Oak Hill Cemetery is a historic cemetery located in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in the United States. It was founded in 1848 and completed in 1853, and is a prime example of a

rural cemetery A rural cemetery or garden cemetery is a style of cemetery that became popular in the United States and Europe in the mid-nineteenth century due to the overcrowding and health concerns of urban cemeteries. They were typically built one to five ...

. Many famous politicians, business people, military people, diplomats, and philanthropists are buried at Oak Hill, and the cemetery has a number of

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...

-style memorials and monuments. Oak Hill has two structures which are listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

: the Oak Hill Cemetery Chapel and the

Van Ness Mausoleum The Van Ness Mausoleum was designed by George Hadfield. It is said to be a copy of the Temple of Vesta in Rome. History The mausoleum was constructed in 1824 for the daughter, Ann Elbertina Middleton, and granddaughter, Marcia Helen Middleton, ...

. The cemetery's interment of "Willie" Lincoln, deceased son of president

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

, was the inspiration for the

Man Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...

-winning novel ''

Lincoln in the Bardo ''Lincoln in the Bardo'' is a 2017 experimental novel by American writer George Saunders. It is Saunders's first full-length novel and was the ''New York Times'' hardcover fiction bestseller for the week of March 5, 2017. The novel takes place d ...

'' by

George Saunders George Saunders (born December 2, 1958) is an American writer of short stories, essays, novellas, children's books, and novels. His writing has appeared in ''The New Yorker'', '' Harper's'', ''McSweeney's'', and '' GQ''. He also contributed a w ...

History

Oak Hill began in 1848 as part of the rural cemetery movement, directly inspired by the success of

Mount Auburn Cemetery Mount Auburn Cemetery is the first rural cemetery, rural, or garden, cemetery in the United States, located on the line between Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts, Watertown in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middl ...

near Boston, Massachusetts, when

William Wilson Corcoran William Wilson Corcoran (December 27, 1798 – February 24, 1888) was an American banker, philanthropist, and art collector. He founded the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Early life Corcoran was born on December 27, 1798, in Georgetown in the Di ...

(also founder of the

Corcoran Gallery of Art The Corcoran Gallery of Art was an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University. Overview The Corcoran School of the Arts & Design ...

) purchased of land. He then organized the Cemetery Company to oversee Oak Hill; it was incorporated by act of Congress on March 3, 1849. Oak Hill's chapel was built in 1849 by noted architect James Renwick, who also designed the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

's Castle on

Washington Mall Washington Mall was an enclosed shopping mall located in South Strabane Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania, just outside the city of Washington, formerly managed by J J Gumberg Co. and now by Oxford Development Company. It is owned by ...

and St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York. His one-story rectangular chapel measures 23 by 41 feet (7×12 m) and sits on the cemetery's highest ridge. It is built of blue gneiss, in

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style, with exterior trim in the same red Seneca sandstone used for the Castle. By 1851, landscape designer Captain George F. de la Roche finished laying out the winding paths and terraces descending into

Rock Creek Rock Creek or Rockcreek may refer to: Streams United States * Rock Creek (California) * Rock Creek (Fountain Creek tributary), Colorado * Rock Creek (Idaho) * Rock Creek (Kankakee River tributary), Illinois * Rock Creek (Wapsipinicon River tribut ...

valley. When initial construction was completed in 1853, Corcoran had spent over $55,000 on the cemetery's landscaping and architecture. On October 4, 2022, historic preservationist Paul K. Williams became the cemetery's 14th Superintendent in residence and COO of the Oak Hill Cemetery Historic Cemetery Foundation.

Notable interments

Dean Acheson Dean Gooderham Acheson (pronounced ; April 11, 1893October 12, 1971) was an American statesman and lawyer. As the 51st U.S. Secretary of State, he set the foreign policy of the Harry S. Truman administration from 1949 to 1953. He was also Truman ...

Madeleine Albright Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright (born Marie Jana Korbelová; May 15, 1937 – March 23, 2022) was an American diplomat and political scientist who served as the 64th United States secretary of state from 1997 to 2001. A member of the Democratic ...

Gamaliel Bailey Gamaliel Bailey (December 3, 1807June 5, 1859) was an American physician who left that career to become an abolitionist journalist, editor, and publisher, working primarily in Cincinnati, and Washington, D.C. Anti-abolitionist mobs attacked his o ...

Margaret Lucy Shands Bailey Margaret L. Bailey (, Shands; December 12, 1812 – 1888) was an American anti-slavery writer, poet, lyricist, as well as newspaper editor and publisher. She served as editor of ''The Youth's Monthly Visitor'', a children's magazine, and as the pu ...

James G. Blaine James Gillespie Blaine (January 31, 1830January 27, 1893) was an American statesman and Republican politician who represented Maine in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1863 to 1876, serving as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representative ...

(formerly interred) *

Ben Bradlee Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee (, 1921 – , 2014) was an American journalist who served as managing editor, then as executive editor of ''The Washington Post'', from 1965 to 1991. He became a public figure when the ''Post'' joined ''The New Y ...

* William P. Burch *

Adolf Cluss Adolf Ludwig Cluss (July 14, 1825 – July 24, 1905) also known as Adolph Cluss was a German-born American immigrant who became one of the most important, influential and prolific architects in Washington, D.C., in the late 19th century, respons ...

