NATIONALREGISTER BULLETIN Technical Information on Comprehensive Planning, Survey of Cultural Resources, and Registration in the National Register of Historic Places

41 NATIONALREGISTER BULLETIN Technical information on comprehensive planning, survey of cultural resources, and registration in the National Register of Historic Places

U.S. Department of the Interior ^M National Park Service Cultural Resources Interagency Resources Division

GUIDELINES FOR EVALUATING AND REGISTERING CEMETERIES AND BURIAL PLACES Mission: As the Nation's principal conservation agency, the Department of the Interior has responsibility for most of our nationally-owned public lands and natural and cultural resources. This includes fostering sound use of our land and water resources; protecting our fish, wildlife, and biological diversity; preserving the environmental and cultural values of our national parks and historic places; and providing for the enjoyment of life through outdoor recreation. The Department assesses our energy and mineral resources and works to ensure that their development is in the best interests of all our people by encouraging stewardship and citizen participation in their care. The Department also has a major responsibility for American Indian reservation communities and for people who live in island territories under U.S. Administration.

This publication is financed by the National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior. Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended; Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended; and the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, as amended, the United States Department of the Interior prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, handicap, or age in its programs. If you believe you have been discriminated against in any program, activity, or facility, or if you desire further information please write: Office of Equal Opportunity, National Park Service, P.O. Box 37127, Washington, DC 20013-7127.

(Cover Photo). The East Parish Burying Ground in Newton, Massachusetts, is an important link to the city's 17th century origins and illustrates the characteristic features of a dense concentration of tablet-type markers bearing grim epitaphs and cawed imagery. (Thelma Fleishman, 1981). NATIONAL REGISTER BULLETIN 41

GUIDELINES FOR EVALUATING AND REGISTERING CEMETERIES AND BURIAL PLACES

by Elisabeth Walton Potter and Beth M. Boland

U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service Interagency Resources Division National Register of Historic Places

1992 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface ii

Acknowledgments ., iii

L Introduction 1 n. Burial Customs and Cemeteries in American History ....3 Native American Burial Customs ....3 Colonial and Early American Burial Customs 4 Origins of the "Rural" Cemetery Movement 4 The "Rural" Cemetery Movement and its Impact on American Landscape Design 6 Military Cemeteries 6 HI. Types of Burial Places and Associated Features 8

IV, Evaluating Cemeteries and Burial Places ....9 Applying the National Register Criteria for Evaluation 9 Special Requirements: Criteria Considerations .14 Integrity 18 V, Documenting and Registering Cemeteries and Burial Places 20 General Approach ...... 20 Research and Field Investigation 22 Site Plans 22 Photographs ...... 22 Archeology 23 Boundaries and Periods of Significance 23 Ownership 23 Completing the National Register Registration Form 24 Classification 24 Contributing Features 24 Functions 24 Description and Analysis of Features and Significance 24 Description .....25 Significance 25 Boundary Description and Justification 25 Maps and Photographs ...26 VL Conclusion 27

VII. Glossary 28

VIIL Some Recommended Sources 30

DC National Register Criteria for Evaluation 33 PREFACE

The creation of the National Register indicated a desire that the Secretary of burial places and features can represent. of Historic Places in 1966 provided the the Interior review National Register The growing emphasis on the history of first national recognition for historic Criteria for Evaluation from time to time ordinary individuals, grass roots move- properties possessing State or local to ensure their effectiveness in carrying ments, cultural and designed landscapes, significance, and uniform standards for out the policies of the Act. In 1986, and various cultural groups has nurtured evaluating them. The National upon the occasion of the 20th anniver- this evolution. At the same time, the Register's Criteria for Evaluation sary of the National Historic Preserva- identification, maintenance, and preser- established the threshold for defining tion Act, the National Park Service vation of burial places is increasingly the qualities that would make such a organized such a review. In their threatened through neglect, ignorance, property worthy of preservation, but December 17,1986, report, those who and vandalism. This publication is also needed to ensure credibility reviewed the criteria concluded that no intended to focus attention on these through adherence to standards accept- revision of criteria wording was war- resources and provide detailed guidance able to relevant professional disciplines. ranted, but recommended several issues on the qualities that render burial places Through the special requirements of the that could benefit from clarification significant representatives of our history Criteria Considerations, the criteria both through additional published guidance. worthy of preservation. caution against subjective enthusiasm The application of National Register for certain types of resources, and also criteria to graves and cemeteries was reinforce the importance of objective one such issue. historical analysis. A greater appreciation has evolved in Lawrence E. Aten In the legislative history of the 1980 both scholarship and public perception Chief, Interagency Resources Division Amendments to the National Historic for the important historical themes that National Park Service Preservation Act of 1966, Congress graves, cemeteries, and other types of Department of the Interior ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This bulletin was prepared by Meyer, American Culture Association Melnick, University of Oregon; Ken Elisabeth Walton Potter, coordinator of and Western Oregon State College; FPool, Mississippi Department of National Register nominations for the Dean Suagee of Hobbes, Strauss, Dean, Archives and History; Maxwell D. Oregon State Historic Preservation and Wilder; and Nicole Warren, Ramsey, Tennessee Valley Authority; Office, and Beth M. Boland, historian Interagency Resources Division, Barbara Rotundo, historic cemetery with the National Register of Historic National Park Service, for their invalu- consultant, Laconia, New Hampshire; Places. The authors greatfully acknowl- able assistance. Other colleagues in the Brona Simon, Massachusetts Historical edge the assistance of those who National Park Service who provided Commission; Frank W. Snell, Bureau of consulted closely on, or contributed helpful comments or assistance include Land Management; Elizabeth A. Straw, portions of, the text: Elizabeth Crowell, Lawrence E. Aten, Chief, Interagency Tennessee Historical Commission; Ann Chief of Archeological Studies, Engi- Resources Division; Edwin Bearss, Chief Swallow, Illinois Historic Preservation neering-Science, and Norman Mackie, Historian; Charles A. Birnbaum, Agency; and Jay C. Ziemann, Arizona National Conference of State Historic Preservation Assistance Division; Gary State Parks. Preservation Officers; Leland Gilsen, J. Candelaria, Fort Laramie National This publication has been prepared Oregon State Historic Preservation Historic Site; Sue Henry, Planning pursuant to the National Historic Office; Kenneth J. Guzowski, City of Branch, Interagency Resources Division; Preservation Act of 1966, as amended, Eugene, Oregon, Planning Department; H. Ward Jandl, Preservation Assistance which directs the Secretary of the Ellen lipsey, Boston Landmarks Division; Cecil McKithan, Southeast Interior to develop and make available Commission; Patricia L. Parker, Inter- Regional Office; Diane Miller, Informa- information concerning historic proper- agency Resources Division, National tion Management Unit, Interagency ties. National Register Bulletin 41 was Park Service; Bruce Piatek, Historic St. Resources Division; Douglas H. Scovill, developed under the general editorship Augustine Preservation Board; Carol D. Chief Anthropologist; and National of Carol D. Shull, Chief of Registration, Shull, Chief of Registration, National Register archeologists, architectural National Register of Historic Places. Register Branch, Interagency Resources historians, and historians, especially Antoinette J. Lee, historian, is respon- Division, National Park Service; Tim Patrick Andrus, Patty Chrisman, sible for publications coordination, and Smith, State of Alaska Office of History Antoinette Lee, Linda McClelland, Patty Sackett Chrisman, historian, and Archeology; and Daniel Sponn, Donna Seifert, and Jan Townsend. provides technical support. Comments Historic Preservation Office, Depart- Significant contributions also were on this publication may be directed to ment of Veterans Affairs. The authors made by Dan Deibler, Pennsylvania Chief of Registration, National Register also are indebted to Ruthann Knudson, Historical and Museum Commission; of Historic Places, Interagency Re- Archeological Assistance Division, James C. Gutman, Fish and Wildlife sources Division, National Park Service, National Park Service; Kathleen D. Service; Chere Jiusto, Montana Histori- P. O. Box 37127, Washington, D.C. Leslie, Mount Auburn Cemetery, cal Society; Glen Leiner, Government of 20013-7127. Cambridge, Massachusetts; Richard E. the District of Columbia; Robert Z.

in I. INTRODUCTION

Individual and collective burial or because they are part of historic publication. The purpose of this bulletin places can reflect and represent in districts.2 These numbers reflect the is to guide Federal agencies, State important ways the cultural values and essential presence of burial places in the historic preservation offices, Certified practices of the past that help instruct cultural landscape. Various factors have Local Governments, preservation us about who we are as a people. Yet contributed to the continuing trend of professionals, and interested groups and for profoundly personal reasons, registration. Clearly important is the individuals in evaluating, documenting, familial and cultural descendants of the growing literature on funerary art and and nominating cemeteries, burial places interred often view graves and cem- architecture, and on landscapes. With and related types of property to the eteries with a sense of reverence and greater frequency since the 1960s, National Register. devout sentiment that can overshadow studies in American culture have The resources or types of properties objective evaluation. Therefore, treated not only the form and symbol- relating to mortuary customs in the cemeteries and graves are among those ism of gravemarkers, but also the social United States and its associated territo- properties that ordinarily are not and spiritual values expressed in burial ries vary from region to region and age considered eligible for inclusion in the placements and the organization of to age according to prevailing spiritual National Register of Historic Places burying grounds — including the beliefs and methods of caring for the unless they meet special requirements. different attitudes about death held by dead. The burial mound of prehistoric The National Register Criteria for the various cultural groups that make populations in the Mississippi River Evaluation include considerations by up our society. Valley, the tablet-filled graveyard of the which burial places may be eligible for Though the tradition of cleaning up Colonial period, the park-like "rural" inclusion in the National Register. To and beautifying old cemeteries is a long cemetery of the early-to-mid 19th qualify for listing under Criteria A one, the current interest in these subjects century, and the Art Deco mausoleum (association with events), B (association partly owes to widespread incidents of and crematorium of the modern indus- with people), or C (design), a cemetery abandonment, theft, vandalism, real trial age — all are distinct manifestations or grave must meet not only the basic estate development, and environmental of the cultures and environments in criteria, but also the special require- hazards such as acid rain, which have which they were created. These places ments of Criteria Considerations C or pushed cemeteries to the forefront of are capable of providing insight to the D, relating to graves and cemeteries.1 preservation issues. National Register cultural values of preceding generations Burial places evaluated under listing is an important step in preserving unless they have been looted, severely Criterion D for the importance of the cemeteries because such recognition vandalized, or compromised by devel- information they may impart do not often sparks community interest in the opment or natural forces. To measure have to meet the requirements for the importance of these sites in conveying the significance of burial places in Criteria Considerations. These sites the story of its past. Listing also gives American culture, we must know generally have been considered as credibility to State and local efforts to something of their geographic extent, the archeological sites. It is important to preserve these resources for their historic events affecting their creation, remember that although cemeteries continuing contribution to the the span of time in which they evolved, and other burial places may be evalu- community's identity. The documenta- their ceremonial functions, their aesthetic ated for their potential to yield information contained in surveys and nomina- value, the reasons for the location and tion, they also may possess great value tions of these historic burying places — orientation of graves, and the underlying to those who are related culturally to especially those cemeteries that are meaning of their embellishments. the people buried there. neglected or threatened — is the key to This bulletin defines the term "burial Roughly 1,700 cemeteries and burial their better protection and management. place" broadly as a location where the places in all parts of the country have This information has a variety of uses, dead are prepared for burial or crema- been entered in the National Register including public education; planning by tion, or where the remains of the dead since 1966, either as individual listings local, State, or Federal agencies; or are placed. A burial place may be a

1 The discussion of the criteria begins on page 9, and the requirements of the considerations on page 14. For a list of the National Register Criteria for Evaluation and the Criteria Considerations, see p. 33. 2 For information on the National Register, contact the State Historic Preservation Officer in your State, or The National Register of Historic Places, Interagency Resources Division, National Park Service, P. O. Box 37127, Washington, D.C. 20013-7127. single feature, ranging from the grandly descendants has resulted in greater the appropriate treatment of human monumented tomb of a national leader sensitivity toward those for whom a remains and cultural objects. Many to an isolated grave expediently pre- burial place has familial or cultural States, also, have passed legislation that pared alongside a battlefield or emigrant importance. The Native American addresses the discovery and disposition route. Other burial places are more Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of graves. complex, such as compound burial sites of 1990 (P.L. 101-601) sets out the rights Several factors resulted in a decision and cemeteries developed after deliber- of Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian to omit detailed guidance on identify- ate selection and arrangement of the organizations regarding human re- ing, evaluating, and documenting landscape. In Native American and mains, funerary and sacred objects, and archeological sites that contain burials, Pacific Island cultures, certain burial other culturally significant objects for and on appropriate methods for places were ephemeral because they which they can demonstrate lineal studying them, from this bulletin. took place above ground. However, descent or cultural affiliation. One of These factors include the specialized where evidence remains of cremation the main purposes of the legislation is to nature of investigating these burials, areas and sites traditionally used for protect Native American graves and ongoing debates over the appropriate scaffold and other encasement burials, related items, and to control their treatment of such sites, and evolving such places would be encompassed by removal. The Act encourages the policies and procedures relating to the the general classification, burial place. avoidance of archeological sites that Native American Graves Protection Cemeteries and burial places tradi- contain burials and also makes Federal and Repatriation Act Nevertheless, tionally have been regarded as sacred agencies responsible for consulting references, examples, and brief discus- and inviolate, especially by those whose Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian sions of prehistoric burials appear ancestors are buried there. Recently, the groups when they encounter such sites, throughout this bulletin in recognition concern of Native Americans about either in the course of planned excava- that they may be eligible for National appropriate and respectful disposition of tions, or through inadvertent discovery. Register listing. burial remains and objects of their Consultation is required to determine II. BURIAL CUSTOMS AND CEMETERIES IN AMERICAN HISTORY

The types of cemeteries and burial physical attributes tell us something may not fall into one of the traditions places that might qualify for National important about the people who described in this section. Yet they Register listing are many and varied. created them. frequently are nominated and listed in They include: the National Register. Examples of these and many other • town cemeteries and burial types of burial places appear throughout grounds whose creation and continu- this bulletin, especially in the section on ity reflect the broad spectrum of the applying the criteria. Some types of NATIVE AMERICAN community's history and culture; burial places represent events, customs, or beliefs common to many cultures, BURIAL CUSTOMS • family burial plots that contribute locations, or time periods. Others are to the significance of a farmstead; unique representatives of specific people Native American burial customs have or events. Background information on varied widely, not only geographically, • beautifully designed garden some of the traditions in American but also through time, having been cemeteries that served as places of burials that are so common that numer- shaped by differing environments, social rest and recreation; ous examples have been, or are likely to structure, and spiritual beliefs. Prehis- be, identified and nominated is dis- toric civilizations evolved methods of • graveyards that form an important cussed briefly in this section; the omis- caring for the dead that reflected either part of the historic setting for a sion of other traditions or historical the seasonal movements of nomadic church or other religious building developments should not be interpreted societies or the lifeways of settled being nominated; as precluding cemeteries or graves that communities organized around fixed do not fit into the topics that are in- locations. As they evolved, burial • formal cemeteries whose collections cluded. For example, community practices included various forms of of tombs, sculptures, and markers cemeteries that reflect early settlement or encasement, sub-surface interment, possess artistic and architectural various aspects of an area's long history cremation, and exposure. Custom significance;

