Mount Vernon Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery located at 3499 West Lehigh Avenue in the East Falls neighborhood of

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

. It was established in 1856, is 27 acres in size and contains over 18,000 graves. It was neglected for decades by an

absentee landlord In economics, an absentee landlord is a person who owns and rents out a profit-earning property, but does not live within the property's local economic region. The term "absentee ownership" was popularised by economist Thorstein Veblen's 1923 ...

. No plots have been sold since 1968, it was not open to the public, many graves fell into disrepair and the cemetery became heavily overgrown. In 2021, a Philadelphia judge ordered the cemetery be placed in conservatorship due to neglect.

History

The cemetery was established on February 28, 1856 and is located directly across Ridge Avenue from

Laurel Hill Cemetery Laurel Hill Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery in the East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia. Founded in 1836, it was the second major rural cemetery in the United States after Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts. The cemetery ...

. The property was originally part of the colonial estate of Robert Ralston named Mount Peace. Another portion of the estate was purchased by the Oddfellows organization for Mount Peace Cemetery.

John Notman John Notman (22 July 18103 March 1865) was a Scottish-born American architect, who settled in Philadelphia. He is remembered for his churches, and for popularizing the Italianate style and the use of brownstone. Career Notman was born on 22 Jul ...

, the architect of Laurel Hill Cemetery's

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italia ...

gatehouse was hired to design a larger and grander gatehouse for Mount Vernon Cemetery which was completed in 1858. PhillyEgypt1

In 1864, the Gardel Memorial was added to Mount Vernon. It is a memorial to Julia Hawks Gardel, the principal of a female seminary in Philadelphia, who died in 1859 while traveling in Syria. Her husband, Bertrand Gardel, commissioned Belgian sculptor Guillaume Geefs to create a 25-foot pyramid made of sandstone, marble and imported granite. The front of the pyramid is adorned with large marble statues which represent the continents of Asia, Europe and Africa to depict Julia's love of travel. Two statues above the pyramid door depict

Hope Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's life or the world at large. As a verb, its definitions include: "expect with confidence" and "to cherish ...

and

Faith Faith, derived from Latin ''fides'' and Old French ''feid'', is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or In the context of religion, one can define faith as "belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion". Religious people often ...

holding a carved relief of Julia. The statue atop the pyramid represents America surrounded by emblems of the

physical sciences Physical science is a branch of natural science that studies non-living systems, in contrast to life science. It in turn has many branches, each referred to as a "physical science", together called the "physical sciences". Definition Phy ...

. The memorial cost $36,000 which is the equivalent of about $2 million in current dollars. Bertrand Gardel died in 1895 and is interred in the vault beneath the memorial with his wife. In 1867, the Second Presbyterian Church burial ground on

Arch Street Arch Street is a major east-west street in Center City Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. History The street was called Mulberry Street in William Penn's original city grid, but it was renamed Arch in 1854. Other parts of the street were once called Hol ...

was closed and 2,500 bodies were reinterred at Mount Vernon many from the 1700s including several Revolutionary War heroes. The Drew family plot at Mount Vernon contains generations of the Barrymore family. The family lot was originally located in Glenwood Cemetery but was moved to Mount Vernon when Glenwood Cemetery was closed.

John Barrymore John Barrymore (born John Sidney Blyth; February 14 or 15, 1882 – May 29, 1942) was an American actor on stage, screen and radio. A member of the Barrymore family, Drew and Barrymore theatrical families, he initially tried to avoid the stage ...

left in his will that he wished to be buried in the Drew family plot but was originally interred in Calvary Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. In 1980, his son John Drew Barrymore had his father's remains removed from the family mausoleum, cremated and reinterred in Mount Vernon Cemetery. His grave was unmarked until 1992, when fans had a stone installed which had engraved upon it, "''Alas poor Yorick''" in a reference to his stage performance of

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depi ...

Ownership Change in 1973

Joseph Dinsmore Murphy, a lawyer from Washington D.C. began his ownership of the cemetery in 1973 when he inherited it from his father. The cemetery is not abandoned, however no plots have been sold since 1968 and it has become heavily overgrown. Many graves have fallen into disrepair and some have been looted for scrap metal. Mount Vernon is not open to the public. Murphy required an appointment to be made for visitations 24 hours in advance and only for people who had a family plot in the cemetery and know the location. On May 1, 2020 the Philadelphia Development Coalition petitioned to be appointed conservator of the property due to its abandoned and neglected condition. In 2021 a Philadelphia judge ordered the cemetery be placed in conservatorship due to neglect.

