Laurel Hill Cemetery

Frommer's Review

How come you find Benjamin Franklin buried in a small, flat plot next to a church , while Civil War General George Meade is buried in a bucolic meadow? Basically, the view of death and the contemplation of nature changed with the 19th-century Romantic Movement, and Laurel Hill reflects that romanticism. Laurel Hill, designated a National Historic Landmark in 1998, was the second American cemetery (after Mount Auburn in Cambridge) to use funerary monuments -- some are like small Victorian palaces. Set amid the rolling, landscaped hills overlooking the Schuylkill, its 78 acres also house plenty of tomb sculpture, pre-Raphaelite stained glass, and Art Nouveau sarcophagi. People picnicked here a century ago, but only walking is allowed now. Visitors are welcome, but are asked to respect those attending burials, as Laurel Hill remains a functional cemetery.

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