• single or grouped gravestones that represent a distinctive folk tradition;

• graves or graveyards whose survival is a significant or the only reminder of an important person, culture, settlement, or event; and

• burial places whose location, grave markers, landscaping, or other

The Crawford-Dorsey House and Cemetery near Lovejoy, Clayton County, Georgia, represent a historic Southern plantation; the earliest graves are covered by seashells. (James R. Lockhart, 1983) usually dictated some type of purifica- iconography in favor of more secular tion ritual at the time of burial. Certain COLONIAL AND figures, such as skulls representing fate ceremonies called for secondary inter- common to all men. ments following incineration or expo- EARLY AMERICAN In areas such as the Middle Atlantic sure of the body, and in such cases, the region and the South, settlement rites might extend over some time BURIAL CUSTOMS patterns tended to be more dispersed period. Where the distinctions in social than in New England. Although early status were marked, the rites were more The earliest episodes of Spanish, towns such as Jamestown established elaborate. French, and English settlement on the church cemeteries, eventually burial in The Plains Indians and certain eastern shore of North America fol- churchyards became impractical for all Indians of the Pacific Northwest com- lowed voyages of exploration in the but those living close to churches. As monly practiced above-ground burials 16th century. The original attempts at extensive plantations were established using trees, scaffolds, canoes, and boxes colonizing were made in Florida, the to facilitate the production of large scale on stilts, which decayed over time. Carolinas, and Virginia. In 1565, the cash crops, such as tobacco, several More permanent were earthen construc- first lasting European community was factors often made burial in a church- tions, such as the chambered mounds established by the Spanish on the east yard problematical: towns were located and crematory mounds of the Indians of coast of Florida, at St. Augustine, which far apart, geographically large parishes the Mississippi River drainage. In some survived attack from competing forces were often served by only a single areas of the Southeast and Southwest, in colonization of the New World. An church, and transportation was difficult, cemeteries for urn burials, using earth- essential feature of the fortified settle- the major mode being by ship. The enware jars, were common. ment was the Roman Catholic mission distance of family plantations from After contact with European Ameri- church with its associated burial churches necessitated alternative cans, Native American cultures adopted ground. Where they are uncovered in locations for cemeteries, which took the other practices brought about by the course of modern day improvement form of family cemeteries on the religious proselytizing, intermarriage, projects, unmarked burials of the 16th plantation grounds. They usually were edict, and enforcement of regulations. and 17th centuries provide evidence for established on a high, well-drained The Hopi, Zuni, and other Pueblo identifying the historic locations of point of land, and often were enclosed peoples of Arizona and New Mexico successors to the founding church — by a fence or wall. Although initially were among the first to experience sites that gradually disappeared in the dictated by settlement patterns, planta- Hispanic contact in the 16th century, and layerings of later town development. tion burials became a tradition once the subsequently, their ancestral lands were The archeological record shows shroud- precedent was set. Along with the colonized. At the pueblos — stone and wrapped interments were customary in variety of dependencies, agricultural adobe villages — where Roman Catholic the city's Spanish Colonial period. lands, and other features, family missions were established, burials Traces of coffins or coffin hardware do cemeteries help illustrate the degree of within church grounds or graveyards not appear in Colonial burials before the self-sufficiency sustained by many of consecrated in accordance with Chris- beginning of English immigration to the these plantations. Pruitt Oaks, Colbert tian doctrine were encouraged for those area in the 18th century. Graves of the County, Alabama, is one of many who had been converted to the faith. Spanish colonists occurred in conse- National Register examples of such a However, Native Americans also crated ground within or adjacent to a plantation complex. continued their traditional burial church. They followed a pattern of practices, when necessary in secret. regular, compact spacing and east- Throughout the period of the fur facing orientation. These characteristics, ORIGINS OF THE trade in the North Pacific, beginning in together with arms crossed over the the late 18th century, Russian Orthodox chest and the presence of brass shroud "RURAL" missions were established among the pins are a means of distinguishing native populations settled along the Christian burials from precolonial CEMETERY coastline and mainland interior of Native American burials sometimes Russian-occupied Alaska. At Eklutna, a associated with the same site. MOVEMENT village at the head of Cook Inlet, north of With the notable exception of the Anchorage, an Athabascan cemetery secular graveyards of Puritan New In the young republic of the United adjacent to the 19th century Church of England, the ideal during the Colonial States, the "rural" cemetery movement St. Nicholas (Anchorage Borough - period in English colonies was to bury was inspired by romantic perceptions of Census Area), illustrates continuity of a the dead in churchyards located in close nature, art, national identity, and the burial custom widely recorded in proximity to churches. Churchyard melancholy theme of death. It drew historic times, that of constructing gable- burials have remained standard practice upon innovations in burial ground roofed wooden shelters over graves to into the 20th century for European design in England and France, most house the spirit of the dead. In the Americans and other cultures in the particularly Pere Lachaise Cemetery in cemetery at Eklutna, the spirit houses Judeo-Christian tradition. Early Paris, established in 1804 and developed are arranged in regular rows, have Puritans rejected churchyard burials as according to an 1815 plan. Based on the brightly-painted exteriors fronted by they rebelled against other "papist" model of Mount Auburn Cemetery, Greek crosses, and are surmounted by practices, as heretical and idolatrous. founded at Cambridge, near Boston by comb-like ridge crests. In this particular Instead, many 17th century New leaders of the Massachusetts Horticul- example, variation in the size of the England towns set aside land as com- tural Society in 1831, America's "rural" shelters is an indication of social status, mon community burial grounds. cemeteries typically were established while clan affiliations are identified by Headstone images from this period also around elevated viewsites at the city color and by the styling of the crest. reflect the rejection of formal Christian outskirts. Mount Auburn was followed Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was a model for suburban landscaped cemeteries popular in the 19th century. Mount Auburn and other "rural" cemeteries of its kind inspired a movement for public parks. (Photographer unknown; ca. 1870. From the collection of the Mount Auburn Cemetery Archives)

by the formation of Laurel Hill Cemetery represent a transformation of the "rural" and economy. Whereas 19th century in Philadelphia in 1836; Green Mount in cemetery ideal that began in the last half community cemeteries typically were Baltimore, 1838; Green-Wood Cemetery of the 19th century. At Spring Grove organized and operated by voluntary in Brooklyn and Mount Hope Cemetery Cemetery in Cincinnati (Hamilton associations which sold individual plots in Rochester, New York, in 1839; and County), Ohio, superintendent Adolph to be marked and maintained by private ultimately many others.3 Strauch introduced the lawn plan system, owners according to individual taste, the After the Civil War, reformers which deemphasized monuments in memorial park was comprehensively concerned about land conservation and favor of unbroken lawn scenery, or designed and managed by full-time public health agitated for revival of the common open space. Writing in support professionals. Whether the sponsoring practice of incineration and urn burial. of this concept and the value of unified institution was a business venture or The cremation movement gathered design, fellow landscape architect and non-profit corporation, the ideal was to momentum rapidly around the turn of cemetery engineer Jacob Weidenmann extend perpetual care to every lot and the century, particularly on the west brought out Modem Cemeteries: An Essaygrave. The natural beauty of cemetery coast, and resulted in construction of on the Improvement and Proper Managementsites continued to be enhanced through crematories in many major cities. of Rural Cemeteries in 1888. To illustrate landscaping, but rolling terrain was Columbariums and community mauso- his essay, Weidenmann diagrammed a smoothed of picturesque roughness and leums were erected in cemeteries to variety of plot arrangements showing hilly features. The mechanized equip- expand the number of burials which how areas could be reserved exclusively ment required to maintain grounds could be accommodated with the least for landscaping for the enhancement of efficiently on a broad scale prompted sacrifice of ground space. adjacent lots. standardization of markers flush with Perpetual care lawn cemeteries or "Modern" cemetery planning was the ground level and the elimination of memorial parks of the 20th century based on the keynotes of natural beauty plot-defining barriers.

3 Mount Auburn (Middlesex County), Laurel Hill (Philadelphia County), and Green Mount (Baltimore Independent City) are listed individually in the National Register. Because National Register files and published lists are organized by State and county, the name of the county is provided for each individually listed burial place cited in this bulletin. Other referenced cemeteries and burial places may be included in the National Register as part of larger historic properties, especially historic districts. ascent slowed progress to a stately pace. matters of civic landscape design. But THE "RURAL" Such settings stirred an appreciation of after 1900, parks and cemeteries took on nature and a sense of the continuity of aspects of formal landscape planning CEMETERY life. By their example, the popular new made fashionable by the "City Beautiful" cemeteries started a movement for movement and renewed interest in MOVEMENT AND urban parks that was encouraged by the formal gardens of the Italian style. writings of Andrew Jackson Downing Typically, classical formality was ITS IMPACT ON and the pioneering work of other introduced to early 20th century cem- advocates of "picturesque" landscaping, etery landscapes in the axial alignment AMERICAN most particularly Calvert Vaux and of principal avenues of approach Frederick Law Olmsted, who collabo- centered on building fronts, and also in LANDSCAPE rated in the design of New York City's cross axes terminated by rostrums, Central Park. exedras, and other focal features drawn DESIGN With the rapid growth of urban from various traditions in classical centers later in the 19th century, land- architecture. By the 1930s, newer The "rural" cemetery movement, scape design and city planning merged cemeteries and memorial parks showed influenced by European trends in in the work of Frederick Law Olmsted, the influence of modernism in a general gardening and landscape design, in turn the country's leading designer of urban preference for buildings and monuments had a major impact on American parks. Olmsted and his partners were that were stripped of excessive decora- landscape design. Early in the 19th influential in reviving planning on a tion. Greek architecture, admired for its century, the prevailing tradition was the grand scale in the parkways they purity and simplicity, was the approved romantic style of landscape gardening created to connect units of municipal model for monumentation in the early which in the previous century the park systems. Although Olmsted was modern age. English nobility and their gardeners had more closely tied to the naturalistic style invented using classical landscape of landscape planning, his firm's work paintings as their models. English with Daniel H. Burnham in laying out MILITARY garden designers such as Lancelot grounds for the World's Columbian "Capability" Brown, William Kent, Sir Exposition of 1893 in Chicago con- CEMETERIES Uvedale Price, Humphrey Repton and formed to the classical principles of John Claudius Loudon artfully im- strong axial organization and bilateral Military cemeteries, created for the proved vast country estates according to symmetry. The central unifying burial of war casualties, veterans, and varying aesthetic theories. To achieve element of the imposing exposition their dependents are located in nearly naturalistic effects, gracefully curving building group was a lengthy con- every State, as well as in foreign coun- pathways and watercourses were course, a lagoon, terminated by sculp- tries, and constitute an important type of adapted to rolling land forms. Contrast tural focal points at either end. Follow- American cemetery. There are over 200 and variation were employed in the ing the Chicago World's Fair, civic cemeteries established by the Federal massing of trees and plants as well as planning was based for some time on a government for the burial of war the arrangement of ornamental features. formal, monumental vision of "the City casualties and veterans. These include The "picturesque" mode of 18th century Beautiful" national cemeteries, post cemeteries, landscaping was characterized by open The historic relationship of cemetery soldiers' lots, Confederate and Union meadows of irregular outline, uneven and municipal park planning in plots, American cemeteries overseas, and stands of trees, naturalistic lakes, accents America is well documented in Park and other burial grounds. Many States also of specimen plants and, here and there, Cemetery, one of the earliest professional have established veterans cemeteries. incidental objects such as an antique journals in the field of landscape The majority of veterans, however, likely statue or urn on a pedestal to lend architecture. Inaugurated in Chicago in are buried in private and community interest and variety to the scene. 1891 and briefly published as The cemeteries, sometimes in separate The "rural" cemeteries laid out by Modern Cemetery, a title that was sections reserved for veterans. horticulturists in Boston, Philadelphia, resumed in 1933, the journal chronicles During the American Revolution, Baltimore, and New York in the 1830s the growth of an industry and indicates soldiers were buried in existing burial were romantic pastoral landscapes of the the developing professionalism within grounds near the place of battle. One of picturesque type. Planned as serene and related fields. For example, the Associa- the earliest types of organized American spacious grounds where the combination of American Cemetery Superinten- military cemetery was the post cemetery. tion of nature and monuments would be dents was organized in 1887. Cemetery Commanders at frontier forts of the spiritually uplifting, they came to be superintendents and urban park early-to-mid 19th century buried their looked on as public parks, places of officials held a common interest in dead in cemetery plots marked off respite and recreation acclaimed for their matters of design as well as horticulture within the post reservations. Post beauty and usefulness to society. In the and practical groundskeeping. cemetery registers reveal a fairly uniform early "rural" cemeteries and in those The tradition of naturalistic land- system of recording burials, sometimes which followed their pattern, hilly, scape design that was developed by even including assigned grave numbers. wooded sites were enhanced by grad- Olmsted and his followers continued Management of burial grounds fell to ing, selective thinning of trees, and into the 20th century. Widely influential quartermaster officers. In 1850, the U.S. massing of plant materials which was the work of John C. Olmsted and Congress called for the establishment of directed views opening onto broad Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., successors a cemetery outside Mexico City for vistas. The cemetery gateway estab- of the elder Olmsted and principals of Americans who died in the Mexican lished separation from the workaday the Olmsted Brothers firm which was War. This was a precedent for the world, and a winding drive of gradual consulted throughout the country on creation of permanent military cemeteries over a decade before the creation of a superintendent quarters to be con- Originally, hospital military cemeteries national cemetery system. structed. Although many national associated with former National During the Civil War, there was a cemeteries contain Confederate sec- Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers critical shortage of cemetery space for tions, it was not until 1906 that Con- and former Veterans Bureau (later large concentrations of troops. At first, gress authorized marking the graves of Veterans Administration) hospital this need was addressed through the Confederates who had died in Federal reservations were not part of the acquisition of lots near general hospitals, prisons and military hospitals. The national cemetery system. In 1973, the where more soldiers died than in battle. post-Civil War reburial program also Department of the Army transferred 82 As the war continued, however, it was removed burials from abandoned of the 84 remaining national cemeteries clear that this was not an adequate military post cemeteries, particularly to the Veterans Administration — solution. In 1862, Congress passed those in the western frontier, for today the Department of Veterans legislation authorizing the creation of a interment into newly-created national Affairs — which had been created in national cemetery system. Within the cemeteries. 1930 from the merging of the National year, 14 national cemeteries were Following World War I, only 13 Homes and Veterans Bureau. Also in established. Most were located near percent of the deceased returned to the 1973, the 21 existing "VA" hospital troop concentrations, two were former United States were placed in national cemeteries were recognized as part of post cemeteries, one was for the burial of cemeteries; 40 percent of those who the National Cemetery System. The Confederate prisoners and guards who died were buried in eight permanent system has continued to expand, and died in a train accident, and several were American cemeteries in Europe. there now are 114 national cemeteries transformed battlefield burial grounds. Similarly, after World War II, 14 managed by the Department of By the end of 1864,13 more had been permanent cemeteries were created in Veterans Affairs, where more than two added. Two of the best known of the foreign countries. Today, there are 24 million Americans — including national cemeteries from the Civil War American cemeteries located outside veterans from all of the country's wars period are Arlington National Cemetery, the United States, which are adminis- and conflicts from the Revolutionary established in 1864, and Andersonville, tered by the American Battle Monu- War to the Persian Gulf — are buried. established in 1865. Arlington, the home ments Commission. The total number of military and of Confederate General Robert E. Lee at Until 1933, the War Department veterans burial places in the United the beginning of the Civil War, was administered most military cemeteries. States is unknown because there are confiscated by the Union army in May of That year an executive order transferred numerous veterans plots in private and 1861. In 1864, on the recommendation of 11 national cemeteries near national non-Federal public cemeteries. In 1991, Brig. Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs, military parks or battlefield sites 70 percent of the markers provided by Quartermaster General of the Army, the already under the jurisdiction of the the Federal government to mark new grounds officially became a national National Park Service to that agency. gravesites were delivered to private or cemetery. Andersonville became the Today, the National Park Service State cemeteries, and the remainder to final resting place of almost 13,000 administers 14 national cemeteries. national cemeteries. soldiers who died there at the Confeder- ate prisoner of war camp. The National The establishment of Civil War-era Cemetery Section military cemeteries often resulted from of Lexington decisions by local commanders or by State civil authorities in conjunction with Cemetery, private associations. Burial grounds Lexington, Fayette were established near battlefields, County, Kentucky, military posts, hospitals, and, later, includes burials of veterans homes. Before the creation of Union and the National Cemetery System, these Confederate burial grounds were referred to vari- soldiers, and ously as national cemeteries, soldiers' veterans of the lots, Confederate plots, Union plots, and Spanish-American post cemeteries. Many later were War. (Lexington absorbed into the National Cemetery Herald-Leader System. Newspaper, 1958) Immediately after the Civil War, an ambitious search and recovery program initiated the formidable task of locating and reburying soldiers from thousands of scattered battlefield burial sites. By 1870, over 90 percent of the Union casualties — 45 percent of whose identity were unknown — were interred in national cemeteries, private plots, and post cemeteries. In 1867, Congress directed every national cemetery to be enclosed with a stone or iron fence, each gravesite marked with a headstone, and III. TYPES OF BURIAL PLACES AND ASSOCIATED FEATURES

