Mount Olivet Cemetery
Mount Olivet Cemetery
Map
Details
Established1858
Location
Ivy City,
Washington, D.C.
CountryUnited States
Coordinates38°54′41″N 76°58′46″W / 38.911372°N 76.979449°W / 38.911372; -76.979449
Typeprivate
Owned byArchdiocese of Washington
Size85 acres (340,000 m2)[1]
No. of gravesMore than 180,000 (as of November 2019)[2]
WebsiteOfficial website Edit this at Wikidata
Find a GraveMount Olivet Cemetery
The Political GraveyardMount Olivet Cemetery
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Mount Olivet Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery located at 1300 Bladensburg Road, NE in Washington, D.C. It is maintained by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington. The largest Catholic burial ground in the District of Columbia, it was one of the first in the city to be racially integrated.

About the cemetery

Chapel at Mount Olivet Cemetery.

On June 5, 1852, the Council of the City of Washington in the District of Columbia passed a local ordinance that barred the creation of new cemeteries anywhere within Georgetown or the area bounded by Boundary Street (northwest and northeast), 15th Street (east), East Capitol Street, the Anacostia River, the Potomac River, and Rock Creek. Existing Catholic cemeteries at St. Matthew's Church, St. Patrick Catholic Church, and St. Peter Catholic Church were nearly full. A number of new cemeteries were therefore established in the "rural" areas in and around Washington: Columbian Harmony Cemetery in D.C.; Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Silver Spring, Maryland; Glenwood Cemetery in D.C.; and Woodlawn Cemetery in D.C.[3] Father Charles I. White, the 51-year-old priest who had led St. Matthew's Roman Catholic Church since 1857, was the individual most responsible for the creation of Mt. Olivet.[4]

The cemetery was created in 1858.[5][6][7] The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore, which then covered the District of Columbia, purchased 40 acres (0.16 km2) of Fenwick Farm for the cemetery.[8] A gray stone lodge was built to mark the entrance.[6] Because the burial grounds at St. Matthew's, St. Patrick, and St. Peter churches were all full by that time, a number of graves were moved to the newly established Mount Olivet in order to make room at the old cemeteries for new burials.[9]

Mount Auburn Cemetery, a rural cemetery near Boston, Massachusetts, was the model for Mount Olivet.[10] During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Mount Olivet was known as one of the "big five" cemeteries in Washington, D.C.[11]

From the start, Mount Olivet was racially integrated. Most cemeteries in the city were not. More than 7,700 African Americans were buried at Mount Olivet between 1800 and 1919 (about 7.6 percent of all African American burials in the city). In comparison, 24,000 Caucasians were buried there during the same period. Mount Olivet was the only racially integrated cemetery from the 19th century to remain active as of 1989, although this changed in 2019 when Holy Rood Cemetery in Georgetown opened a columbarium.[12][13]

Notable interments

Mt. Olivet Cemetery, NE Washington, D.C.

References

  1. ^ Totland, Colton. "Washington's Historic Cemeteries: Where the Nation's Past Lives." Washington Times. August 9, 2012.
  2. ^ a b "Her life was in the purse she left on Metro. Would she ever see it again?". The Washington Post. 2019-11-05. Retrieved 2022-01-17.
  3. ^ Richardson, p. 309.
  4. ^ "A Good Priest at Rest." Washington Post. April 2, 1878.
  5. ^ "Archbishop to Dedicate Cemetery." Washington Post. June 16, 1956.
  6. ^ a b Truett, p. 304.
  7. ^ At least one source says the cemetery was created in 1857. See: Richardson, p. 314.
  8. ^ Rash, p. 116.
  9. ^ Truett, p. 305; Bergheim, p. 280.
  10. ^ Johnson, p. 30.
  11. ^ The others were Congressional Cemetery, Glenwood Cemetery, Oak Hill Cemetery, and Rock Creek Cemetery. See: Richardson, p. 321.
  12. ^ Richardson, p. 314.
  13. ^ "History – Holy Trinity Columbarium at Holy Rood Cemetery".
  14. ^ "Ansberry, Timothy Thomas". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  15. ^ Hendrix, Steve (April 12, 2017). "He made 'Buffalo Bill' Cody the world's first reality star". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 13, 2017.
  16. ^ "Belva Lockwood And The 'Way Of The World'" (PDF). Congressionalcemetery.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-07-04. Retrieved 2017-08-19.
  17. ^ "Carter Burial Here". The Evening Star. September 18, 1911. p. 2.
  18. ^ "Joseph A. Conry". The Boston Globe. 1943-06-23. p. 11. Retrieved 2022-01-12 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  19. ^ "Daughton, Ralph Hunter". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  20. ^ "Julius P. Garesché". University of Chicago. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  21. ^ Kelly, John (2017-02-27). "How a torpedoed ocean liner boosted the career of a D.C.-born newsman". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2022-01-17.
  22. ^ Montgomery, Ben (October 2016). Leper Spy: The Story of an Unlikely Hero of World War II. Chicago Review Press. ISBN 978-1-61373-433-9. Retrieved 2022-01-12 – via Google Books.
  23. ^ "Korbly, Charles Alexander". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  24. ^ "Gen. Lenihan Rites Saturday". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 1958-08-15. p. 24. Retrieved 2022-01-12 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  25. ^ "Thomas Devin Reilly remembered". An Phoblacht. 2004-03-11. Archived from the original on 2012-02-04.
  26. ^ "Mr. John Saul". Evening Star. 1897-05-12. p. 3. Retrieved 2022-02-07 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  27. ^ Williams, Benjamin Buford (2009-07-08). "William Russell Smith". encyclopediaofalabama.org. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  28. ^ CWGC Casualty Record.

Bibliography

External links

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