Lafayette Cemetery was a

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

in the

Passyunk Square Passyunk Square is a neighborhood in South Philadelphia bounded by Broad Street to the west, 6th Street to the east, Tasker Street to the south and Washington Avenue to the north. Passyunk Square is bordered by the Bella Vista, Hawthorne, Cen ...

neighborhood of

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. It was established in 1828 and originally intended for 14,000 burials but over time fell into disrepair and became overcrowded with 47,000 burials. In 1946, the cemetery was condemned by the city of Philadelphia. The bodies were disinterred in 1947, transported to the Evergreen Memorial Park (now Rosedale Cemetery) in

Bensalem, Pennsylvania Bensalem Township is a township in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The township borders the northeastern section of Philadelphia and includes the communities of Andalusia, Bensalem, Bridgewater, Cornwells Heights, Eddington, Flush ...

, and reinterred in a

mass grave A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may Unidentified decedent, not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of exec ...

. The former location of the cemetery was repurposed by the city of Philadelphia as the Capitolo Playground.

History

Lafayette Cemetery was established in 1828 on the block between Federal and Wharton Streets and 9th and 10th Avenues in what was then Passyunk Township, later renamed the

neighborhood of

. The Honorable

Joel Barlow Sutherland Joel Barlow Sutherland (February 26, 1792 – November 15, 1861) was an American politician who served as the first president of the General Society of the War of 1812 from 1854 to 1861. He was a member of the Democratic Party who represented ...

was one of the founders. Lafayette Cemetery was a part of the

United States National Cemetery System The United States National Cemetery System is a system of 164 military cemeteries in the United States and its territories. The authority to create military burial places came during the American Civil War, in an act passed by the U.S. C ...

during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

with a leased lot within the cemetery for soldiers that died in nearby hospitals. The cemetery contained the graves 28 Union soldiers, many of which were reinterred to the

Philadelphia National Cemetery Philadelphia National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery located in the West Oak Lane, Philadelphia, West Oak Lane neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was established in 1862 as nine leased lots in seven private cemeterie ...

in 1885. See p. 233. The cemetery was originally designed to hold 14,000 bodies and was surrounded by an iron fence. By 1946, it was in disrepair and overcrowded with 47,000 bodies. The city wanted to close the cemetery as early as the 1920s but the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

delayed the process. In the 1940s, the city condemned Lafayette Cemetery to transform it into a playground. The city contracted with Thomas A. Morris to relocate the remains to 40 acres at Evergreen Memorial Park in Bensalem, Pennsylvania. The agreement was for Morris to provide caskets, bronze markers, roadways and perpetual care at the new cemetery location. Morris had also agreed to build a statue to the

Marquis de Lafayette Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette, Marquis de La Fayette (; 6 September 1757 – 20 May 1834), known in the United States as Lafayette (), was a French military officer and politician who volunteered to join the Conti ...

in the new cemetery. Morris received full title to the cemetery property, assessed at $166,000, and immediately sold it back to the city for use as a playground for the price of $200,000. There are no records of the removal and reburial of the bodies since they were not required by the state until 1953. Evergreen Memorial Park went out of business and became part of Rosedale Cemetery in 1960. In 1988, construction near Rosedale Cemetery unearthed two concrete burial vaults containing several unidentified bodies. Further examination of the Evergreen Memorial Park site revealed that Morris had not honored the agreement but instead the bodies were reinterred in wooden boxes stacked in 32 mass grave trenches with no markers, roads, or statue of Lafayette.

The former location of Lafayette Cemetery is used by the city of Philadelphia as the Capitolo Playground.

Notable burials

* Charles Deakin (1837-1865), Medal of Honor recipient *

Matthew McClelland Matthew McClelland (November 1832 – January 30, 1883) was a United States Navy sailor and a recipient of the United States military's highest decoration the Medal of Honor for his actions in the American Civil War. Military service Matthew McC ...

(1832-1883), Medal of Honor recipient * Edward B. Young (1835-1867), Medal of Honor recipient

References

Citations Sources * {{cite book , last = Keels , first = Thomas H. , year = 2003 , title = Philadelphia Graveyards & Cemeteries , publisher = Arcadia Publishing , isbn = 0-7385-1229-X , url = https://books.google.com/books?id=rzNvCR4_-2YC&q=pauline+oberdorfer+minor

External links

Philadelphia Parks & Recreation - Capitolo PlaygroundLafayette Cemetery
at Find A Grave
The Cemetery Traveler - The Condemned Lafayette CemeteryRosedale Memorial ParkTemple University Libraries - Temple Digital Collections - Lafayette Cemetery
1828 establishments in Pennsylvania 1947 disestablishments in Pennsylvania Cemeteries established in the 1820s Cemeteries in Bucks County, Pennsylvania Cemeteries in Philadelphia Former cemeteries Mass graves in the United States Municipal parks in Philadelphia Passyunk Square, Philadelphia United States national cemeteries