Distinctive mortuary features and whose overall character is defined by burial places may be eligible for inclu- the relationship of the features within it. amphitheater sion in the National Register as free- More elaborate cemeteries may have, in bench standing buildings and sites nominated addition to the basic cemetery features, burial cache individually. Others are eligible ornamental plantings, boundary fences, burial mound because they are significant in a larger road systems, gateways, and substantial burial mound complex context, as, for example, a mausoleum architectural features such as mausole- burial site located in a cemetery or a family burial ums, chapels, and residences of sexton cairn plot on a farmstead or plantation. or superintendent — all requiring cemetery Cemeteries have been included in the description and evaluation of signifi- chapel National Register as component ele- cance. columbarium ments of historic districts encompassing Opposite are some of the types of cremation area entire villages, military reservations, or properties or features that might be crematorium industrial complexes, as well as in encountered in documenting and crypt association with churches. When a evaluating burial places. The list covers fountain cemetery is included in a larger historic places for preparation and interment of gatehouse district, it is evaluated like other re- the dead, commemorative objects, and a grave sources in the district: it contributes to number of buildings and structures gravemarker the district's historic significance if it commonly associated with larger graveyard dates from the historic period, relates to cemeteries (for definitions, see the grave shelter the district's significance, and retains Glossary, p. 28). greenhouse integrity; or if it possesses significance lych gate independent of the district's. Cemeter- mausoleum ies also may be historic districts in their memorial park own right. monument A cemetery that is evaluated on an mortuary individual basis is treated either as a office building historic site or as a district made up of ossuary individual graves, their markers, and pumphouse plot-defining characteristics. A cem- receiving tomb etery that is a site may or may not rostrum possess above-ground features that service building convey their significant historic associa- sexton's residence tions, but still must retain historic shelter house integrity. A cemetery district, like other superintendent's residence historic districts, is more than an area tomb composed of a collection of separate vault elements; it is a cohesive landscape IV. EVALUATING CEMETERIES AND BURIAL PLACES

It is not essential that those evaluating the resource, the elements of artistic and The term "context," as applied to the cemeteries for potential National architectural style embodied in sculp- process of evaluation, may be described Register eligibility hold credentials in tural monument, gatehouse, and simply as the relevant social, political, scholarly disciplines, but it is important mausoleum. Landscape architectural economic, and environmental circum- that they be able to place the resource historians can evaluate and document stances of the historic period in which a type in as broad a context as possible elements of historic landscape design. property was developed. By studying a and to describe and analyze its compo- Those who specialize in the study of burial place in its broadest possible nents. Those not trained in the disci- material culture are knowledgeable context, and by applying the basic plines discussed below are encouraged about the evolving techniques of criteria, the researcher is able to recognize to refer to the recommended sources manufacture and the icons (forms and those resources which are significant in listed at the end of the guidance, and to symbols holding special meaning) used representing a given period and historic consult their local historical commission by monument makers in various theme. and State historic preservation office. historic periods. Historians are quali- Within the broad patterns of American They may wish to consult professionals fied to relate cemetery development to history, the National Register defines a who have had training or experience in changing attitudes about death and number of "areas of significance/' Areas archeology, anthropology, art history, burial, trends in community planning, of significance are equivalent to the architectural history, history of land- aesthetic taste and choices, and historic historical or cultural themes that the scape architecture, horticulture, history events such as episodes of settlement property best represents. Some of the American studies, cultural geography, and military actions. areas of significance relevant to burial or historic preservation. Within a places are art and architecture, landscape number of these disciplines, the study of architecture, community planning and funerary art and custom is a specialized APPLYING THE development, archeology, ethnic heritage, area. Appropriate expertise may extend exploration and settlement, health/ to the fields of iconology, ethnology and NATIONAL medicine, military history, religion, and folklore. Familiar with the terminology social history. It is important when used to describe characteristic elements REGISTER applying National Register criteria to of prehistoric and historic burial sites, keep in mind that, except for archeologi- cemetery landscapes, buildings, and CRITERIA FOR cal sites and cemeteries nominated under monuments, individuals in these fields Criterion D, burial places also must meet may more easily be able to identify those EVALUATION the special requirements of Criteria elements in historic photographs, in Considerations C or D, which refer to plans, and upon inspection of a site. To be eligible for the National graves and cemeteries, and possibly to A Archeologists and anthropologists are Register, a cemetery or burial place (religious properties) or other Criteria qualified to evaluate the potential of must be shown to be significant under Considerations. burials to yield significant information one or more of the four basic Criteria for about the past, and often are able to do Evaluation. Criteria A, B, C, and D Criterion A: Properties can be eligible so without disturbing the remains. indicate the several ways in which a for the National Register if they are Anthropologists and cultural geogra- property may be significant in Ameri- associated with events that have made a phers glean information from can history, architecture (including the significant contribution to the broad gravemarkers, inscriptions, and epi- disciplines of landscape architecture patterns of our history. taphs, which reveal changing attitudes and planning), archeology, engineering, Under Criterion A, the events or about death and afterlife, about demo- and culture. Decisions about the trends with which the burial place is graphics (the migration patterns of relative significance of cemeteries and associated must be clearly important, and population groups), and about the burial places can be made only with the connection between the burial place prevalence of disease. The folklorist and knowledge of the events, trends, and and its associated context must be anthropologist perceive meaning in the technologies that influenced practices of unmistakable. There are many ways in commonplace, traditional ways of caring for and commemorating the which a cemetery might represent an treating graves that are untouched by dead, and with some concept of the important aspect of a community's or a the currents of high style quality and quantity of similar resources culture's history through association with monumentation. in the community, region, State, or a specific event or by representing Art and architectural historians are nation. Such background provides the broader patterns of attihides or behavior. prepared to assess the visual qualities of context for evaluating significance. For example, our legacy of community cemeteriesbegan in Colonial times. In for an annual Memorial Day celebra Rouge took place therein 1862. Al Boston,when ''Brother Johnson''died in tion, which grewover the years into one though the Confederatesfailed to expel 1630,his burial was soonfollowed by of the town'smost importantcommunal the Union forces occupying the city,the others closeby. 'Thisproperty then traditions. In addition, a study of the ferocityof their attack helped persuade becamethe firstburial groundfor the birthplacesof those buried there found Federal leaders to evacuate. As a result, MassachusettsBay Colony, and was the at least 17 foreigncountries and 26 the Confederateswere abie to securea only Colonial burial groundin Boston States,demonstrating the ethnic and stronghold for transportingsupplies on for30 years. Ultimately,it assumedthe cultural diversity characteristic of early the Mississippi River. Much of the restof name of a later churchconstructed northern California communities. the battlefield has succumbedto urban there, becoming King'sChapel Burying Cemeteriesmay besignificant for development, but the cemetery retains its Ground (SuffolkCounty). Depending associations with specificevents as well integrity from the Civil War period. on the history of an area,the age as long-term trends. The Kuamo'o Battles are a common, but not the only requiredof a cemeteryto represent Burials, Hawaii County, Hawaii, is the typeof, event associated with cemeteries earlyexploration, settlement, and burial ground forwarriors killed in a and other burial places. The Mass Grave development will vary. In Colorado, major battle in Hawaiian history. The of the Mexican Miners, within Mount the Doyle Settlement(Pueblo County), Hawaiian ruling class traditionallyhad Cavalry Cemetery,McAlester (Pittsburg establishedby earlypioneer Joseph exercisedpower through a system of County), Oklahoma, is the only site Doyle in 1859, was one of the earliest sacredrules, or kapu. Afterthe death of representinga major 1929 mining non-mining communitiesin the State. Kamehameha I in 1819, authority was disaster. Mexicans played a major role in Once a self-containedunit consisting of dividedso that Kamehamehal's son the area's mining industryan d made up residences,dining facility,store, flour Liholiho (Kamehameha II)controlled almost half of the casualties from the mill, blacksmith shop, school,and the secular government,and his 1929 explosion. The creationof a mass granaries, its importancein the early nephew Kekuaokalani maintained the grave for 24 of the Mexican victims, dug development of southernColorado is kapu system. When the new king acted by State prisonersand initially marked now represented by only the school, the to abolish the kapu,Kekuaokalani ledan with only a single wooden cross (ten cemetery, and building foundations. army in rebellion to protect the sacred stone family markers were added later), A cemetery mayrepresent a variety traditions. Liholiho's forces prevailed, also is evocative of a time in mining of importantaspects of an area's early and the abolitionof the kapusystem, history when terms of employment did settlementand evolving senseof occurring the sameyear as the arrival of not include survivorsbenefits. community. Union Cemetery, in Christian missionaries, accelerated the The evolutionof burial customs and RedwoodCity (SanMateo County), assimilation of westernculture. In memorializationsalso can be an impor California,was the subjectof the State's contrast, Magnolia Cemetery, East tant context for understandingour first cemetery legislationin 1859. Early Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, already history. In the 19th century,romantic in itshistory, it becamethe focalpoint was a cemetery when the Battleof Baton appreciationof nature and changing

Oneof the few remindersof the vanished Doyle Settlement near Pueblo, Colorado, this cemeteryalso includes oneof the state'sbest collections of carvedSpanish headstones and representsthe dual culturalinfluence s on the community. (James Munch, 1979)

10 attitudes about death and example, Abraham Lincoln's tomb in and his impact on this area of the State. memorialization led to gradual aban- Springfield (Sangamon County), Illinois In Utah, the Martin Harris Gravesite donment of overcrowded urban is significant as the final resting place of (Cache County) is listed as the State's graveyards and church cemeteries in the martyred figure who, as the nation's only property associated with Martin favor of spacious, landscaped burial 16th president, successfully defended Harris, one of three witnesses to the grounds on the city outskirts. The great the Union of States in the Civil War and Book of Mormon, who also served as "rural" cemeteries outlying major cities drafted the Emancipation Proclamation the first scribe to Mormon prophet in the eastern United States and the of 1862-1863. While not all other Joseph Smith. Midwest were founded by voluntary properties directly associated with Cemeteries, as well as graves, may be associations in the 1830s and 1840s. President Lincoln's productive life are eligible under Criterion B. Forestvale Their popularity inspired a benevolent lost, the tomb also is important, in part, Cemetery, on the outskirts of Helena movement, led to the development of under Criterion A as the focal point of a (Lewis and Clark County), Montana, is urban parks, and was the foundation of broad-based commemorative effort one of many National Register cemeter- an entire industry. Although most of begun shortly after he was slain in 1865. ies that contain the graves of numerous the Register-listed community cemeter- Graves of persons significant to a persons who made outstanding contri- ies across the country that were estab- particular State, region of the country, butions to the history of the State or area lished in their image before 1900 are or cultural group also may qualify for in which their graves are located. documented under Criterion C only — listing. The Free Frank McWorter Grave Among those buried in Forestvale are for landscape architecture, and some- Site, also in Illinois (Pike County), is James Fergus, first commissioner of the times art or architecture — many also listed in the National Register for its territory, also credited with spearhead- may meet National Register Criterion A significance in representing the accom- ing the formation of Fergus County; in the areas of social history or commu- plishments of a former slave. Free Cornelius Hedges, who played a nity planning. Frank McWorter purchased his own prominent role in the development of In the late 19th and early 20th freedom and that of his wife with the the State's public education system and centuries, American mortuary practices profits of his business before moving to in the formation of Yellowstone Na- were greatly influenced by the crema- Illinois in 1830. In Illinois, he estab- tional Park; J. Scott Harrison, the chief tion movement spurred by advocates in lished a farm, engaged in land specula- geological engineer who mapped all of the medical and scientific community tion, founded a prosperous frontier Montana, including boundaries, and a general awareness of the world's community, and secured the freedom of mountains, principal rivers and streams, mounting population. The first national 13 additional family members. The and some county borders; Albert convention leading to formation of the gravesite is the only property that Kleinschmidt,credited with the con- Cremation Association of America was survives to represent his achievements struction of the three largest irrigation held at Detroit in 1913. In areas of the world where it was not in conflict with religious doctrine, the movement was The Lincoln Tomb, well developed by the 1920s and 1930s. Springfield, Illinois, Public health laws were revised to allow is the final resting hygienic disposal of the dead by place for Abraham incineration, and cremation societies Lincoln, his wife were organized to promote and main- Mary Todd Lincoln, tain private facilities. Some crematories and three of his were municipally owned. Typically, crematory design incorporated, in sons. Built between addition to the retort, a chapel and 1869 and 1874, it mausoleum, or columbarium. Fre- was the culmination quently, the combination facility was of a broad-based sited in a conventional cemetery or community effort to memorial park. The spread of the memorialize the movement related, in part, to the ideals slain president. of economy and efficiency that marked (Stephen the early 20th century. The nation's Lissandrello, 1975) early crematories and those representing later benchmarks in the broad reform movement would be eligible, in all likelihood, under Criterion A.

