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Photo, Print, Drawing Laurel Hill Cemetery, 3822 Ridge Avenue, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, PA Fairmount Park

[ Photos from Survey HABS PA-1811  ]

More Resources

[ Data Pages from Survey HABS PA-1811  ]
[ Photo Captions from Survey HABS PA-1811  ]

About this Item

Title

  • Laurel Hill Cemetery, 3822 Ridge Avenue, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, PA

Other Title

  • Fairmount Park

Names

  • Historic American Buildings Survey, creator
  • Notman, John
  • Sidney, James C.
  • Smith, John Jay
  • Brown, Frederick
  • Dunn, Nathan
  • Strickland, William
  • Richards, Benjamin W.
  • Sims, Joseph
  • Laurel Hill Cemetery Company
  • Walter, Thomas Ustick
  • Thom, James
  • Scott, Walter
  • Meigs, Charles D.
  • Harlan, Richard
  • Struthers, John
  • Struthers, William
  • Hamilton, John M.
  • Hargrave, Thomas
  • Greble, Edwin
  • Maples, Joseph
  • John Struthers & Son
  • Hill, John
  • Philadelphia Steam Marble Works
  • Price, Philip M.
  • Smith, Robert
  • Neff, James P. W.
  • McArthur, John
  • Marley, B. R.
  • Michael Diemer & Son
  • Wood, Robert
  • Hopkins, Griffith M.
  • Smith, R. Morris
  • Lewis, Joseph S.
  • Walling, E. E.
  • Miller, D. S.
  • Thompson, Charles
  • Lea, Henry Charles
  • Furness, Frank
  • Lennig, Frank
  • Lentz, Henry
  • Warner, William
  • Ogden, Edward H.
  • Berwind, Harriet W. Frishmuth
  • Mullen, William J.
  • Munford, Walter
  • Smalling, Walter, Jr., photographer
  • Elliott, Joseph E. B., photographer
  • Wunsch, Aaron V., historian
  • Boucher, Jack E., photographer

Created / Published

  • Documentation compiled after 1933

Headings

  • -  cemeteries
  • -  stone buildings
  • -  Quakers
  • -  immigrants
  • -  adaptive reuse
  • -  segregation
  • -  suburban life
  • -  horticulture
  • -  funeral rites & ceremonies
  • -  millenarianism
  • -  patriotism
  • -  stone carving
  • -  people associated with politics & government
  • -  scientists and people in science-related occupations
  • -  masonry
  • -  recreation
  • -  epidemics
  • -  Pennsylvania--Philadelphia County--Philadelphia

Notes

  • -  Significance: Philadelphia's Laurel Hill Cemetery constitutes the second major rural cemetery in the United States. Begun in 1836, it is the earliest known work of John Notman, an important nineteenth-century architect and landscape designer. Civil engineer and "rural architect" James C. Sidney also forged his landscape career at Laurel Hill. After laying out a southern addition to the grounds, he designed parks and cemeteries in Pennsylvania and New York. A third beneficiary of Laurel Hill was its principal founder, John Jay Smith. He guided the cemetery's planting and promotion, and in the process earned an influential voice in horticulture and cemetery management. As the common link between people who shaped America's metropolitan landscape, Laurel Hill deserves study. Yet the cemetery's significance extends well beyond an association with these individuals. In an era when cities suffered from crowding, disease, and scarcity of public space, Laurel Hill offered an "alternative environment." Amid clerical criticism and economic instability, the institution lured startling numbers of patrons and visitors. They came to experience artfully controlled nature; to see romantic monuments and to build them; to mix piety and patriotism, education and entertainment. Cemetery literature promised all of these things. Nonetheless, the institution ultimately placed property rights above public access. As Laurel Hill's visitation statistics fueled the Victorian crusade for urban parks, lot-holders built higher fences and managers wrote more restrictive rules. Today Laurel Hill stands as a landmark in the history of American architecture, landscape, and marketing. Spawned by a New Jersey Quaker's interest in horticulture, commemoration, and elite enterprise, it is an essay in Victorian taste and mores.
  • -  Survey number: HABS PA-1811
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1836 Initial Construction
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1849 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1864-1865 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1913 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1840 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1844 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1874-1900 Subsequent Work
  • -  National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 77001185

