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Westminster Presbyterian Church and Cemetery
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Westminster Church, depicted in a postcard ca. 1857
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| Location: | 509 West Fayette Street, Baltimore, Maryland |
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| Built: | 1815 |
| Architect: | Godefroy, Maximilien; Et al. |
| Architectural style: | Greek Revival, Exotic Revival, Gothic Revival |
| Governing body: | Private |
| NRHP Reference#: |
74002218 [1] |
| Added to NRHP: | September 17, 1974 |
The Westminster Hall and Burying Ground is a graveyard and former church located at 519 West Fayette Street in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Occupying the southeast corner of Fayette and Greene Street on the west side of downtown Baltimore, the site is probably most famous as the burial site of Edgar Allan Poe. The complex was declared a national historic district in 1974.[1]
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The graveyard was established in 1786 by the First Presbyterian Church, a congregation of socially and economically elite local Presbyterians. Over the next 60 years, the burying grounds became the final resting place for important and influential merchants, politicians, statesmen, and dozens of veterans of the American Revolutionary War and War of 1812. Today, this "who's who" of early Baltimore is overshadowed by the presence of writer Edgar Allan Poe, who was buried here in October 1849 following his sudden and mysterious death. In 1852, a church was erected overtop the graveyard, its brick piers straddling gravestones and burial vaults to create what later Baltimoreans referred to as "catacombs." For years, it was thought that the Gothic Revival-style Westminster Presbyterian Church was built in response to a new city ordinance prohibiting cemeteries that were not adjacent to a religious structure. Research in the early 1980s by historian Michael Franch found no such ordinance -- and revealed a more complex motive. The congregation hoped that the new church would serve Baltimore's growing West End -- new churches were then springing up in every corner of the city in response to a dramatic increase in population -- and provide protection to an aging, old-fashioned 18th-century style burying ground that few saw as an appropriate resting place. [2]
Westminster Presbyterian Church lived up to its promise for several decades, but suffered a dramatic loss of congregants by the early 1900s. Revived in the 1920s, the congregation continued until 1977 when care of the premises was assumed by the University of Maryland School of Law, which occupies the rest of the square block bounded by Baltimore, Paca, Fayette and Greene streets. Under the auspices of the non-profit Westminster Preservation Trust, the burying grounds were cleaned up and the church was renovated for public use as Westminster Hall. In 2006, the Westminster Preservation Trust installed more than 20 interpretive signs around the burying ground and catacombs.
The site has been used in an episode of Creepy Canada, with paranormal investigators from BSPR discussing its possible haunting.[3]
A number of famous Marylanders are interred here, including many Revolutionary patriots and veterans of the War of 1812. Other Marylanders include:
Westminster Hall and Burying Ground is home to the grave of American author Edgar Allan Poe, arguably its most famous resident. Poe actually has two graves on this site: his original grave and a monument added in 1875. His original burial spot, towards the back of Westminster Hall, is marked by a headstone with an engraved raven. It was a family plot, lot 27, where his grandfather General David Poe Sr. and his brother Henry Leonard Poe are also buried.[4] In 1875, a local school teacher started a "Pennies for Poe" campaign to raise money for a more appropriate monument, resulting in the large marble monument located at the front of the cemetery facing Fayette St; to this day, it is traditional for visitors to the grave to leave a penny on the monument. Poe was re-buried there along with his aunt and mother-in-law Maria Clemm and his wife Virginia.
Westminster Hall is the location of the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum's annual Poe birthday celebration every January, often featuring theatrical presentations and an apple cider toast. The organization claims it is the world's largest Poe birthday celebration. On Poe's birthday, January 19, an unidentified man known endearingly as the Poe Toaster visited the burying ground to make an annual tribute to Poe. The tradition seemingly ended in 2009.