Criterion B: Properties may be eligible for the National Register if they are associated with the lives of persons significant in our past. Under Criterion B, the person or group of persons with which the burial place is associated must be of outstanding importance to the community, State, or nation, as required by Criteria Consideration C (see page 16). As an 11 canals in the State; and W. A. Chess- rock from a nearby outcropping by an gravemarkers and monuments repre- man, who constructed the Chessman early settler who learned the craft from senting the common artistic values of a Reservoir, ensuring a stable water ancestors in the British Isles. historic period. For example, the supply for the city of Helena.4 In the closing years of the 19th elaborate monumentation characteristic century, the arts in America achieved a of cemeteries of the Victorian era was Criterion C: Properties may be high point of integration based on the derived from the influence of the eligible for the National Register if they ideals of Renaissance classicism. The romantic movement in literature and embody the distinctive characteristics nation's leading architects and sculp- art, which revered nature and senti- of a type, period, or method of construc- tors, most notably Richard Morris Hunt, ment. Grief and devotion could be tion, or that represent the work of a Stanford White, Daniel Chester French, expressed nobly in artistic terms by master, or that possess high artistic and Augustus Saint-Gaudens, collabo- means of code-like imagery. Pyramid- values, or that represent a significant rated in the design of important civic capped mausoleums and tapering shafts and distinguishable entity whose and cemetery monuments. There are on pedestals were among the popular components may lack individual many examples of high artistic achieve- monument forms drawn from the distinction. ment in funerary monumentation of the ancient world. Because of their associa- Under Criterion C, funerary monu- period eligible under Criterion C in tion with Egyptian sepulchral monuments and their associated art works, urban centers. Among the best-known ments signifying eternal life beyond the buildings, and landscapes associated with burial places must be good representatives of their stylistic type or period and methods of construction or fabrication. Alternatively, such property types may represent the work of master artists, designers and craftsmen, or the highest artistic values of the period. Appropriate areas of significance would be architecture, art, or landscape architecture. In the Colonial period, tablet-style gravemarkers typically were inscribed and embellished in low relief with the imagery first of death, and later also of resurrection, with various decorative symbols. Much of the work was done by stone carvers whose craftsmanship was of outstanding quality, recogniz- able in one burial ground after another by distinguishing motifs, craft techniques, or other signature marks. A 17m or 18th century graveyard contain- The Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, illustrates ing a good representation of characteristic features and attitudes toward death in the Victorian period in the gravemarkers of the period and region profusion of attenuated, vertical forms, such as columns and obelisks, imagery would be eligible under Criterion C if expressing confidence in spiritual after-life. (Anna Sanchez, 1985) the body of work is documented sufficiently to provide a basis for of these is the Adams Memorial in Rock earthly realm, the pyramid and obelisk comparison. Attribution of particular Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C., became symbols for Christian belief in works to a specific master carver, where Stanford White provided an the eternity of the spirit. Indeed, family, or group of artisans would be architectural setting for the sublime obelisks were so widely used as helpful, but is not essential to the bronze figure of transcendent peace gravemarkers that they, along with documentation. Quality craftsmanship completed by Saint-Gaudens in 1891. classical columns, account for much of or distinctive folk art may be eligible Historian-writer Henry Brooks Adams the bristling quality of cemetery land- even if the identity of the artisan is commissioned the monument in scapes of the period. Some of the unknown. For example, the Hebron memory of his wife, the former Marian imagery was figural, encompassing Church, Cemetery, and Academy, Hooper. effigies and idealized figures as well as Banks County, Georgia, is eligible, in A cemetery that does not contain lambs, cherubs, and other orders of part, because of an unusual form of folk "high style" master works of funerary angels. Among the many cemeteries art found in northern Georgia. Early art nonetheless may be eligible under listed for their notable collection of 19th century discoid markers there are Criterion C as a distinguishable entity Victorian funerary art are Oakwood believed to be made of hand-carved made up of a significant array of Cemetery, Onondaga County, New

4 Refer to National Register Bulletin 32: Guidelines for Evaluating and Documenting Properties Associated with Significant Persons for additional guidance on applying Criterion B. 12 The Sculptures ofDionicio Rodriguez at Memorial Park Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee, illustrate the work j of a master artist. (Tennessee Historical Commission, 1990)

Four of the dozens of individually designed styles found in the German- Russian Wrought Iron Cross Sites in Central North Dakota represent an Old World folk tradition, which enjoyed its greatest period of popularity in this region from the 1880s until about 1925. (Timothy J. Kloberdanz, 1988) York; Oakland Cemetery, Fulton County, Georgia; Elmwood Cemetery, Jackson County, Missouri; and Cave Hill Cemetery, Jefferson County, Kentucky. Not surprisingly, all are significant in the area of landscape architecture as well. In part, the richness and variety of monuments in Victorian cemeteries was derived from the introduction of mechanized manufacturing processes. A broad range of patterns was available double-bar with sunburst to monument makers in printed The rural setting and handbooks, a notable example of which these six crosses, the was Palliser's Memorials and Headstones, only objects remaining published in 1851 by Palliser, Palliser, from the old Mt. and Company, New York architects and Carmel settlement in designers. A great many markers were Pierce County, North mass marketed through marble works and manufacturers' catalogs. Monu- Dakota, are evocative ments of cast zinc marketed as "white of the State's early bronze" were popular throughout the period of German- country after a fabrication process was Russian immigration. developed in the 1870s. Metal (Timothy J. gravemarkers generally were cheaper Kloberdanz, 1988) than marble and granite markers and, double-bar with car ouble-bar with circle & canopy depending on the number and variety of casting molds used, could surpass in elaboration the carved stone monuments they emulated. Gty Cemetery, Washington County, Georgia, contains a significant collection of mass-pro- duced designs. Cast iron fences, also readily available at this time, became extremely popular for fencing of both individual plots and entire cemeteries. The cast iron fences in Rapides Cem- etery, Rapides Parish, Louisiana, are among the most important examples of Victorian ornamental cast iron in the State outside of New Orleans. Less commonplace, but highly distinctive, examples of funerary art or

13 craftsmanship also may qualify for closing of graves with stones and the In cases where written documentation National Register listing. Hie Sculp- plugging of burial chambers with debris, is not available, studies of a cemetery tures of Dionicio Rodriguez at Memorial indicate methods of protecting the may reveal important information about Park Cemetery, Shelby County, Tennes- remains. The similarity of burial an area. The site of Old Greenville is the see, constitute one of the finest collec- practices in different regions could location of a frontier town and county tions of sculptures executed by this indicate links through trade and migra- seat important in the early settlement of Mexican artist. His rustic works in tion. ' the Missouri Ozarks. Because a series of tinted reinforced concrete imitate Present Federal, State, and local laws courthouse fires destroyed early records, natural forms such as trees and stone protecting Native American burial information that can be obtained from masses. Mountain View Cemetery, remains, burial goods, and sacred cemetery features can enlighten various Stillwater County, Montana, is known objects may constrain physical anthropo- aspects of the area's past. Features for its concentration of hand-carved logical studies. However, where documented as having information sandstone tree stump and log tomb- disturbance of burials is accidental or potential include location and grouping stones, most believed to be the work of unavoidable, legally authorized scien- of graves; use and quantity of commer- two local Italian carvers. In central tific analysis of skeletal remains can cial markers, fieldstone, impermanent North Dakota, German-Russian disclose important information about markers, or no markers; funerary art; and Wrought Iron Cross Sites contain a environmental conditions of prehistoric inscriptions indicating identity, cultural dazzling array of infricately embel- times, including the prevalence of affiliation, birth and death dates, and lished hand-crafted iron grave crosses, a disease and trauma inflicted in combat. cause of death. long-established Old World folk Sometimes these properties may be tradition brought to the United States by eligible without having been excavated; German-Russian immigrants. The Hodgen's Cemetery Mound in Ohio, SPECIAL crosses, some by highly-skilled black- revealed as a burial mound by erosion, smiths whose names are known, and has never been excavated and was REQUIREMENTS: others by unknown artisans, display a seeded to prevent further erosion; its balance of cultural tradition and significance is enhanced by its relatively CRITERIA individual creativity. undisturbed integrity. Also, it is not uncommon to find burying places CONSIDERATIONS Criterion D: Properties may be associated with other archeological eligible for the National Register if they features, and such burial places may be Certain types of properties, including have yielded, or may be likely to yield, eligible for National Register listing as cemeteries and graves, do not qualify for information important in prehistory or part of a larger area of occupation for the National Register unless they meet history. which testing or partial excavation has certain special conditions. This category Burial places may be eligible for their been carried out. Whether burial places also includes birthplaces of historical * potential to yield information about are identified individually, or as part of a figures, properties owned by religious cultural and ethnic groups. Under larger site, one should always consult institutions or used for religious pur- Criterion D, the common requirements representatives of any group for whom poses, structures that have been moved are that the property have information the burials or site have historic or from their original locations, recon- to contribute and the information is cultural meaning, and also the State structed historic buildings, properties considered important. The importance historic preservation office. primarily commemorative in nature, and of the information to be yielded usually Anthropologists and historical properties that have achieved signifi- is determined by considering a research archeologists can gain information cance within the past 50 years. However, design or a set of questions that could significant in American culture from cemeteries and graves may qualify under be resolved by controlled investigation burial places. For example, West Criteria A, B, or C if they are integral of the site. While commonly under- Africans carried in the slave trade to the parts of larger properties that do meet the stood to apply to archeological research, east coast of America, and their descen- criteria, or if they meet the conditions Criterion D also encompasses informa- dants, adapted traditional burial rites to known as Criteria Considerations. In tion important in the study of material plantation and community life. Studies some instances, a burial place nomination culture and social history. Except for of African American cemeteries in the will need to be justified under more than the graves of significant historic indi- South reveal a variety of gravesite one of the special conditions in addition viduals, burial places nominated under treatments based on a view of the spirit to the basic criteria. Except for the graves Criterion D need not meet the special world that can be traced to the Bakongo of historical figures, burial places nomi- requirements of the Criteria Consider- culture of West Africa. Light-reflecting nated under Criterion D are exempt from ations. objects and personal possessions used to the Criteria Consideration requirements. Information collected on Native define and decorate graves are intended In the discussion below, examples that Americans in all parts of the country to attract and contain the spirit. The must be justified under the Criteria reveals a great range and variation of spiralled conch shell seen on graves in Considerations are those for which an burial ritual. The placement and the coastal areas is an emblem of the explicit justification must be included in orientation of burial remains and the eternal cycle of life and death, and the nomination documentation. Follow- objects associated with burials, such as inverted objects are oriented to the spirit ing these are examples of properties implements, vessels for food offerings world, which in traditional culture is a likely to be accepted for National Regis- and personal adornment, reveal a shimmering mirror of the living world ter listing if the nomination documenta- people's spiritual beliefs, their view of beneath the earthly plane. Cemeteries tion included an adequate explanation. afterlife, and distinctions in social, having the potential to illustrate the Each discussion also includes at least one economic, and political status. Some practice of such beliefs may be eligible example of a type of cemetery or burial aspects of burials, such as the lining or under Criterion D. place that may be nominated, or included 14 in a larger nominated property, without the necessity of checking a Criteria Example of religious burial places Examples of relocated burial places Consideration blank on the form or that do not need to be justified under that likely would meet Criteria Consid- providing a special justification in the Criteria Consideration A: eration B requirements with adequate nomination. documentation: • A graveyard or cemetery that is Criteria Consideration A: A religious nominated along with the church or • A mausoleum or other building property is eligible if it derives its synagogue with which it is associated relocated within the bounds of its primary significance from architectural when the church or synagogue is the historic setting without loss to its or artistic distinction or historical main resource nominated. significant architectural character and importance. without destroying the character of a Examples of religious burial places Criteria Consideration B: A property historic district. that must be justified under Criteria removed from its original or historically Consideration A requirements: significant location can be eligible if it • A cemetery or section of a cemetery is significant primarily for architectural where a group of historic persons of • A graveyard maintained as prop- value or if it is the surviving structure outstanding importance were erty of a church or synagogue. most importantly associated with a reinterred fifty or more years ago. historic person or event. • A crypt or crypts of a historic Examples of relocated burial places • A graveyard moved in its entirety church or synagogue. that must be justified under Criteria if it represents a historic relocation Consideration B requirements: and the artistic qualities and social • A cemetery containing burials of significance of its historic members of a religious order or • A grave of a historic figure that has gravemarkers are preserved. group, if the religious affiliation is a been moved from its original or major part of the cemetery's signifi- earlier historic location to a place that • An ossuary or other burial place cance. became the focus of commemorative that represents reinterment as a monumentation. traditional cultural practice. Examples of religious burial grounds that likely would meet Criteria Consid- • A mausoleum, columbarium, or Example of relocated burial places eration A requirements with adequate other building that has been relo- that do not need to be justified under documentation: cated. Criteria Consideration B:

• A graveyard of a church or syna- • A cemetery or section of a cemetery • A graveyard or cemetery in which gogue distinguished by the artistic that became the location of a few reinterments have taken place; quality of its gravemarkers or by reinterments of a group of historic in which a small number of relatively early historical associations. figures. gravemarkers original to the grounds are missing or separated from their • A crypt significant for its artistic • A graveyard or cemetery relocated historic positions; or for which the embellishment or associations with a in its entirety. age or historical associations are of person of outstanding importance. overriding rarity and significance.

As part of a church nomination, the cemetery next to Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church in Coif ax County, Nebraska, need not meet the requirements of Criteria Considerations A orD. (D. Murphy, 1980)

15 development of an area by a particular Criteria Consideration C: A birth- Criteria Consideration D: A cem- group. As with any other type of place or grave of a historical figure is etery is eligible if it derives its primary property, a cemetery may be eligible for eligible if the person is of outstanding significance from graves of persons of the quality of design represented in its importance and if there is no other transcendent importance, from age, funerary art, construction or engineering appropriate site or building directly from distinctive design features, or from techniques, landscape architecture, or associated with his or her productive association with historic events. other values recognized under National life. As collective burial places, cemeteries Register Criterion C. Likewise, under Historical figures of outstanding are the focus of many individual Criterion A, a cemetery may possess importance in local, State or national expressions commemorating family significant associations with historic history usually are more vividly associ- members and spiritual beliefs. In and of events, including general events that ated with the places relating to their itself, this characteristic does not qualify reflect important broad patterns in our productive lives than with their graves. a burial place for listing in the National history. Gravesites may be far removed, geo- Register. However, when a burying Examples of cemeteries that must be graphically, from the setting of the ground is of sufficient age and scope to justified under Criteria Consideration D individual's momentous activities. But represent more, such as patterns or early requirements: if residences and business or professional headquarters are not preserved, the final resting place sometimes may be The St. Matthew's Church cemetery contributes to the significance of East significant as the most substantial link to Plymouth Historic District in Plymouth, Litchfield County, Connecticut, a that person. A historical figure of community that was settled by a historically significant religious minority, and outstanding importance is one whose which developed as a center for surrounding farm families. (Connecticut Historical contributions to local, State or national Commission, 1984) history were truly extraordinary. The accomplishments of such a person must stand out in kind and degree from those of others active at a comparable level in the same field and during the same period of time. Prehistoric graves do not fall under this Criteria Consideration. Examples of graves that must be justified under Criteria Consideration C requirements:

• A grave nominated for its associations with the person buried there. • The grave of a historical figure that is nominated for its potential to yield information significant in local, State or national history.

