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Many of Philadelphia’s oldest graveyards have been lost to time in the name of progress and expansion. The cityscape changes, the remains of the dead are moved (or not) to new locations, and new buildings are erected. Modern Philadelphia still contains dozens of burial grounds, from the tiny Colonial-era churchyards of Old City to the sprawling acreage of the once rural cemeteries fashioned after Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Unfortunately, numerous remaining cemeteries in the city are simply running out of space and as lot sales and burials dwindle, so does the money for upkeep and maintenance.
However, Philly loves an underdog story! Once abandoned, unkempt, or derelict cemeteries have seen new life not only as sacred and historically significant grounds, but as urban green spaces, arboreta, and places of recreation. The remains of Philadelphia’s citizens are juxtaposed against orchards and gardens, art and craft markets, movie nights and concerts, birdwatching, and cemetery tours ranging from the mundane to the macabre.
Buried Philadelphia: The Cemeteries and Burial Grounds of the City of Brotherly Love takes a closer look at hundreds of years of the city’s history through the monuments, statuary, architecture, and vistas of the patchwork necropolis contained within its borders.
Jennifer O’Donnell is a taphophile from Southeastern Pennsylvania with a love of genealogy and historic preservation. She has volunteered at the previously abandoned Mount Moriah Cemetery in Southwest Philadelphia and Yeadon, Pennsylvania, for over a decade and currently serves as the president of the all-volunteer Friends of Mount Moriah group. Jenn has photographed over 150,000 headstones for findagrave.com and publishes cemetery art photography on Instagram @cems_and_things. She lives with her husband just outside the city limits, has a fondness for overgrown cemeteries, and visits burial grounds everywhere she travels.
