secretary of War
• George Eustis Jr. (1828-1872), U.S. Representative from Louisiana

F

• Rachel Davies (Rahel o Fôn) (1846-1915), Welsh-born preacher
• Uriah Forrest (1746-1805), Continental Congressman and U.S. Representative from Maryland
• Thomas J. D. Fuller (1808-1876), U.S. Representative from Maine

G

• Katharine Graham (1917-2001), president of The Washington Post

H

• Peter V. Hagner (1815-1893), United States Army officer
• James P. Heath (1777-1854), U.S. Representative from Maryland
• John J. Hemphill (1849-1912), U.S. Representative from South Carolina
• Joseph Henry (1797-1878), first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
• Herman Hollerith (1860-1929), statistician and inventor
• Samuel Hooper (1808-1875), U.S. Representative from Massachusetts

I

• Ebon C. Ingersoll (1831-1879), U.S. Representative from Illinois

J

• Thomas S. Jesup (1788-1860), Quartermaster General of the U.S. Army from 1818 to 1860, "Father of the Modern Quartermaster Corps"

K

• Philip Barton Key (1757-1815), U.S. Representative from Maryland

L

• William S. Lincoln (1813-1893), U.S. Representative from New York

M

• Gale W. McGee (1915-1992), U.S. Senator from Wyoming, U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States
• John R. McPherson (1833-1897), U.S. Senator from New Jersey

O

• Štefan Osuský (1889-1973), Slovak diplomat

P

• John Howard Payne (1791-1852), composer of "Home! Sweet Home!"
• George Peter (1779-1861), U.S. Representative from Maryland
• Charles Pomeroy (1825-1891), U.S. Representative from Iowa
• John Pool (1826-1884), U.S. Representative from North Carolina

R

• Jesse L. Reno (1823-1862), United States Army officer from Virginia
• Max Robinson (1939-1988), journalist
• William Ledyard Rodgers (1860-1944), United States Navy admiral; naval and military historian

S

• Howard K. Smith (1914-2002), CBS and ABC newscaster; war correspondent; film star
• Samuel Sprigg (c. 1783-1855), governor of Maryland
• Edwin M. Stanton (1814-1869), United States Attorney General under President James Buchanan, Secretary of War under President Abraham Lincoln
• Hestor L. Stevens (1803-1864), U.S. Representative from Michigan
• Noah Haynes Swayne (1804-1884), Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

T

• James Noble Tyner (1826-1904), U.S. Representative, United States Postmaster General under President Ulysses S. Grant

W

• Robert J. Walker (1801-1869), Secretary of the Treasury, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania
• George Corbin Washington (1789-1854), U.S. Representative from Maryland, grand-nephew of George Washington
• Edward Douglass White (1844-1921), Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and later Chief Justice of the United States^[1]

Y

• David Levy Yulee (1810-1886), U.S. Senator from Florida, first Jew to serve in the Senate

See also

• List of botanical gardens in the United States

Notes

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Oak Hill Cemetery

• Oak Hill Cemetery website
• National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary
• Oak Hill Cemetery photo set on Flickr