Examples of graves that likely would meet Criteria Consideration C requirements if adequately documented: • A grave that is the only substantial settlement or the values of a society • Any cemetery nominated individu- intact link to a historical figure of generally, National Register Criteria ally under National Register Criteria outstanding importance. Consideration D provides for its A,B,orC. eligibility. Cemeteries nominated for • The grave of a historical figure the importance of the information they • A cemetery that constitutes a nominated under Criterion D for may impart may be eligible for listing substantial or pivotal portion of a significant information about the past without application of Criteria Consid- historic district nominated under that is not available from other eration D. Criteria A, B, or C sources. To be considered a person of transcendent importance, an individual Examples of cemeteries that likely Example of graves that do not need would have to meet the same test as that would meet Criteria Consideration D to be justified under Criteria Consider- for a grave. To qualify for its age, a requirements if adequately documented: ation C: cemetery must date from an early period within its geographic and • A historic cemetery containing the • A grave located on the grounds of cultural context. The age of a burial graves of a number of persons of the house, farm, ranch, or plantation place might be considered early relative outstanding importance — those where the outstanding historical to the period for which we have infor- whose activities determined the figure spent his or her productive mation about human activity, or relative course of events in local, State, or years, and the property is being to the exploration, settlement, and national history; or those whose - >. nominated as a whole. activities were especially important in • A burial mound or other surface Examples of commemorative burial reflecting significant cultural currents burial place reconstructed largely of places that must be justified under Criteria of the time. fabric that is not original. Consideration F requirements:

• A cemetery possessing important • A cemetery in which a significant • A funerary monument of a heroic or historic associations from a number of character-defining fea- martyred figure, or a tribal or national community's early period of settle- tures, such as mausoleums and leader, if it is the commemorative ment, or which reflects important gravemarkers, are reconstructed of function that is of primary significance. aspects of community history. fabric that is not original. Example of commemorative burial • A cemetery that embodies the Example of reconstructed burial places that likely would meet Criteria principles of an aesthetic movement places that likely would meet Criteria Consideration F requirements if ad- or tradition of design and Consideration E requirements if adequately justified: monumentation through its overall equately documented: plan and landscaping, its • A national cemetery. gravemarkers and funerary sculpture, • A cemetery in which landscape or its buildings and structures. plantings, road systems, mausoleums, Examples of commemorative burial and/or gravemarkers have been places that do not need to be justified • A cemetery that is associated repaired and restored largely with under Criteria Consideration F: through its burials with a single original fabric in accordance with a important historical event such as a well documented preservation plan. • A gravemarker or monument pivotal military battle. significant primarily for its age or its Criteria Consideration F: A property distinction as an example of craftsman- • A cemetery that embodies the primarily commemorative in intent can ship or architecture of a historic period folkways, burial customs, or artistic be eligible if design, age, tradition, or or school. traditions of an ethnic or cultural symbolic value has invested it with its group whose impact on the commu- own historical significance. • A gravemarker significant primarily nity or region was significant but is Most burial places, ranging from as a document of the traditions of an not well documented in other re- gravemarkers and grave shelters to ethnic or cultural group. sources. substantial mausoleums and cemeteries as a whole, are commemorative in • A cemetery significant chiefly Examples of cemeteries that do not intent. Unlike many commemorative because it embodies the distinctive need to be justified under Criteria properties] however, the significance of a characteristics of a historic period or Consideration D: burial place often includes direct school of landscape design or of an association with events that occurred on important tradition of vernacular or • A cemetery associated with a or near the site, or with the person or folk design. distinguishable cultural group that persons buried there. Other burial has the potential to yield important places may be significant for their artistic Criteria Consideration G: A property information such as migration quality or their capacity to evoke achieving significance within the last patterns, subsistence levels, and widely-shared emotions. fifty years is eligible if it is of exceptional prevalence of disease in historic or Gettysburg National Cemetery, importance. prehistoric times. which now contains approximately National cemeteries, collectively, 6,000 burials from the Civil War through possess inherent exceptional significance • A cemetery that is nominated along the Viet Nam conflict, was established as from associations with important events with the church or synagogue with a cemetery for the Union casualties from in our history. Because the cemeteries which it is associated when the church one of the decisive battles of the Civil include the graves of military personnel or synagogue is the main resource War. The number of killed, wounded, associated with every war and branch of nominated. and captured in the fighting of July 1-3, service, and draw their essential signifi- 1863, reached 51,000 and was unsur- cance from the presence of the remains of • A cemetery that is nominated as passed in any other engagement of the those who have served their country part of a historic district but is not the Civil War. In addition to its direct throughout its history, the age of each focal point of the district. association with the battlefield, the cemetery is not necessarily the determin- cemetery shares significance with the ing factor. To qualify, however, each Criteria Consideration E: A recon- adjacent battlefield because of their long cemetery must be used or prepared for structed property is eligible when it is history as a place where the pathos of a the burials of veterans and their depen- accurately executed in a suitable envi- nation was expressed, beginning with dents, and must possess historic integrity. ronment and presented in a dignified President Abraham Lincoln's immortal manner as part of a restoration master address at the cemetery's dedication Examples of burial places less than plan, and when no other building or little more than four and half months fifty years old that must be justified under structure with the same association has after the battle ended. Criteria Consideration G requirements: survived. In general, national cemeteries meet Examples of reconstructed burial Criteria Consideration F because they • A grave that is less than fifty years places that must be justified under have been designated by Congress as old. Criteria Consideration E requirements: primary memorials to the country's military history. Many of these also are • A cemetery established less than fifty directly associated with the battles in years ago. which the interred lost their lives. 17 • A new national cemetery or tracts • A historic cemetery established and developed landscape features that of recently acquired land not yet more than fifty years ago, where the are associated with complex burial places developed for cemetery purposes, vast majority of burials, markers, and such as cemeteries must be considered as even if added to existing cemeteries. monuments are over fifty years old, part of the evaluation of integrity. but which is still active, and in which In essence, the researcher should ask • A mausoleum, mortuary, or a number of burials occurred less than the following questions in evaluating crematorium that is less than fifty fifty years ago. (The period of signifi- integrity: 1) To what degree does the years old. cance in such a case would end either burial place and its overall setting convey at the end of the cemetery's period of the most important period(s) of use? 2) Examples of burial places less that historical importance, or fifty years To what degree have the original design fifty years old that likely would meet prior to the evaluation and documen- and materials of construction, decoration, Criteria Consideration G requirements tation if the continuing use is per- and landscaping been retained? 3) Has if adequately documented: ceived as significant but not excep- the property's potential to yield signifi- tionally significant.) cant information in American culture • A grave of a national or tribal been compromised by ground-distur- leader that is exceptionally important • A cemetery significant for its plan or bance or previous investigation? because the leader's death had a design which, although commenced To assess the completeness and galvanic effect on broad social over fifty years ago, was fully ex- condition of a burial place, it is helpful to movements and the gravesite is the ecuted at a date that overlaps the begin by identifying the characteristic focal point of reverence for the most recent fifty year period by a few features of the type of property under leader's achievements. years. study, especially those that give the property significance. For a cemetery, • A mausoleum, mortuary, or such features would include gravesites, crematorium that is exceptionally INTEGRITY gravemarkers, boundary enclosures, significant as a pivotal design in the walkways, gateways, road systems, development of new technologies for To qualify for National Register natural and planted vegetation, build- care of the dead. listing, properties must retain historic ings, structures, and the spatial relation- integrity. The Criteria for Evaluation ship among all of these. By their constant • A developed national cemetery recognize seven factors which define exposure, certain gravemarker materials, that contains interments of veterans historic integrity: location, design, such as wood and marble, are especially and their dependents, or one that has setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, vulnerable to natural cycles of weather- been clearly prepared for that and association. All must be considered ing and deterioration, just as vegetation is purpose. in determining whether a burial place subject to growth and decay. Damage to, retains enough of its characteristic or modification and loss of, characteristic Examples of burial places less than features to represent the associations, features do not necessarily render a fifty years old that do not need to be function, and appearance it had during burial place ineligible. It is a question of justified under Criteria Consideration G: its period of significance. The natural degree. A burial place which meets National Register standards for integrity should retain enough of its significant features from its period of significance to The Common Burying Ground & Island Cemetery in Newport County, Rhode make clear its distinction as an important representative of its physical type, or of Island, retains historic integrity. (Edwin W. Connelly, 1974) its historic associations. Since the 19th century, American cemeteries commonly have been planned as "eternal" resting places of the dead. Even so, occasionally they are moved, obliterated, or adapted for new uses. Frequently, they are enlarged and their landscape altered or "improved" in keeping with changing tastes. It is important, therefore, both to distinguish nonhistoric development from that which reflects the historic period(s) of significance, and also to discern which changes occurred historically and may have acquired significance, and which help maintain the significant historic appearance — landscape restoration, for example. Nevertheless, to meet National Register standards for integrity, development of the historic period should predominate. The National Register defines as "historic" those elements, qualities, and associations that are at least fifty years old. 18 The amount, distribution, and kind of In some cases, age or the rarity of position and function in the overall nonhistoric features should all be resourcesjrepresenting a person, events, cemetery landscape still can be appreci- considered in evaluating integrity. In or historic period, may allow a greater ated. A cemetery that has been substan- some cases, an entire cemetery may not tolerance for change, damage, or loss of tially disinterred, and where removal of qualify for the National Register. If the historic features. The Vermillion Creek graves is not an authentic part of the original area has remained essentially Crossing (Pottawatomie County, cemetery's history, however, would not intact while modern expansion occurred Kansas) was one of the early major meet the standards of integrity, nor beyond or around it, then the historic crossings, and a well-known campsite would most disinterred gravesites portion likely will qualify because it is for travellers along the Oregon Trail. outside the cemetery setting. easy to draw boundaries that exclude Here Louis Vieux, a Pottawatomie chief Vistas external to a cemetery's the nonhistoric areas. For example, for whom the town of Louisville is grounds may have contributed to the Providence Cemetery is a two-acre rural named, built a cabin and operated a toll feeling of the place in the historic period. cemetery located about 11 miles from bridge, blacksmith shop, stable, and If view corridors within the cemetery the county seat, and has been used for general store. In 1849, approximately 50 were purposely developed to incorporate burials from the 1840s until the present. people died of Asiatic cholera and were broad vistas, and if the broad vistas have The northeast 3/4-acre, which contains buried here. Louis Vieux, who served in been eliminated or obscured by incom- inscribed tombstones from 1840 to 1870, many important capacities for his tribe patible development on adjacent prop- was nominated and listed in the Na- and became quite wealthy, also was erty, the cemetery has lost an important tional Register for its associations with buried here in 1872, along with some of aspect of its character. If the grounds the earliest period of white settlement his family. The crossing site and the two have remained intact internally, how- (1830s-1870) in what is now Grenada cemeteries are important as the only ever, the cemetery would likely meet the County, Mississippi. This portion of remaining signs of this once-busy essential requirement of integrity. Providence Cemetery is one of the few crossing, and retain integrity despite Isolated gravesites and small burying identifiable properties to survive from some vandalism and the loss of most of grounds occasionally are found in that period. the stones that once marked each of the remote locations where they may have When a large historic cemetery with graves of the cholera victims. In New been established in the course of over- scattered gravesites has had modern England, at least two major campaigns land trail migration or in the aftermath of infill, the entire cemetery still may be to move headstones within 17th and a massacre or military engagement eligible if the proportional number, size, 18th century burying grounds have While it was not uncommon for survi- and scale of new features are not so resulted in the arrangement of vors to have erected permanent imposing as to overwhelm the overall gravemarkers in neat rows, which were gravemarkers in later years, the initial historic appearance. Once the not present in the original layouts: one marking of such graves usually was nonhistoric features begin to dominate, in the mid-1800s related to the Victorian ephemeral. Over time, the precise and one's impression is of a modern aesthetic and the introduction of the locations of many burial places of this cemetery with isolated historic burials or lawnmower, and one during the era of kind have been lost. Oral tradition may clusters of historic gravesites, then the Works Progress Administration projects be all that remains to mark the general overall historic character of the cemetery of the 1930s. Yet, the major legacy of vicinity of a gravesite. In assessing sites has been lost, and it would not meet these cemeteries remains, in that the such as these, the standards of integrity National Register standards. early markers, with their inscriptions require that the gravesite be verifiable by "Improvements" also can affect and funerary designs, still remain to archeological testing or by visual traces, historic integrity. Replacing a simple convey their important age, associations, even if the traces are natural markers, post and wire fence with a brick wall, and information. such as a solitary stand of trees pre- modest slate headstones with elaborate Removal of graves may or may not served in a cultivated field. monuments, and natural growth with diminish historic integrity. Many The eligibility of an isolated grave nursery plantings all reduce integrity, Chinese who were active in the settle- depends upon the grave's unmistakable however well-intentioned. Although ment and development of Hawaii and relationship to the associated context or beautification efforts may make a the Mainland in the late 19th century theme significant in local, State, or cemetery more attractive, replacing the observed Confucian doctrine which national history or culture. Few such original features diminishes the called for properly placed graves in their graves would be eligible as individual cemetery's authentic historic character. homeland. As the burial remains of sites, since they must be the only remain- Changes that occurred during the these sojourners were returned to China, ing property associated with a person of historic period, however, may reflect whole sections of American cemeteries outstanding importance. More com- cultural beliefs and practices and were disinterred. Sometimes the monly, they would be evaluated as sites contribute to a cemetery's significance. emptied gravesites were reused on a contributing to the significance of a In order to appropriately evaluate the cyclical basis. If evidence of the historic historic district encompassing a larger impact of changes, one must determine use of a disinterred cemetery subdivi- cultural landscape, such as a homestead not only which features are crucial sion remains in the form of area or an intact segment of the Oregon components of historic character, but gravemarkers, monuments, or depres- Trail. A single gravesite or small group also why they are important. For sions in the ground, the subdivision of graves that has been disinterred example, is a fence or wall important need not be excluded from the nomi- normally would not meet the standards because it provides a sense of solid nated area on the basis of integrity if it is of integrity. If a historic gravemarker enclosure, or because of its materials and culturally significant. Such areas were remains at an empty grave, the marker design, or both? The answer will help not intended to be permanent, and could be evaluated as an object of artistic determine the physical attributes a removal of burials is part of the cultural merit, but the associative significance of cemetery must retain to possess historic story; if visible traces make it distin- the grave is lost. integrity. guishable, the subdivision's relative 19 V. DOCUMENTING AND REGISTERING CEMETERIES AND BURIAL PLACES

newer tracts were added to the site and society's building and the adjacent GENERAL describe the site in relation to its sur- cemetery be located in a beautiful, rounding landscape.5 spacious area, on sloping ground, with a APPROACH Siting of burial places normally was good view, so that spirits could roam carefully considered in both historic and freely. The Chee Ying Society, Hawaii Determining the significance of a prehistoric times. Chinese workers who County, Hawaii, is an example of such a burial place requires a systematic came to Hawaii at the turn of the society building, dependencies, and investigation of the property and its century founded fraternal societies that affiliated cemeteries. historic context. Once assembled, the enabled them to maintain strong Researchers should study the imme- information is used to establish whether cultural, political, religious, and family diate setting; while the growth of a town, or not the burial place is a significant ties with China. One of the chief changing agricultural patterns, or other representative of its type, reflecting an concerns of these societies was care of factors may have altered the surround- important aspect of American history or the elderly and disabled and burial of ing landscape over time, often the basis prehistory. the dead. It was important that the for burial site selection is evident in local Documentation begins with compil- ing information on the background of the site and its development over time. Such information would include the date the burial place was established, the period in which it was active, the circumstances under which it was established and maintained, and the cultural groups, individuals, organizations, agencies, or corporations responsible for initial and subsequent development. For a burial place with design distinction, such as a large, comprehensively designed cemetery, information should be provided about those who designed the overall landscape and its architectural features, and those who carved or fabricated individual monuments and grave markers. An analysis of components of the burial place would include identification of methods of construction and manufacturing techniques, as described in stone cutters' handbooks, fabricators' catalogs, and professional publications. Characteristic plant materials, layout of burial plots and circulation features, acreage encompassed, and the purpose or function of Cultural and environmental factors can be important in understanding cemeteries. areas and features within the site In southern Louisiana, cemeteries such as the Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans, boundaries also are important. The Orleans Parish, reflect high-style trench funerary architecture. At the same time, researcher should determine when the tradition of building burial vaults above ground was well-suited to the high water table of the delta region. (Donna Fricker, 1991)

5 Refer to National Register Bulletin 18: How To Evaluate and Nominate Designed Historic Landscapes, and National Register Bulletin 30: Guidelines for Evaluating and Documenting Rural Historic Landscapes for additional information on historic landscape issues.