Medium

  • Photo(s): 90
  • Color Transparencies: 17
  • Data Page(s): 118
  • Photo Caption Page(s): 10

Call Number/Physical Location

  • HABS PA,51-PHILA,100-

Source Collection

  • Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)

Repository

Control Number

  • pa0961

Rights Advisory

Online Format

  • image
  • pdf

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress does not own rights to material in its collections. Therefore, it does not license or charge permission fees for use of such material and cannot grant or deny permission to publish or otherwise distribute the material.

Ultimately, it is the researcher's obligation to assess copyright or other use restrictions and obtain permission from third parties when necessary before publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the Library's collections.

For information about reproducing, publishing, and citing material from this collection, as well as access to the original items, see: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscape Survey (HABS/HAER/HALS) Collection - Rights and Restrictions Information

  • Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. https://aj.sunback.homes/rr/print/res/114_habs.html
  • Reproduction Number: ---
  • Call Number: HABS PA,51-PHILA,100-
  • Access Advisory: ---

Obtaining Copies

If Digital Images Are Displaying

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    • Make note of the Call Number and Item Number that appear under the photograph in the multiple-image display (e.g., HAER, NY,52-BRIG,4-2).
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    • Make note of the Survey Number (e.g., HAER NY - 143) and Sheet Number (e.g., "Sheet 1 of 4"), which appear on the edge of the drawing. (NOTE: These numbers are visible in the Tiff "Reference Image" display.)
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  • Data Pages
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  • Visit the Prints & Photographs Reading Room and request to view the group (general information about service in the reading room is available at: https://aj.sunback.homes/rr/print/info/001_ref.html). It is best to contact reference staff in advance (see: https://aj.sunback.homes/rr/print/address.html) to make sure the material is on site. OR
  • P&P reading room staff can provide up to 15 quick copies of items per calendar year (many original items in the holdings are too old or fragile to make such copies, but generally HABS/HAER/HALS materials are in good enough condition to be placed on photocopy machines). For assistance, see our Ask a Librarian page OR
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  • You can purchase copies of various types, including quick copies, through Library of Congress Duplication Services (price lists, contact information, and order forms for Library of Congress Duplication Services are available on the Duplication Services Web site):
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      As a preservation measure, we generally do not serve an original item when a digital image is available. If you have a compelling reason to see the original, consult with a reference librarian. (Sometimes, the original is simply too fragile to serve. For example, glass and film photographic negatives are particularly subject to damage. They are also easier to see online where they are presented as positive images.)
    • No, the item is not digitized. Please go to #2.
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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, John Notman, James C Sidney, John Jay Smith, Frederick Brown, Nathan Dunn, William Strickland, et al., Smalling, Walter, Jr, Joseph E. B Elliott, and Jack E Boucher, photographer. Laurel Hill Cemetery,Ridge Avenue, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, PA. Pennsylvania Philadelphia County Philadelphia, 1933. Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/pa0961/.

APA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, C., Notman, J., Sidney, J. C., Smith, J. J., Brown, F., Dunn, N. [...] Wunsch, A. V., Smalling, W., Elliott, J. E. B. & Boucher, J. E., photographer. (1933) Laurel Hill Cemetery,Ridge Avenue, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, PA. Pennsylvania Philadelphia County Philadelphia, 1933. Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/pa0961/.

MLA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, et al., photographers by Smalling, Walter, Jr, Joseph E. B Elliott, and Jack E Boucher. Laurel Hill Cemetery,Ridge Avenue, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, PA. Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <aj.sunback.homes/item/pa0961/>.