Wilmington and Brandywine Cemetery is a rural cemetery at 701 Delaware Avenue in Wilmington, Delaware. Founded in 1843, it contains over 21,000 burials on about 25 acres.
History
Soldier's Graveplot where 121 U.S. Civil War soldiers are buried
The cemetery was envisioned in 1843 by Sam Wollaston, who sought to establish one of Delaware's first non-sectarian cemeteries on 10 acres of his farm, which was outside the city of Wilmington at the time.[1] His venture was quickly a success, and the following year, Wollaston formed a company to expand and landscape the site with Willard Hall serving as president. Engineer George Read Riddle was hired to design the cemetery.[2] In 1850, James Canby planted an imported cedar of Lebanon at the entrance of the cemetery.[3]
One corner of the cemetery, named Soldier's Graveplot, contains the remains of 121 U.S. Civil War soldiers who died from their wounds or war-related illnesses at the old Delaware Hospital.
Chapel at Wilmington and Brandywine Cemetery, August 2019Interior of chapel June 1914
The cemetery's chapel, designed by architect Elijah Dallett Jr.,[4] was built in 1913 of Foxcroft stone with window sills of Indiana limestone.[5]
In 1917, the cemetery received remains originally interred at the 18th-century First Presbyterian Church in Wilmington's Rodney Square. The church was moved to Park Drive to make room for a new library.[6]
In 2014, the cemetery launched the Eternal Rest 5K Walk/Run to raise money to maintain the cemetery.[7]
^Scharf, John Thomas (1888). History of Delaware: 1609–1888. Philadelphia: L.J. Richards & Co. p. 845. Retrieved 28 July 2019. wilmington and brandywine cemetery.