Notable burials

(1882-1942), stage, screen and radio actor *

Maurice Barrymore Herbert Arthur Chamberlayne Blythe (21 September 1849 – 25 March 1905), known professionally by his stage name Maurice Barrymore, was an Indian-born British stage actor. He is the patriarch of the Barrymore acting family, father of John, Li ...

(1849-1905), stage actor * George C. Burling (1834-1885), Union Army officer during the U.S. Civil War * John Carson (1752-1794), physician * Georgiana Drew (1856-1893), stage actress and comedian * John Drew (1827-1862), stage actor and theatre manager * John Drew, Jr. (1853-1927), stage actor *

Louisa Lane Drew Louisa Lane Drew (January 10, 1820 – August 31, 1897) was an English-born American actress and theatre owner and an ancestor of the Barrymore acting family. Professionally she was often known as Mrs. John Drew. Life and career Louisa L ...

(1820-1897), actress and theatre owner * Louise Drew (1882-1954), stage actress * Sidney Drew (1863-1913), member of the Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew comedy team * Sidney Rankin Drew (1891-1918), actor and film director * Peter Stephen Du Ponceau (1760-1844), linguist, philosopher and jurist * Christian Febiger (1749-1796), American Revolutionary War commander * Charles Albert Fechter (1824-1879), actor * Charlie Householder (1854-1913), professional baseball player * William Churchill Houston (1746-1788), New Jersey delegate to the Continental Congress * William M. Ireland (? - 1891), one of the founders of the National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry * Samuel Jaudon (1796-1874), banker and businessman * Lawrence Johnson (1801-1860), printing stereotyper and type-founder * Judy Lewis (1935-2011), actress, writer, producer and therapist * Henry Myers (1858-1895), professional baseball player * Horace Phillips (1853-1896), major league baseball manager * Lawrence Saint (1885-1961), stained glass artist * Maria Louise Sanford (1836-1920), educator *

Alfred J. Sellers Alfred Jacob Sellers (March 2, 1836 – September 20, 1908) was an American soldier who fought for the Union Army during the American Civil War. He received the Medal of Honor for valor. Biography Sellers fought at the Battle of Fredericksburg ...

(1836-1908), Medal of Honor recipient * Bill Sharsig (1855-1902), Major League Baseball co-owner and general manager *

Jonathan Bayard Smith Jonathan Bayard Smith (February 21, 1742 – June 16, 1812) was an American politician and merchant from Philadelphia who was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Smith served as a delegate for Pennsylvania to the Continental Congres ...

(1742-1812), Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress *

John P. Van Leer John Pugh Van Leer (February 27, 1825 – May 5, 1862) was an American military officer who served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He commanded the 6th New Jersey Volunteer Infantry regiment and was killed during the Battle of ...

(1834-1862), Union Army officer *

Jake Virtue Jacob Kitchline "Guesses" Virtue (March 2, 1865 – February 3, 1943) was a first baseman in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1890 to 1894. He played for the Cleveland Spiders of the National League (NL).Pelatiah Webster Pelatiah Webster (born 1726 in Lebanon, Connecticut, died 1795 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was an American merchant, clergyman, and (from the beginning of the American Revolution) author of short essays concerning the finances and government of ...

(1726-1795), colonial merchant and author of short essays on finances and the government of the United States

References

Citations Sources * *

External links

{{Commons category
Mt. Vernon Cemetery Conservation CompanyMount Vernon Cemetery
at

Find A Grave Find a Grave is a website that allows the public to search and add to an online database of cemetery records. It is owned by Ancestry.com. Its stated mission is "to help people from all over the world work together to find, record and present f ...

Philadelphia Community Development Coalition
website
Video of Mount Vernon Cemetery grounds
uploaded April 24, 2016 1856 establishments in Pennsylvania Cemeteries in Philadelphia

Mount Vernon Mount Vernon is an American landmark and former plantation of Founding Father, commander of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War, and the first president of the United States George Washington and his wife, Martha. The estate is ...

East Falls, Philadelphia Rural cemeteries