Lorenzo Dow Lorenzo Dow (October 16, 1777February 2, 1834) was an eccentric itinerant American evangelist, said to have preached to more people than any other preacher of his era. He became an important figure and a popular writer. His autobiography at one ti ...

Peggy Eaton Margaret O'Neill (or O'Neale) Timberlake Eaton (December 3, 1799 – November 8, 1879), was the wife of John Henry Eaton, a United States senator from Tennessee and United States Secretary of War, and a confidant of Andrew Jackson. Their marr ...

* Katherine Graham *

Herman Hollerith Herman Hollerith (February 29, 1860 – November 17, 1929) was a German-American statistician, inventor, and businessman who developed an electromechanical tabulating machine The tabulating machine was an electromechanical machine designed t ...

Willie Lincoln William Wallace "Willie" Lincoln (December 21, 1850 – February 20, 1862) was the third son of President Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln. He was named after Mary's brother-in-law, Dr. William Smith Wallace. He died of typhoid fever at the White H ...

(formerly interred) *

Edwin P. Parker Jr. Major General Edwin Pearson Parker Jr. (July 27, 1891 – June 7, 1983) was a senior officer in the United States Army. Parker commanded the 78th Infantry Division during the Ardennes-Alsace, Rhineland, and Central Europe, campaigns of World War ...

Paul J. Pelz Paul Johannes Pelz (18 November 1841 – 30 March 1918) was a German-American architect, best known as the main architect of the Library of Congress in Washington DC. Life and career Paul J. Pelz was born November 18, 1841, in Seitendorf (now ...

Charles Anthony Schott Charles Anthony Schott (August 7, 1826 – July 31, 1901) was a German-American scientist. Biography Charles Anthony Schott was born at Mannheim, Baden, Germany on August 7, 1826. In 1847 he was graduated from the Polytechnic School, at Karlsruh ...

E. D. E. N. Southworth Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth (December 26, 1819June 30, 1899) was an American writer of more than 60 novels in the latter part of the 19th century. She was the most popular American novelist of her day.

Edwin M. Stanton Edwin McMasters Stanton (December 19, 1814December 24, 1869) was an American lawyer and politician who served as U.S. Secretary of War under the Lincoln Administration during most of the American Civil War. Stanton's management helped organize t ...

In popular culture

* The cemetery is the setting of the 2017

novel

. * The cemetery was a part of the plot in the

David Baldacci David Baldacci (born August 5, 1960) is an American novelist. An attorney by education, Baldacci writes mainly suspense novels and legal thrillers. Biography Early life and education David Baldacci was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. H ...

novel ''The Camel Club''. * A tomb in the cemetery is described as the site of a

dead drop A dead drop or dead letter box is a method of espionage tradecraft used to pass items or information between two individuals (e.g., a case officer and an agent, or two agents) using a secret location. By avoiding direct meetings, individuals ca ...

in the

John Le Carre John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

novel The Perfect Spy. *The cemetery was a part of the plot in the

Brad Meltzer Brad Meltzer (born April 1, 1970) is an Americans, American novelist, non-fiction writer, TV show creator, and comic book author. His novels touch on the political thriller, legal thriller and conspiracy fiction genres, while he has also writte ...

novel '' The Inner Circle''

Photo gallery

File:Edwin M Stanton grave - Reno Hill section - Oak Hill Cemetery - 2013-09-04.jpg, File:George Hughes Revercomb grave - Corcoran section - Oak Hill Cemetery - 2013-09-04.jpg, File:Grave of Dean Acheson - Oak Hill Cemetery - 2013-09-04.jpg, File:Hollerith Herman grave.jpg, Memorial stone for

, mathematician and inventor File:Jesse Lee Reno grave - Reno Hill section - Oak Hill Cemetery - 2013-09-04.jpg, File:Joseph Willard tomb - Amphitheater section - Oak Hill Cemetery - 2013-09-04.jpg, File:Looking SE through rock bridge - Amphitheater section - Oak Hill Cemetery - 2013-09-04.jpg, File:Maxwell VanZandt Woodhull - Rock Creek section - Oak Hill Cemetery - 2013-09-04.jpg, File:Nathan Loughborough grave - Rock Creek section - Oak Hill Cemetery - 2013-09-04.jpg, File:Oak Hill Cemetery (2896506880).jpg, File:Oak Hill Cemetery (2896529580).jpg, File:Oak Hill Cemetery (2896539950).jpg, File:Gravestone of john howard payne oak hill cemetery.JPG, File:Unknown Revolutionary War soldier marker - Oak Hill Cemetery - 2013-09-04.jpg, File:William McKee Dunn grave - Joyce section - Oak Hill Cemetery - 2013-09-04.jpg, File:William Pinkney - fifth Episcopal Bishop of MD - Oak Hill Cemetery - 2013-09-04.jpg, File:Oak Hill Cemetery, Washington, D.C, from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views.jpg,

References

Bibliography

External links

National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary
* {{Authority control 1848 establishments in Washington, D.C. Botanical gardens in Washington, D.C. Cemeteries in Washington, D.C. Georgetown (Washington, D.C.) * Rural cemeteries