20 landforms — in the relationship of site documentary views, photographs, plats, • plat, or layout of cemetery plots, to topographic features or traditional plans and specifications, business and whether a rigid gridiron imposed on routes of travel. Researchers also organization records, local histories, and the site or an organization of plots should consult records of land use for oral tradition. The researcher then is conforming to natural contours; verification of the reason a burial place prepared to describe the present developed at a particular location, and condition of the site and determine how • circulation system of roads, not make assumptions. For example, in well it reflects the period in which it was driveways, pathways, noting the communities of Colonial New developed. whether such features have axial England settled by Puritans, graveyards The landscape and developed alignment or are winding or curving; were perceived as secular, in conform- features of a burial place should be structural features of the system, ance with Calvinist doctrine. In that described in narrative form and repre- such as bridges and drainage sys- region, the mere proximity of an early sented graphically by means of a site tems; and distinctive materials, such graveyard to a church property does not plan or map. When it is known that as cobble gutters or stone paths; necessarily signify a historical relation- significant historic features are missing ship between church and burying place. or modified, as for example in the • views and vistas within the site The arrangement of graves within a realignment of road or driveway, such from principal access points; views burial ground is a significant aspect of missing features should be described and vistas external to the site; character also. In vernacular burial and their former placement indicated grounds, the relation of one grave to graphically in dashed or dotted outline. • characteristic vegetation, including another may be irregular—not in Not all of the features listed below will the overstory of trees, understory of compact rows. Such informal place- appear in all burial places; however, the shrubs and grasses, exotic plant ment may be a sign of haphazard narrative description and site plan materials used as filler in burial plots, development over time, but it could also would include, but not necessarily be ornamental flower beds, and speci- relate to the customs of a particular limited to the following, where appli- men plantings; cultural group. The Christian belief in cable: resurrection of the body after death • gateways, fences, and hedges used prescribed earth burials for the faithful. • general topography, including for boundary and spatial definition; Lot arrangement frequently was indication of the gradient (or slope) influenced by the scripturally-based and elevation of the site in relation to • typical plot defining features such tradition of orienting the foot of the the larger setting in which it is as wooden palings, iron fencing, and grave toward the east to place the dead located; concrete curbing; in appropriate position for arising at the day of final judgement. • natural features such as streams, • prevalence of individual plot The researcher should learn as much gullies, hills, and indigenous trees; mausoleums, vaults, or above- as possible about the character of the naturalistic developed features such surface tombs, and indication of the site as it was first developed or appro- as ponds, lakes, or landforms; range and variety of individual grave priated for burial purposes based on markers;

The 1855 plan of the Oak Grove Cemetery in Gloucester, Essex County, Massachusetts, is an important source of cemetery documentation. (James Of Gorman, 1975)

21 • entrance signs, directional markers, entries. Library collections may provide PHOTOGRAPHS outdoor lighting fixtures, and small- documentary views and descriptions in scale site furnishings such as the form of prints, early photographs, Photographs are indispensable as benches, planters, ornamental newspaper accounts, and advertise- records of the present condition of the sculpture, and fountains; ments. Interviews with church sextons, burial place and its characteristic cemetery superintendents, and descen- features. When compared with historic • maintenance and service features dants of original owners of family plots views — which are not required, but such as soil disposal and waste may be useful. Archeologists also will which can be helpful when available — storage areas, greenhouses, tool review reports and other documentation contemporary photographs assist the sheds, and pumphouses; and on related or comparable sites to frame researcher in gaining an understanding appropriate research questions that of the phases of surface development • buildings such as churches, could be illuminated by a burial site overtime. For purposes of preparing memorial chapels, gatehouses, investigation. It also is important to the National Register nomination for a offices, residences, crematories, consult with any cultural group with graveyard or cemetery, it may not be mausoleums, and columbariums. which a burial place or cemetery is practical in every case to photograph affiliated or for which it has special 6 each gravemarker. It is important, meaning. however, to provide a number of RESEARCH AND The object of field work is to analyze general views to illustrate the overall the property's present physical character character of the landform and its HELD in comparison with the property's developed features. These should be appearance during the period of signifi- supplemented by a variety of close INVESTIGATION cance as documented through research. views of individual monuments and Field investigation may help establish markers to convey the range and quality The object of the research phase is the period of significance; in any case, it of materials and workmanship. Care twofold: 1) to establish the contexts, or produces a record of the characteristic should be taken to photograph historical and cultural themes for features remaining from the period of gravemarkers from near surface level documenting the property's signifi- significance, and changes through time. and at times and under conditions when cance, and 2) to determine the It establishes the present extent and the high contrast of light and shadow property's physical character and integrity of the property. will give sharpness and clarity to appearance during the important inscriptions and sculptural relief. In period(s) of its use or development. SITE PLANS addition to the form, embellishment, Toward the first end, general reference and position of gravemarkers in rela- works on American burial customs, The essential aid to conducting field tionship to other markers, epitaphs and historical development of cemeteries work is a site plan on which the distribu- vital inscriptions are an important aspect and mortuary art and architecture; tion of physical elements is recorded of the cultural content of cemeteries. If professional and trade journals, com- graphically. A cemetery plat may be landscape design is significant, photo- munity histories, and ethnographic used effectively as a complement to a graphs of plantings, circulation patterns, studies may be consulted to place the site plan, but it is not interchangeable. and other features may be necessary to property in an overall cultural and adequately represent the site. historical framework. If a base map of the site is not available from the local planning agency, the As a practical matter, good photo- Next, all available primary source cemetery plat may become the model graphic and transcription records for a material on the property under study from which to produce a sketch plan of historic graveyard or cemetery are should be assembled from church and the site. Planning base maps showing highly desirable. Such records, keyed to municipal records, fraternal organiza- contour intervals as well as building a plat, produce scholarly archives and tions, and cemetery corporations, as ground plans are most useful because preserve some information should the may be appropriate. Land records, they portray with precision the siting of cemetery suffer loss as a result of theft, maps and plats, census records, court particular features on level ground and vandalism, or damage from natural documents, local histories, family and at prominent elevations. If a complex causes. Moreover, comprehensive business papers, genealogies, newspa- documentation may form the basis of a pers, and other sources can provide burial place underwent distinct episodes of development over a long period of cemetery maintenance and conservation information on settlement patterns, master plan. Such work is labor inten- community development, and the lives use, a series of maps of comparable scale overlaying a base map may be useful in sive, but genealogical societies and other of important people. Detailed informa- volunteers may be enlisted to a duly tion on the development of a particular recording the evolutionary changes, either for the sake of analysis or as an authorized and properly supervised burial place will be found in cemetery effort. plats, architectural plans and drawings, exhibit to accompany the nomination. landscape plans and planting keys, Whenever possible, all graphic informa- manufacturers' catalog orders, monu- tion should be reduced to 81/2" x 11" ARCHEOLOGY ment makers' statements of account, format, or folded to that size, when and gardeners' and sextons' diary submitted to the National Register. Archeological field work and documentation involves scientific techniques

6 Refer to National Register Bulletin 38: Guidelines for Evaluating and Documenting Traditional Cultural Properties, and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 for additional guidance. 22 that invariably call for qualified professional supervision. Legal clearances normally are required. Where archeological investigations have been authorized in accordance with Federal, State, and local laws; aerial infrared photogra- phy; ground-penetrating radar, and proton magnetometers are among the remote sensing techniques and devices that may be used to locate below-grade ground disturbances and gauge the density and state of preservation of burial deposits without invading the site. Dense materials, such as stone, metal, and ceramic are revealed in sharp contrast against the background of soils. Bone and other organic matter also register in these sensing techniques, to varying degrees. These techniques can be expensive. Surface investigation to determine the extent of a burial site is most effective when combined with carefully controlled testing which allow skeletal remains to be preserved intact, and minimizes impact to the site generally. Site plans, stratigraphic profiles, scale drawings, and photographs make up The traditional gravehouses, Christian crosses, and the graphic record of an archeological other features at LaPointe Indian Cemetery in Ashland site. They illustrate the geographic County, Wisconsin, possess important associations bounds of the area investigated, the with the Chippewa Indians in northern Wisconsin. depth of testing, and the concentration (Michael M. Weburg, 1976) and relative position of the artifacts and site features. Documentation also includes a report describing the range and variety of burial objects; their age as period of time in which the property inactive for many years, was never determined by laboratory radiocarbon achieved the qualities which make it legally dissolved. The rights of Indian dating or other means, as appropriate eligible for the National Register, is it tribes, Native Hawaiians, or other and comparative analysis of other dated possible to enumerate the features groups — as established by the Native materials. The functions of the artifacts, which contribute to the significance of American Graves Protection and inferred from form and placement, the the property. Repatriation Act of 1990, other Federal identification of the cultural group that laws, and State legislation — also must performed the burial, and architectural be considered in determining ownership. and associated features of the site — OWNERSHIP Typically, in early community such as vaults, chambers, cairns, and cemeteries founded by voluntary landscaping — are essential parts of the Determining ownership of burial associations, the cemetery land remained archeological record accumulated for places sometimes is complex. In some under ownership of the founding analysis and evaluation. cases, family cemeteries on private land organization while the individual plots have been exempted from deeds and do were separately held by the original not belong to the property owner on proprietors and their heirs. In the West, BOUNDARIES AND whose land they are located, but to the where the earliest established commu- descendants of the family. When small nity cemeteries often were founded by PERIODS OF private cemeteries in rural areas have fraternal societies such as the Indepen- been abandoned and are no longer dent Order of Odd Fellows, burial SIGNIFICANCE maintained, they become the domain of grounds today are being deeded to local the current landowner. For the volun- governments whose agencies—com- teer group or family descendants trying monly parks and recreation departments Using the information collected from to establish clear title and access to an — are looked to for stable long-term research and systematic investigation of abandoned cemetery, legal research and stewardship of the community's "pio- the site, the researcher should begin to negotiation may be required. For neer" cemeteries. In such cases, when it establish the scope and extent of the documentation and assessment pur- comes time to complete the National area to be proposed for nomination and poses, however, researchers may refer Register of Historic Places Registration the period of time during which the to deed records to establish the most Form, "public-local" or both "public- nominated area was significant in likely owner. Sometimes the corporate local" and "private," whichever is American prehistory, history, or culture. body or trust fund that once provided appropriate, should be checked. Only after determining the geographical care for a country cemetery, though bounds of the nominated area and that 23 evaluated and those of outstanding rank COMPLETING THE can be identified. When a cemetery is significant primarily because of the NATIONAL examples it contains of the distinctive work of regional stone carvers and other REGISTER craftsmen, the important markers should be enumerated by an inventory and each REGISTRATION one counted as a separately contributing feature. Others may be counted collec- FORM tively as a contributing object. Taking the example of a national cemetery, markers Nominations an? processed accord- by regulation usually do not vary; the ing to the regulations set forth in 36 CFR amassed number of, say, stone crosses of 60, and are submitted to the National uniform size spreading across the land- Park Service by the appropriate State or scape is one of the distinguishing charac- Federal Historic Preservation Officer. teristics of a national cemetery. The The following guidance supplements gravemarkers in such a case may be the instructions found in National counted in the aggregate as a single Register Bulletin ISA: How to Complete the undifferentiated object contributing to the National Register Registration Form. character of the nominated area. CLASSIFICATION FUNCTIONS A burial place may be classified as a A principal contributing feature of the The funerary functions of all contribut- "site," "district," "building," "struc- ing resources of the burial place, must be ture," or "object." A single or com- Masonic Cemetery in Eugene, Lane County, Oregon, is the Hope Abbey identified, and both historic and current pound burial of limited scope, such as functions classified on the form using the trailside graves or small family plots, Mausoleum, which meets Criterion C instructions provided in National Register would be classified appropriately as a as the State's only truly monumental Bulletin 16A. "site." Also, when a cemetery is example of the Egyptian style. nominated as a significant or "contrib- (Richard Roblyer, 1980) uting" feature within a larger historic DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS district, such as a village or company OF FEATURES AND town, it is counted as a "site." a property consisting of, for example, a SIGNIFICANCE A complex burial site, such as a significant church and an associated cemetery encompassing a multitude of graveyard would be nominated as a The purpose of the narrative portions of burials, developed landscape features, "building." the National Register form is twofold: 1) and buildings, is a "district." Its to describe and analyze the characteristic component parts are enumerated and CONTRIBUTING FEATURES features of the burial place, and 2) to described, and those which contribute present a coherent argument that explains to the significance of the nominated area The number and combination of why the property meets the Criteria for are distinguished from nonhistoric features counted as contributing to the Evaluation, including the Criteria Consid- features which are unrelated to the significance of the property will vary erations for graves, cemeteries, and other period of significance. Individual according to property type and will kinds of properties marked for special monumental tombs may be classified as depend on the criteria under which the conditions. "structures," and gravemarkers having burial place is proposed for nomination. artistic merit or cultural significance It is not expected mat individual Description may be counted as significant "objects." gravesites or markers in a cemetery The overall landscape design — includ- would be counted as separately contrib- To prepare the descriptive narrative, ing roadways, ponds, and plantings — uting or noncontributing features in the researcher needs to determine the may be counted as a "site"within the most cases. However, buildings, characteristic features the burial place district if the design is a significant structures, and objects of substantial size must have to be a good representative of feature. and scale, and those specifically dis- its period, style or design, and method of Because the term "burial place" is cussed in the nomination text for their construction or fabrication. Through broadly interpreted in this guidance to importance in understanding the burial systematic description, the researcher will encompass individual buildings, such place — including gravemarkers, should show that the property possesses those as crematory and mausoleum facilities, be counted. Plantings and other natural characteristics. The features that date from the category of "building" would be an features should not be counted sepa- the period of significance should be appropriate classification when such rately, but are included as part of a identified and described in Section 7 of the buildings are nominated individually or counted site. registration form, along with a discussion when counting the number of contribut- In a cemetery district, individual of any changes that might affect historic ing features in a cemetery district. Also, gravemarkers would be counted as integrity. The completed description will since a property consisting of two or separately contributing features in those provide an accurate image of the current more resource types should be classified cases where gravemarkers have been appearance and condition of the cemetery, under the major resource, if there is one, comprehensively inventoried and within which both significant historic

