Loudon Park Cemetery

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The 420 acre (1.3 km²) Loudon Park Cemetery was incorporated in 1853 on the site of "Loudon." the estate of James Carey, a Baltimore merchant, city councilman, and founder of the Maryland National Bank. With a spacious Roman entry-arch on Frederick Avenue, it was built on an elevated plateau. Remains were transferred from city cemeteries, notably old St. Peter's, Whatcoat, and Zion graveyards, taken over by urban construction. The Federal government purchased land on the eastern edge after the Civil War, eventually acquiring the entire cemetery. It was re-designated "Loudon National Cemetery" about the time of World War I. Highly accessible, it received remains transported by rail over the Pennsylvania Railway, or on the "Delores," a hearse trolley car on city lines. The Delores delivered caskets to the Frederick Avenue gate that were then transferred by horse carriage or along the cemetery's own trolley line from the Frederick to the Wilkens side of the cemetery.

Veterans' graves distinguish Loudon Park. "Government Lot" was acquired by the Federal Government in 1861 for the remains of Union soldiers, 2300 eventually being buried there. An army sergeant domiciled in a cemetery cottage kept watch over the plot for many years. Some 275 Confederate soldiers were buried in a section designated "Confederate Hill." Burials began when lot holders donated plots in 1862, midway through the Civil War, the Cemetery subsequently exchanging these plots to insure a uniform section. The statue of a Confederate soldier guarded by two angels with wreath and torch was sculpted on the plot in 1870 by Adalsbert J. Volck. A monument to mothers and widows was eventually erected by The Ladies Confederate Memorial and Aid Society. Veterans' organizations held ceremonies and picnics at the "Hill" on Confederate Memorial Day, June 6th, until the early 1930s.

William Wilkens, Mary Pickersgill, flag-maker of the banner hoisted over Fort McHenry in 1812, H.L. Mencken, and Ensign C. Markland Kelly, Jr., the World War II hero shot down while piloting a single-seat plane in the Battle of Midway, are also buried here. Notable monuments included the Ottmar Mergenthaler Monument for the German-born Baltimore inventor of the Linotype.

Source: City of Baltimore