Shockoe Hill Cemetery
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Shockoe Hill Cemetery | |
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| Location | Jct. of Hospital and 2nd Sts., Richmond, Virginia |
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| Coordinates | 37°33′5″N 77°25′56″W / 37.55139°N 77.43222°WCoordinates: 37°33′5″N 77°25′56″W / 37.55139°N 77.43222°W |
| Area | 13 acres (5.3 ha) |
| Built | 1820 |
| Architect | Davies, John W.; et al. |
| Architectural style | Late Victorian, Early Republic, 19th-century Exotic Revival |
| Governing body | Local |
| NRHP Reference # |
95000818 [1] |
| VLR # | 127-0389 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | July 07, 1995 |
| Designated VLR | April 28, 1995[2] |
The Shockoe Hill Cemetery is a historic cemetery located on Shockoe Hill in Richmond, Virginia.
History
Established in 1820, with the initial burial in 1822, Shockoe Hill Cemetery was the first city-owned municipal burial ground in Richmond. The cemetery expanded in 1833, 1850, and 1870, but now is open only to burials of family members in existing family plots. Shockoe Hill Cemetery is on the Virginia Landmarks Register and National Register of Historic Places.
About five hundred Union Army POWs had been buried just outside the east cemetery wall from 1861 to 1863, but their remains were moved to Richmond National Cemetery, three miles to the east, in 1866-67. Two markers, one placed by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1938, and the other by the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (a/k/a MOLLUS) , in 2002, memorialize those soldier burials. See: The Soldiers of Shockoe Hill (Union soldier burials)
The City of Richmond owns and maintains the cemetery. The Friends of Shockoe Hill Cemetery , a volunteer group formed in 2007, is steward of the cemetery.
Shockoe Hill Cemetery is across the street from the Hebrew Cemetery of Richmond.
Notable burials
The cemetery holds the graves of U.S. Chief Justice John Marshall, attorney John Wickham, Revolutionary War hero Peter Francisco, famed Union spy Elizabeth Van Lew, Virginia Governors William H. Cabell, John Munford Gregory (acting), and John M. Patton (General George S. Patton's great-grandfather), Judge Dabney Carr, United States Senators Powhatan Ellis and Benjamin W. Leigh, and dozens of Confederate soldiers. Frances K. Allan, beloved foster-mother of writer Edgar Allan Poe, is buried here, as are perhaps the great love of Poe's life, Sarah Elmira Royster Shelton, and Jane Stanard, inspiration for his poem "To Helen". [3]
References
- ↑ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2009-03-13.
- ↑ "Virginia Landmarks Register". Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
- ↑ Silverman, Kenneth. Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance. New York: Harper Perennial, 1991: 206 ISBN 0-06-092331-8