24 features and nonhistoric changes and others areas. In order to understand the the supportive argument should be additions cait be ascertained easily. It is property within an appropriate historic presented in the nomination. Designa- especially important in cases where context, the researcher will have con- tion as a National Historic Landmark individual features within a cemetery sulted reference works for information on may be dependent upon the National are not inventoried and described that the events, trends, and technologies Park Service evaluating the property in the description, in conjunction with which influenced development of the course of a theme study. A well- maps and photographs, provide clear resource types included in the area documented National Register nomina- information on the general topography proposed for nomination. Based on tion for a burial place of potential and the distribution of developed information gathered in the statewide National Historic Landmark quality will historic preservation planning process, facilitate the property's review by features that give the cemetery its 7 historic character. the State historic preservation office may National Park Service professionals. Consider the original cemetery in a be able to provide data for a comparative community settled in the period of analysis so the researcher can determine BOUNDARY DESCRIPTION westward expansion, 1840-1890. The the appropriate level of significance — AND JUSTIFICATION researcher may expect to find that it was whether the property proposed for established by a fraternal organization, nomination is distinctive locally or in the platted around the nucleus of an earlier State or nation. Guidebooks, conference Determining and justifying the burial plot, and situated on high ground proceedings, exhibits, and exhibit boundaries of a burial place are impor- affording good drainage above the flood catalogs also may help the researcher tant steps in completing the registration plain or on marginal land unsuitable for place the nominated property into a form. Boundaries should be drawn to cultivation. Moreover, the larger perspective. encompass, but not to exceed, the full gravemarkers, whether grand or Periods of significance also must be extent of resources which contribute to modest, would reflect the vertical specified. The period of significance the significance of the property. External density and the variegation and embel- cannot predate the extant features that vistas from a suburban landscaped lishment of material characteristic of compose the burial place. For example, cemetery or a vernacular cemetery Victorian design. A community cem- the period of significance for the grave of spectacularly sited in the countryside etery of this era that lacked well defined a significant person would not include may be important to the overall feeling plots and an array of monuments that individual's lifetime, but would be of the place. Nevertheless, boundaries ornamented in high relief likely would the year of burial. There may be several should not be drawn to include scenic not be a good representative of the type; distinct periods of significance if the buffer areas or other acreage not directly therefore, it likely would not be indi- burial place remained active over a long related to the property's historical vidually eligible for the National span of time. If this is the case, all periods development. Encompassing a broad Register under Criterion C. This same of significance should be noted. Ordi- vista in the bounds of a nominated area cemetery, however, could be a contribut- narily, the period of significance would normally is impractical. The bounds of ing site in a historic district, or it might not extend to the most recent period of 50 burial sites should be based on the extent possess significant associations with the years unless specially justified under of the features associated with the community's historic development that Criteria Consideration G on the basis of burials. In some cases, site limits for would make it individually eligible exceptional artistic values, historical archeological sites may be determined by under Criterion A. For example, the associations, or potential to yield infor- remote sensing techniques or surface cemetery might be the only remaining mation. examination combined with controlled evidence of an extremely important It is desirable to keep the statement of sub-surface testing. trading, communication, and outfitting significance as concise as possible while Boundary definition is simplified settlement along a westward migration at the same time covering adequately the when the current legal property descrip- route. In this case, the researcher would property's development and use during tion of a graveyard or cemetery is the have to reconsider what physical the period of significance. Those who same as the property's historic bound- characteristics were important in shaped the burial place and its setting aries. However, if portions of the burial conveying the cemetery's important should be identified by name, if such place under investigation have been historic associations. information is available, or by cultural irreversibly altered or eroded, it may be affiliation, if the property is a traditional necessary to deviate from the current Significance cultural site or prehistoric burial place. It legal description in drawing the bound- is important to focus on those aspects of ary in order to exclude areas which are The first step in preparing the the property's development and use plainly lacking in integrity and no longer statement of significance is to identify which illustrate the property's signifi- contribute to the significance of the the National Register criteria, consider- cance under National Register Criteria A, property. Similarly, large tracts of fallow ations, and "areas of significance" in B, C, or D. acreage known as "reserve ground" which the property should be evaluated. Certain burial places may have within the bounds of a cemetery plat A cemetery could be evaluated in the potential for designation as a National should not be included in the nominated areas of social history, ethnic heritage, Historic Landmark. If the property area unless they contain development art, architecture, landscape architecture, appears to have national significance and such as road systems or service buildings community planning, archeology, and has been evaluated in a national context, relating to the historic period. In any

7 Further information concerning the National Historic Landmark Program may be obtained by writing to the Chief Historian, History Division, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, P.O. Box 37127, Washington, DC 20013- 7127.

25 case, the boundary must be justified in a short narrative statement which explains why the boundaries were selected. The delineation of boundaries may be documented in various ways. If appropriate, the current legal property description may be used. Where historic and current boundaries differ, the documentation may describe the area to be included from point to point, such as "from the northeast intersection of Rte. 5 and Cemetery Drive, north approximately 200 feet,..., then west fifty feet to the point of beginning." Although a fence may be located along the boundary, it should not be cited as defining the boundary because it may not be permanent. Features that are permanent, such as contour lines may be used to define boundaries when they constitute appropriate edges. Site plans, also called "sketch maps," may be used to indicate boundaries, if the map includes a scale indicator. For some large areas without obvious features to cite as edges, such as a rural site or a large cemetery, UTM points may define the boundaries, if the lines connecting the cited UTM points constitute the actual boundary lines of the area nominated. Photographs should capture the essence of a cemetery's Under the authorization of the character. The Laurel Grove - North Cemetery in Savannah, National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 and the Archeological Resources Chatham County, Georgia, is significant, in part, for its large Protection Act of 1979, the National number of Victorian statues and monuments. (James R. Park Service will restrict information on Lockhart, 1982) the location or character of a historic resource if revealing this information would expose the property to vandal- (sketch map). The site plan should A number of unmounted black and ism, destruction, or other harm. The locate the bounds of the property; give white photographs of high quality must information must be included on the contour intervals, if relevant; and show accompany each nomination. There is National Register Registration Form, the placement of major features, includ- no requisite number of photographs to but checking the "Not for Publication" ing nonconforming, nonhistoric devel- be submitted. Requirements are that box on the form ensures that sensitive opment. Each feature identified as there should be as many photographs as information will not be reproduced or contributing or noncontributing in the necessary to depict the property clearly. distributed.8 form should be numbered on the site Representative views of all characteristic plan to correspond to a numbered features, as well as altered features and MAPS AND PHOTOGRAPHS inventory in the narrative discussion. development outside the period of Although, as stated above, it is not significance, should be included. Each photograph must identify the photogra- Each registration form must be necessary to count and describe every gravemarker and other feature, all those pher, date, subject, and direction of the accompanied by a United States Geo- view. Prints of historic photographs are logical Survey (USGS) map with specifically identified and counted must be shown on the map accompanying the recommended as a means of document- marked Universal Transverse Mercator ing the integrity of the property. Photo- (UTM) reference points for the purposes nomination, either individually or collectively by area. graphs should be keyed to the inventory of locating the property geographically of contributing features in the narrative and illustrating its position in relation to Copies of historic plats and building plans, if they are available, are helpful in discussion, where appropriate. Num- prominent topographic features. In bered directional arrows may be placed addition, for complex burial sites and documenting the original design intent and the integrity of some burial place on the site plan to indicate the direction cemetery districts, the nomination of views shown in the photographs. should include at least one site plan property types.

8 Refer to National Register Bulletin 29: Guidelines for Restricting Information about Historic and Prehistoric Resources for additional information.

26 VI. CONCLUSION

Discussion of burial practices in this United States and its associated territo- are applicable equally to urban grave- bulletin is general rather than compre- ries, nor all cultural groups and tradi- yards, folk cemeteries, and small burial hensive in scope. Its purpose is to tions. No value judgement is implied in grounds in a rural setting. Above all, suggest the broad range of burial places these omissions. Neither should it be those wishing to pursue the registration from various periods that hold potential inferred that there is greater value in the process should know from this guid- for listing in the National Register of high style cemetery than in vernacular ance that their efforts will be supported Historic Places. In selecting examples examples. Users of this guidance by ample precedent, a growing volume for sake of illustration, it was not should be encouraged that the criteria of reference literature, and organiza- possible to touch on all regions of the for evaluating significance and integrity tions ready to assist.

27 VII. GLOSSARY

Altar tomb — A solid, rectangular, Cinerary urn — A receptacle for Gravemarker — A sign or marker of a raised tomb or gravemarker resem- cremation remains, or ashes, in the burial place, variously inscribed and bling ceremonial altars of classical shape of a vase. decorated in commemoration of the antiquity and Judeo-Christian ritual. dead. Columbarium — A vault or structure Bevel marker — A rectangular for storage of cinerary urns. Graveyard — An area set aside for burial gravemarker, set low to the ground, of the dead; a common burying having straight sides and uppermost, Crematorium — A furnace for incinera- ground of a church or community. inscribed surface raked at a low tion of the dead; also crematory. angle. Grave shelter — A rectangular, roofed Cremation area — An area where ashes structure usually of wood, covering a Burial ground — Also "burying of the cremated dead are scattered or gravesite, enclosed by boards or slats ground/' same as "graveyard" (see contained. or supported by poles; in tribal custom below). used to contain burial offerings and Crypt — An enclosure for a casket in a shelter the spirit of the dead; also Burial cache — A place of concealment mausoleum or underground cham- grave house. for burial remains and objects. ber, as beneath a church. Headstone — An upright stone marker Burial mound — A mass of earth, and Epitaph — An inscription on a placed at the head of the deceased; sometimes stone or timber, erected to gravemarker identifying and/or usually inscribed with demographic protect burial chambers for the dead. commemorating the dead. information, epitaphs, or both; sometimes decorated with a carved Burial site — A place for disposal of Exedra — A permanent open air motif. burial remains, including various masonry bench with high back, forms of encasement and platform usually semicircular in plan, pat- Interment — A burial; the act of commit- burials that are not excavated in the terned after the porches or alcoves of ting the dead to a grave. ground or enclosed by mounded classical antiquity where philosophi- earth. cal discussions were held; in cemeter- Ledger — A large rectangular ies, used as an element of landscape gravemarker usually of stone, set Cairn — A mound of stones marking a design and as a type of tomb monu- parallel with the ground to cover the burial place. ment. grave opening or grave surface.

Cemetery — An area set aside for burial Family cemetery — A small, private Lych gate — Traditionally, a roofed of the dead; in Latin American burial place for members of the gateway to a church graveyard under culture known as "campo santo," or immediate or extended family; which a funeral casket was placed holy field. typically found in rural areas, and before burial; also lich gate; com- often, but not always, near a resi- monly, an ornamental cemetery Cenotaph — A monument, usually of dence; different from a family plot, gateway. imposing scale, erected to commemo- which is an area reserved for family rate one whose burial remains are at members within a larger cemetery. Mausoleum — A monumental building a separate location; literally "empty or structure for burial of the dead tomb." Flush marker — A flat, rectangular above ground; a "community" gravemarker set flush with the lawn mausoleum is one that accommodates Chapel — A place of worship or or surface of the ground. a great number of burials. meditation in a cemetery or mausoleum, either a freestanding building Gatehouse — A building at the main Memorial park — A cemetery of the 20th or a room set apart for commemora- entrance to a cemetery that is con- century cared for in perpetuity by a tive services. trolled by a gate; a shelter or habita- business or nonprofit corporation; tion for the gate keeper. generally characterized by open Chest marker — A solid, rectangular, expanses of greensward with either raised gravemarker resembling a Grave — A place or receptacle for flush or other regulated gravemarkers; chest or box-like sarcophagus. burial. in the last half of the 19th century, those with flush markers were called "lawn" cemeteries. 28 Military cemetery — A burial ground Potter's field — A place for the burial of Shelter house — A pavilion or roofed established for war casualties, indigent or anonymous persons. The structure, frequently open at the veterans, and eligible dependents. term comes from a Biblical reference: sides, containing seats or benches for Those established by the Federal Matthew 27.7. the convenience of those seeking a government include national ceme- place to rest; erected in rustic and teries, post cemeteries, soldiers' lots, Receiving tomb — A vault where the classical styles to beautify a cemetery Confederate and Union plots, and dead may be held until a final burial landscape. American cemeteries in foreign place is prepared; also receiving countries. Many States also have vault. Slant marker—A rectangular established cemeteries for veterans. gravemarker having straight sides Rostrum — A permanent open air and inscribed surface raked at an Monument—A structure or substan- masonry stage used for memorial acute angle. tial gravemarker erected as a memo- services in cemeteries of the modern rial at a place of burial. period, patterned after the platform Stele — An upright stone or commemo- for public orators used in ancient rative slab, commonly inscribed or Monolith — A laige, vertical stone Rome. embellished on one of the broader gravemarker having no base or cap. vertical surfaces; a gravemarker type "Rural" cemetery — A burial place revived from classical antiquity. Mortuary — A place for preparation of characterized by spacious land- the dead prior to burial or cremation. scaped grounds and romantic Table marker—A rectangular grave commemorative monuments estab- covering consisting of a horizontal National cemetery — One of 130 burial lished in a rural setting in the period stone slab raised on legs, which grounds established by the Congress of the young republic and at the sometimes are highly elaborate; also of the United States since 1862 for dawn of the Victoria era; so called for "table stone." interment of armed forces service- the movement inspired by the men and women whose last service American model, Mount Auburn Tablet — A rectangular gravemarker ended honorably. Presently, the Cemetery (1831) in the environs of set at a right angle to the ground, Department of Veterans Affairs Boston; a cemetery developed in this having inscriptions, raised lettering maintains 114, the National Park tradition. The term is used with or carved decoration predominantly Service (Department of the Interior) quotation marks throughout the on vertical planes, and top surface administers 14, and the Department guidance to distinguish this distinc- finished in straight, pedimented, of the Army has responsibility for tive landscaped type from other round, oval, or serpentine fashion. two. kinds of burying grounds occurring in the countryside. Tomb — A burial place for the dead. Obelisk — A four-sided, tapering shaft having a pyramidal point; a Sarcophagus — A stone coffin or Tomb recess — A niche or hollow in a gravemarker type popularized by monumental chamber for a casket. wall that shelters a tomb. romantic taste for classical imagery. Screen memorial — A vertically-set Tumulus — A mound of earth protect- Ossuary — A receptacle for the bones of gravemarker consisting of a tablet ing a tomb chamber; in the ancient the dead. with wing elements resting on a world, important tumuli were continuous base. encircled by drum-like constructions Peristyle — A colonnade surrounding of stone. the exterior of a building, such as a Sepulcher — A burial vault or crypt. mausoleum, or a range of columns Vault — A burial chamber, commonly supporting an entablature (a beam) Sexton — Traditionally, a digger of underground. that stands free to define an outdoor graves and supervisor of burials in alcove or open space. the churchyard; commonly, a cemetery superintendent. Pet cemetery — An area set aside for burial of cherished animals.

