Oak Hill Cemetery is a historic 22-acre (8.9Â ha) cemetery located in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in the United States. It was founded in 1848 and completed in 1853, and is a prime example of a garden cemetery. A large number of famous politicians, business people, military people, diplomats, and philanthropists are buried at Oak Hill, and the cemetery has a number of Victorian-style memorials and monuments. Oak Hill has two structures which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Oak Hill Cemetery Chapel and the Van Ness Mausoleum.
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 (6.1Â 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 (1893â€"1971), Secretary of State under President Harry Truman
- Frederick Aiken (1832â€"1878), attorney for Lincoln assassination co-conspirator Mary Surratt
B
- Spencer Fullerton Baird (1823â€"1887), founder of the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and second secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
- Stephen Bloomer Balch (April 5, 1747 â€" September 7, 1833), Presbyterian minister and educator
- Henry W. Barry (1840â€"1875), Brevet Brigadier General in the Union Army and Representative from Mississippi
- Alice Birney (1858â€"1907), co-founder of the National Parent-Teacher Association
- Walker Blaine (1855â€"1890), assistant Secretary of State, solicitor of the Department of State
- Benjamin C. Bradlee (August 6, 1921 â€" October 21, 2014), executive editor for the Washington Post
- Glenn Brenner (1948â€"1992), Washington, D.C., sportscasting legend
C
- Wilkinson Call (1834â€"1910), Senator from Florida
- Frances Carpenter (1890â€"1972), photographer and writer
- Samuel S. Carroll (1832â€"1893), U.S.Army general
- Joseph Casey (1814â€"1879), Representative from Pennsylvania
- Adolf Cluss (1825-1905), architect
- William Wilson Corcoran (1798â€"1888), banker and philanthropist
- Richard Cutts (1771â€"1845), Representative from Massachusetts, Comptroller of the Treasury
D
- Rachel Davies â€" see Rachel Davies (Rahel o Fôn) under "F"
- Josiah Dent (1817â€"1899), third president of the Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia
- Lorenzo Dow (1777â€"1834), frontier minister and writer
- William M. Dunn (1814â€"1887), Representative from Indiana, Judge Advocate General of the U.S. Army
E
- John Eaton (1790â€"1856), Senator from Tennessee, Secretary of War
- George Eustis Jr. (1828â€"1872), Representative from Louisiana
F
- William Harrell Felton (1823â€"1909), politician, army surgeon, and Methodist minister
- Rachel Davies (Rahel o Fôn) (1846â€"1915), Welsh-born minister
- Uriah Forrest (1746â€"1805), Continental Congressman and Representative from Maryland
- Judith Ellen Foster (1840-1910), American lecturer, temperance worker and lawyer
- Thomas J. D. Fuller (1808â€"1876), Representative from Maine
G
- Charles C. Glover (1846-1936), banker and philanthropist
- Arthur Pue Gorman (1839â€"1906), Senator from Maryland
- Katharine Graham (1917â€"2001), president of The Washington Post
- Charles Griffin (1825â€"1867), Union general in the American Civil War
H
- Peter V. Hagner (1815â€"1893), U.S. Army officer
- John Harris (1793â€"1864), U.S. Marine Corps colonel and sixth Commandant of the Marine Corps
- James P. Heath (1777â€"1854), Representative from Maryland
- John J. Hemphill (1849â€"1912), Representative from South Carolina
- Joseph Henry (1797â€"1878), first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
- Herman Hollerith (1860â€"1929), statistician and inventor
- Samuel Hooper (1808â€"1875), Representative from Massachusetts
- William H. Hunt (1823â€"1884), Secretary of the Navy
I
- Ebon C. Ingersoll (1831â€"1879), Representative from Illinois
- O.H. Irish (1830â€"1886), Chief, Bureau of Printing and Engraving, United States Department of the Treasury
J
- Thomas S. Jesup (1788â€"1860), Quartermaster General of the U.S. Army from 1818 to 1860
K
- Philip Barton Key (1757â€"1815), Representative from Maryland
- Philip Barton Key II (1815â€"1859), United States Attorney for the District of Columbia
L
- William S. Lincoln (1813â€"1893), Representative from New York
M
- John B. Montgomery (1794â€"1872), U.S. Navy officer during Mexican-American War and the American Civil War
- Gale W. McGee (1915â€"1992), Senator from Wyoming, U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States
- Henrietta McKenney (1825-1887), painter
- John R. McPherson (1833â€"1897), Senator from New Jersey
- Richard Mohun (1864â€"1915), explorer and diplomat
- Charles Morris (1784â€"1856), Commodore, U.S. Navy, an officer from 1799 to 1847, during Quasi-War, First Barbary War, Second Barbary War and War of 1812
N
- John George Nicolay (1832â€"1901), private secretary to President Abraham Lincoln
O
- Å tefan Osuský (1889â€"1973), Slovak diplomat
P
- Carlile Pollock Patterson (1816â€"1881), fourth superintendent of the United States Coast Survey
- John Barton Payne (1855â€"1935), politician, lawyer, and judge and United States Secretary of the Interior
- John Howard Payne (1791â€"1852), composer of "Home! Sweet Home!"
