Saturday we went on a cemetery tour in Baltimore. This one required that we sign up and pay ahead of time with the guide,
Wayne Schaumburg.
It was well worth the $15 each!
We met up with Wayne and 40 others on a very cool morning at the cemetery at 9:30 am. The tour was to last two hours but there was a lot to share so we didn't depart until after noon and were late meeting friends for lunch.
Green Mount Cemetery was one of the first three private cemeteries in the US in 1839. Most folks were buried in family plots or in church plots up to this time. The idea of purchasing a plot before you died was new but the developers of Green Mount had a wonderful location and many of the first occupants were bodies moved from other cemeteries including Westminster Cemetery that I wrote about
here. There are 67,000 bodies there now and only a few spaces left in the mausoleum. Some of the plots that were sold still have spaces because each plot was enough for 10 burials but many of them will stay that way because there is no one left in the family to sell the remaining spaces.
Well enough of the background story. We saw lots of famous and infamous burial plots and learned a lot about Baltimore and Maryland history while walking through the park like setting.
This famous sculptor has one of his own creations on his grave.
There's quite a mix of statuary in keeping with Victorian styles that this was a resting place.
We figured they are pointing up to heaven and ...
maybe down as well!
Enoch Pratt is responsible for the first free library in Baltimore.
A more recent burial.
No one knows any of the history around this strange monument.
Grave of the benefactor responsible for the Walters Art Gallery and another Rinehart sculpture.
A recent addition marking an old grave.
Recognize it? Read below the backside of the monument.
Grave of Betsy Bonaparte who married Napoleon's brother and had his son but then Napoleon annulled the marriage and forced his brother into a political marriage. She never married again.
I had to photograph this one because I've never seen my name, Marcia, on a tombstone before.
Grave of the only known slave to be buried in this cemetery; a woman much revered by the family that owned her.
The mausoleum where a few remaining burial plots remain.
This double plot will never have more than this one grave on it.
Lots of small graves denoting children lost.
This grave and its marker are being preserved in plastic. It's the grave of the founding owner of the Baltimore Sun newspaper: A. S. Abell.
The last stop was the family plot for the Booths.
John Wilkes Booth is buried here but
no separate maker denotes the exact spot. I left a penny on the grave, Lincoln side up.
There are many more photos too many for this post so look for the link on the side bar to my Shutterfly site.