29 VIII. SOME RECOMMENDED SOURCES

Cemetery researchers will be aided agencies and community groups and is "How to Search a Cemetery." Salt Lake by innumerable regional studies, believed to be the largest cemetery City, Utah: Publications Division, cemetery guidebooks, conference recordation and restoration project The Genealogical Institute, 1974. proceedings, exhibit catalogs, and even undertaken by local government in the a growing body of videotaped material. country. Further information may be Lyons, Thomas R. and Thomas Eugene Current publications of the cemetery obtained from the Boston Parks and Avery. Remote Sensing, A Handbook and monuments industries also can be Recreation Department, 1010 Massachu- for Archeologists and Cultural Resource helpful. American Cemetery, Stone in setts Ave., Boston MA 02118. Managers. Washington, D.C.: U.S. America, and MB News (trade journal of The following is a list of some of the Department of the Interior, National the Monument Builders of North sources available, and is designed to Park Service, Anthropology Division, America), for example, frequently lead the researcher to more sources. 1977. contain articles on historic cemeteries Many of these works contain extensive and the manufacture of traditional bibliographies. Lyons, Thomas R., and James I Ebert, gravemarkers. eds. Remote Sensing and Non-Destruc- Bibliographic searches in the local DOCUMENTATION, tive Archeology. Washington, D.C.: library are recommended, as is consulta- U.S. Department of the Interior, tion with State cemetery associations, CONSERVATION, AND National Park Service, Anthropology genealogical societies, and the State MANAGEMENT GUIDELINES Division, 1978. historic preservation office. Many States have published guides to research and Baker, F. Joanne, and Farber, Daniel, Lyons, Thomas, ed. Remote Sensing: legislation affecting cemeteries and with Anne G. Giesecke. "Recording Supplements No. 1 to 10 to Remote burial places. An extensive bibliogra- Cemetery Data," Markers: The Sensing, A Handbook for Archeologists phy for the general study of cemeteries Annual Journal of the Association for and Cultural Resource Managers. and gravemarkers compiled along Gravestone Studies, 1: 99-117,1980. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department disciplinary lines is found in Cemeteries of the Interior, National Park Service, and Gravemarkers: Voices of American Boston Parks and Recreation Depart- Anthropology Division, 1977-1985. Culture, edited by Richard E. Meyer, one ment. The Boston Experience: A of the recommended sources listed Manual for Historic Burying Grounds Mayer, Lance R. 'The Care of Old below. Preservation, 1989. Cemeteries and Gravestones," The Association for Gravestone Markers: The Annual Journal of the Studies (AGS), a non-profit organiza- Coney, William B. Preservation of Association for Gravestone Studies, 1: tion, publishes an annual journal, Historic Concrete: Problems and General119-141,1980. Markers, as well as a quarterly newslet- Approaches. Preservation Brief 15. ter, and serves as an information Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department Meier, Lauren, and Betsy Chittenden. network for cemetery scholars and of the Interior, National Park Service, Preserving Historic Landscapes. preservationists nationwide. AGS Preservation Assistance Division, National Park Service Reading list maintains an archive and a limited mail- 1987. series. Washington D.C.: U.S. order lending library service for mem- Department of the Interior, National bers. AGS can be reached at the follow- Grimmer, Anne E. A Glossary of Historic Park Service, Preservation Assistance ing address: 30 Elm Street, Worcester Masonry Deterioration Problems and Division, 1990. MA 01609. Treatments. Washington, D.C.: U.S. In 1985 the City of Boston, steward of Department of the Interior, National Naude, Virginia Norton, ed. Sculptured as many as 16 historic cemeteries Park Service, Preservation Assistance Monuments in an Outdoor Environ- ranging in date from 1630 to 1841, Division/1984. ment: A Conference Held at the Penn- launched its "Historic Burying Ground sylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Initiative/' an ambitious, long-term . Keeping it Clean: Removing Philadelphia, November 2,1983. program encompassing comprehensive Exterior Dirt, Paint, Stains and Graffiti Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Pennsyl- inventories and treatment of from Historic Masonry Buildings. vania Academy of the Fine Arts, gravemarkers, landscape rehabilitation, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department 1985. and improved maintenance and of the Interior, National Park Service, security procedures. The Boston Preservation Assistance Division, Newman, John J. Cemetery Transcribing: initiative involves a number of city 1988. Preparation and Procedures. The

30 American Association for State and Chase, Theodore, ed. Markers: The . "Landscapes of Eternity: Local History. Technical Leaflet 9. Annual Journal of the Association for Funerary Architecture and the History News, 26,1971. Gravestone Studies, VII, 1990. Cemetery, 1793-1881," Oppositions, 8: 14-31, Spring, 1977. Sherwood, Susan I., Mary C. Daum, Christovich, Mary Louis, ed. New Michael W. Panhorst, et. al. Acidic Orleans Architecture. Volume II: The Federal Agencies Task Force (Cecil D. Deposition: Distribution of Materials Cemeteries. Gretna, Louisiana: Andrus, Department of the Interior, Potentially at Risk from Acidic Deposi- Pelican Publishing Co., 1974. Chairman). American Indian Religious tion. State of Science and Technology Freedom Act Report; P. L. 95-341. Report 21. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Coffin, Margaret M. Death in Early Washington D.C.: U.S. Department Department of the Interior, National America: The History and Folklore of of the Interior, August, 1979. Acid Precipitation Assessment Customs and Superstitions of Early Program, 1990. Medicine, Funerals, Burials, and Forbes, Harriette M. Gravestones of Early Mourning. Nashville, Tennessee: New England and the Men Who Made Strangstad, Lynette. A Graveyard Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1976. Them. Boston, Massachusetts: Preservation Primer. Nashville, Riverside Press, 1927. New York: Tennessee: The American Associa- Colvin, Howard. Architecture and the DaCapo reprint, 1967. tion for State and Local History in After-life. New Haven and London: cooperation with the Association for Yale University Press, 1991. French, Stanley. "The Cemetery as Gravestone Studies, 1988. Cultural Institution: The Establish- Coombs, Diane Williams. Early Grave- ment of Mount Auburn and the Taylor, Veronica. Caring for Your Local stone Art in Georgia and South Carolina. 'Rural Cemetery' Movement," Cemetery. Illinois Preservation Series. Athens, Georgia: University of American Quarterly, 26: 37-59, March, Number 9. Springfield, Illinois: Georgia Press, 1986. 1974. Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 1988. Cozzens, Arthur B. "A Cherokee Gillon, Edmund V., Jr. Victorian Graveyard," Pioneer America: The Cemetery Art. New York: Dover Thompson, Sharyn. Florida's Historic Journal of Historic American Material Publications, Inc., 1972. Cemeteries: A Preservation Handbook. Culture, IV:1, January, 1972. Tallahassee, Florida: Historic Jackson, Kenneth T., and Camilo Jose Tallahassee Preservation Board, 1989. Curl, James Stevens. A Celebration of Vergara. Silent Cities: The Evolution of Death: An Introduction to Some of the the American Cemetery. New York: Warnock, Robert A., Lia Frederick, Buildings, Monuments, and Settings of Princeton Architectural Press, 1989. Barbara E. Hightower, and Terry Funerary Architecture in the Western Denise Tatum. Vegetative Threats to European Tradition. New York: Jordan, Terry G. Texas Graveyards: A Historic Sites and Structures. Wash- Charles Scribner's Sons, 1980. Cultural Legacy. Austin, Texas: ington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the University of Texas Press, 1982. Interior, National Park Service, Park Darnall, Margaretta ]., 'The American Historic Architecture Division, 1983. Cemetery as Picturesque Landscape: Kelly, Susan H. and Anne C. Williams. Bellefontaine Cemetery, St. Louis/' A Grave Business: New England Zielinski, A. K. Conservation of Cemeter- Winterthur Portfolio, 18: 249-269, Gravestone Rubbings. New Haven, ies: The Treatment, Repair and Mainte- Winter 1983. Connecticut: The S. Z. Field Co., nance of Cemetery Objects and Their 1979. Environment. Mississaugua, Ontario: Deetz, J. F., and E. S. Dethlefsen. Roberts Seymour and Associates, "Death's Head, Cherub, Urn, and Linden-Ward, Blanche, Silent City on a Ltd., 1988. Willow," Natural History, 76:29-37, Hill: Landscapes of Memory and 1967. Boston's Mount Auburn Cemetery. CULTURAL STUDIES Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State Univer- Driver, Harold E. Indians of North sity Press, 1989. Aries, Philippe. The Hour of Our Death. America. Second Edition, revised. Translated from the French by Helen Chicago and London: The Univer- Loomis, Ormond H. Cultural Conserva- Weaver. New York: Alfred A. sity of Chicago Press, 1969. tion: The Protection of Cultural Heritage Knopf, 1981. in the United States. Publications of Duval, Francis Y., and Ivan B. Rigby. the American Folklife Center No. 10. Bell, Edward L. "The Historical Arche- Early American Grave Stone Art in Washington, D.C.: Library of ology of Mortuary Behavior: Coffin Photograph. New York: Dover Congress, 1983. Hardware from Uxbridge, Massa- Publications, Inc., 1978. chusetts/' Historical Archeology, 24: Ludwig, Allan I. Graven Images. 54-78,1990. Ellis, Nancy, and Hayden Parker. Here Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan Lies America. New York: Hawthorne University Press, 1966. Brown, Daniel A. "National Cemeter- Books, Inc., 1978. ies: Unique Cultural Resources of the MacCloskey, Monro. Hallowed Ground: National Park Service," CRM Etlin, Richard A. The Architecture of Our National Cemeteries. New York: Bulletin. 7:3:7,9, October, 1984. Death: The Transformation of the Richards Rosen Press, Inc., 1968. Cemetery in Eighteenth-Century Paris. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1984. McDowell, Peggy, and Richard E. 31 Meyer. The Revival Styles in American Journal of Historic American Material Zelinsky, Wilbur. "Unearthly Delights: Memorial Art. Bowling Green, Ohio: Culture,12:l: 54-63, February, 1980. Cemetery Names and the Map of the Bowling Green State University Changing American Af terworld," Popular Press, 1993. Sellars, Richard West. "Vigil of Silence: Geographies of the Mind. David The Civil War Memorials/' History Lowenthal and Martyn J. Bowden, Meyer, Richard E., ed. Cemeteries and News, Vol. 41:19-23, July-August, eds. New York: Oxford University Gravemarkers: Voices of American 1986. Press, 1976, pp. 171-195. Culture. Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI Research Press, 1989. Sloane, David Charles. The last Great NATIONAL REGISTER Necessity: Cemeteries in American . Ethnicity and the American History. Baltimore and London: BULLETINS Cemetery. Bowling Green, Ohio: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991. Bowling Green University Popular National Register bulletins may be Press, 1992. Spencer, Robert F., Jesse D. Jennings, obtained by writing to the National etal. The Native Americans: Prehistory Register of Historic Places, National Newton, Norman T. Design on the Land: and Ethnology of the North American Park Service, U. S. Department of the The Development of Landscape Architec- Indians. New York, Evanston, and Interior, P.O. Box 37127, Washington, ture. Cambridge, Massachusetts: London: Harper and Row, Publish- D.C 20013-7127. The Belknap Press of Harvard ers, 1965. University, 1971. No. 15 How to Apply the National Stannard, David E. The Puritan Way of Register Criteria for Evaluation Nichols, Elaine, ed. The Last Miles of the Death: A Study in Religion, Culture, Way: African-American Homegoing and Social Change. New York: Oxford No. 16A How to Complete the National Traditions 1890-Present. Columbia, University Press, Inc., 1977. Register Registration Form South Carolina: South Carolina State Museum, 1989. Steere, Edward. "Genesis of American No. 16B How to Complete the National Graves Registration, 1861-1870," Register Multiple Property Documentation Parker, Patricia L. Keepers of the Trea- Military Affairs, 12: 149-161: Fall 1948. Form sures: Protecting Historic Properties and Cultural Traditions on Indian Lands. __. Shrines of the Honored Dead: A No. 18 How to Evaluate and Nominate Washington, D.C: U.S. Department Study of the National Cemetery System. Designed Historic Landscapes of the Interior, National Park Service, Reprinted with permission of The Interagency Resources Division, May Quartermaster Review (1953,1954). No. 22 Guidelines for Evaluating and 1990. Washington, D.C: U.S. Department Nominating Properties that have Achieved of the Army, Office of the Quarter- Significance Within the last Fifty Years Pike, Martha V., and Janice Gray master General, no date. Armstrong. A Time to Mourn: No. 24 Guidelines for Local Surveys: A Expressions of Grief in Nineteenth StilgoeJohnR. "Folklore and Grave- Basis for Preservation Planning Century America. Stony Brook, New yard Design," Landscape, 22:3: 22-28, York: The Museums at Stony Brook, Summer, 1978. No. 29 Guidelines for Restricting 1980. Information about Historic and Prehistoric Sturtevant, William C, gen. ed. Hand- Resources Price, H. Marcus, HI. Disputing the Dead: book of North American Indians. Vol. 1- U.S. Law on Aboriginal Remains and 8 (of 20 planned volumes). Washing- No. 30 Guidelines for Evaluating and Grave Goods. Columbia, Missouri: ton, D.C: Smithsonian Institution Documenting Rural Historic Landscapes University of Missouri Press, 1991. Press, 1978-1991. No. 32 Guidelines for Evaluating and Ragon, Michel. The Space of Death: A Tatum, George B. "The Emergence of an Documenting Properties Associated with Study of Funerary Architecture, American School of Landscape Significant Persons Decoration, and Urbanism. Translated Design/7 Historic Preservation, Vol. 25: from the French by Alan Sheridan. 34-41, April-June, 1973. No. 36 Evaluating and Registering Charlottesville, Virginia: University Historic Archeologiad Sites and Districts Press of Virginia, 1983. Tishler, William H., ed. American (in draft) Landscape Architecture: Designers and Roberts, Warren E. "Investigating the Places. Washington, DC: The Preser- No. 38 Guidelines for Evaluating and Treestump Tombstone in Indiana/' vation Press, 1989. Documenting Traditional Cultural Proper- American Culture and Folklife: A ties Prologue and a Dialogue. Simon J. Tuan,Yi-Fu. Landscapes of Fear. New Bronner,ed. Ann Arbor, Michigan: York: Pantheon Books, 1979. No. 39 Researching a Historic Property UMI Research Press, 1985, pp. 135- 153. Weland, Gerald. Last Post. Bowie, No. 40 Guidelines for Identifying, . 'Traditional Tools as Sym- Maryland: Heritage Books, Inc., 1990. Evaluating, and Registering America's bols: Some Examples from Indiana Historic Battlefields Tombstones," Pioneer America: The

32 DC NATIONAL REGISTER CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION

The quality of significance in Ameri- c. a birthplace or grave of a historical can history, architecture, archeology, NATIONAL figure of outstanding importance if engineering, and culture is present in there is no other appropriate site or districts, sites, buildings, structures, and REGISTER building directly associated with his objects that possess integrity of location, productive life; or design, setting, materials, workman- CRITERIA ship, feeling, and association, and: d. a cemetery that derives its pri- CONSIDERATIONS mary significance from graves of A. that are associated with events persons of transcendent importance, that have made a significant contri- Ordinarily, cemeteries, birthplaces or from age, from distinctive design bution to the broad patterns of our graves of historical figures, properties features, or from association with history; or owned by religious institutions or used historic events; or for religious purposes, structures that B. that are associated with the lives have been moved from their original e. a reconstructed building when of persons significant in our past; or locations, reconstructed historic build- accurately executed in a suitable ings, properties primarily commemora- environment and presented in a C that embody the distinctive tive in nature, and properties that have dignified manner as part of a restora- characteristics of a type, period, or achieved significance within the last tion master pan, and when no other method of construction, or that fifty years shall not be considered building or structure with the same represent the work of a master, or eligible for the National Register. association has survived; or that possess high artistic values, or However, such properties will qualify if that represent a significant and they are integral parts of districts that f. a property commemorative in distinguishable entity whose compo- do meet the criteria or if they fall within intent if design, age, tradition, or nents may lack distinction; or the following categories: symbolic value has invested it with its own historical significance; or D. that have yielded or may be likely a. a religious property deriving to yield information important in significance from architectural or g. a property achieving significance prehistory or history. historical importance; or within the past fifty years if it is of exceptional importance. b. a building or structure removed from its original location, but which is significant primarily for architectural value, or which is the surviving structure most importantly associated with a particular person of event; or