- Paul J. Pelz (1841â€"1918), architect of the Library of Congress
- George Peter (1779â€"1861), Representative from Maryland
- George Peter (1829â€"1893), Maryland politician, son of George Peter (1779â€"1861)
- Albert Pike (1809â€"1891), American attorney, Confederate officer, writer, and Freemason
- Charles Pomeroy (1825â€"1891), Representative from Iowa
- John Pool (1826â€"1884), Senator from North Carolina
R
- William Radford (1808â€"1890), Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy
- Jesse L. Reno (1823â€"1862), U.S. Army officer from Virginia
- Zalmon Richards (1811â€"1899), Educator and first president of the National Education Association
- William Ledyard Rodgers (1860â€"1944), U.S. Navy admiral, and naval and military historian
S
- Gustavus H. Scott (1812â€"1882), United States Navy rear admiral (exhumed in 1896 and reburied at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia)
- Howard K. Smith (1914â€"2002), CBS and ABC newscaster; war correspondent; film star
- Samuel Sprigg (c. 1783 â€" 1855), governor of Maryland
- Edwin M. Stanton (1814â€"1869), Attorney General under President James Buchanan, Secretary of War under President Abraham Lincoln
- Hestor L. Stevens (1803â€"1864), Representative from Michigan
- Cornelius Stribling (1796â€"1880), United States Navy rear admiral, United States Naval Academy Superintendent
- Noah Haynes Swayne (1804â€"1884), Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
T
- Lorenzo Thomas (1804â€"1875), Adjutant General of the U.S. Army, acting Secretary of War under President Andrew Johnson
- Theodore Timby (1822â€"1909), inventor of the revolving turret first introduced on the Civil War ship USS Monitor, and many other inventions.
- Charles Henry Tompkins (1830-1915), brevet Brigadier General of the U.S. Army during the American Civil War. Recipient of the Medal of Honor. Later served as Assistant Quartermaster General.
- James True (1880-1946) Washington DC journalist.
- James Noble Tyner (1826â€"1904), Representative from Indiana, Postmaster General under President Ulysses S. Grant
U
- Henry Ulke (1821â€"1910), Portrait Painter, photographer, Entymologist; painted more than 100 portraits of high government officials. His portrait of Ulysses S. Grant hangs in the White House and others hang in the National Portrait Gallery. With brother Julius had photographic studio in Washington DC.
W
- Robert J. Walker (1801â€"1869), Secretary of the Treasury, Senator from Mississippi
- George Corbin Washington (1789â€"1854), Representative from Maryland, grand-nephew of George Washington
- Edward Douglass White (1844â€"1921), Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and Chief Justice of the United States
- Cadmus M. Wilcox (1824â€"1890), U.S. Army officer who served in the Mexicanâ€"American War; Confederate general during the American Civil War
Y
- David Levy Yulee (1810â€"1886), Senator from Florida, first Jew to serve in the U.S. Senate
References
- Notes
- Citations
Bibliography
- Dodge, Andrew R. (2005). Biographical Directory of the United States Congress: 1774â€"2005. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. ISBN 9780160731761.Â
External links
- National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary
