Before visiting Laurel Hill West Cemetery as related in the last post, we walked around Laurel Hill East, founded in 1836 by John Jay Smith as one of the first of the rural cemetery movement in America. The landscape was designed by John Notman, planting botanical species from around the world. Personal expression in monument design was promoted, resulting in grand and sometimes elaborate gravestones.
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| Laurel Hill Cemetery Gatehouse (1836, by John Notman); yes, you drive through that narrow archway; in 2020 the gatehouse gardens were created as a pollinator garden |
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| Old Mortality Monument |
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| Old Mortality and His Pony (1830s, by James Thom) depicts the author, Sir Walter Scott, gazing at "Old Mortality" (a character from his novel of the same name) who re-engraved names on worn gravestones, with his pony and a bust (1872) of the sculptor |
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| A planter grave marker (KSS) |
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| A cenotaph for Adam Seybert, a member of the American Philosophical Society, who after serving in the US Congress for four sessions, settled in Paris where he died and was buried in Père la Chaise Cemetery |
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| Callicarpa americana/Beautyberry |
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| A circle originally called "The Shrubbery," and later the Medallion Garden is in the oldest section of the cemetery |
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| Grave marker of Mercy Carlisle, the first burial here |
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| Passiflora incarnata/Passionflower (KSS) |
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| T Circle is not in the T section |
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| Grave marker of Robert Ralston Stewart; the shattered urn signifies a violent death, as Stewart was allegedly murdered by his manservant (KSS) |
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| Yellow Fever Monument (1858-1859) honors the doctors, nurses, and druggists who went to Virginia in 1855 to combat the yellow fever epidemic, then to die |
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| Yellow Fever Monument detail |
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| View of the Schuylkill River |
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| Grave marker of William Emlen Cresson, an artist and namesake of the Cresson Prize at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts |
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| Grave marker of David Rittenhouse, the astronomer and inventor who built the first telescope in the United States; he also served as first director of the United States Mint |
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| Grave marker of Thomas McKean, who signed the Declaration of Independence, served at the Continental Congress, and was the second governor of Pennsylvania, then the second governor of Delaware; he was re-interred here from the family vault at the First Presbyterian Church on Market Street |
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| Grave marker for Lulu and Simpson Rickards |
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| Buitenrust Pergola |
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| Multiple levels of graves and tombs |
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| Grave marker of Harry Kalas, sports announcer and the "voice of the Phillies" |
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| Grave marker and sculpture for H Craig Lewis, who served in the Pennsylvania State Senate from 1975-1994 |
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| Memorial for Henry Charles Lea (a historian of medieval Europe and writer/publisher) with the figure (by Alexander Stirling Calder) of Clio, the muse of history |
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| Grave marker of Frank Furness, the architect known for his eclectic Gothic style |
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| Grave marker of John Francis Marion, historian and author, who apparently wrote most of the narrative for the Fairmont Park Walking Tour that includes Laurel Hill |
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| Grave marker of George Gordon Meade, the Union Army Major General who is considered the "Victor of the Battle of Gettysburg" |
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| Monuments galore |
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| Grave marker of Lawrence S Pepper, a physician who left his inherited fortune to six different medical institutions; Angel by John Lacmer |
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| Grave marker of Robert Cornelius, a photography pioneer who reduced the exposure time required to create a photograph,m which allowed him to sit for the first successful self-portrait, seen on the grave |
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| A champion-sized Salix babylonica/ Weeping Willow blocks our path |
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| James Doughtery Mausoleum, for the machinist, iron foundry owner and social reformer, with a sculpture sshowing him holding papers on a giant screw |
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| Peter A B Widener Mausoleum, for the financier who endowed Widener University |
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| Lippincott Mausoleum, for Walter Lippincott of the J B Lippincott Publishing Company |
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| Bridge over West Hunting Park Avenue |
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| Grave marker of W E Garrett Gilmore, an Olympic Games Gold Medalist in Men's Double Sculls Rowing in 1932 |
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| Berwind Monument Aspiration (by Harriet Whitney Frishmuth, who studied under Auguste Rodin in Paris) |
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| Memorial for Alexander Evan Conway Milgrim; a red line on the mosaic depicts the migration of the family from northern Africa to the United States |
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| State champion Tilia american/ American Linden Tree, tagged #475 |
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| Silent Sentry (1883, by Henry Manger) originally was located in a Civil War veterans burial plot in Mount Moriah Cemetery in Philadelphia |
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| Grave marker of Adrian Balboa, visited by Rocky in a couple of movies |
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| Grave marker of Paul "Paulie" Pennino, Adrian's brother |
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