Riverview Cemetery is a historic cemetery located at 3300 North Market Street in Wilmington, Delaware.

Description

The cemetery is 42 acres in size and contains over 36,000 burials. The cemetery was founded in 1872 by a consortium of eighteen fraternal organizations of the

Independent Order of Odd Fellows The Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) is a non-political and non-sectarian international fraternal order of Odd Fellowship. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Wildey in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Evolving from the Order of Odd ...

and the

Knights of Pythias The Knights of Pythias is a fraternal organization and secret society founded in Washington, D.C., on . The Knights of Pythias is the first fraternal organization to receive a charter under an act of the United States Congress. It was founded ...

. It is currently owned and operated by the Friends of Historic Riverview Cemetery. The cemetery consists of two plots intersected by North Market Street. The southeast section consists of a long, roughly rectangular plot and the landscaping of this area was designed by Herman J. Schwarzmann. It is the only known example of his work in Delaware. The northeast section of the cemetery is a trapezoidal shaped parcel that was purchased in 1899 and laid out by the cemetery's superintendent, Goldsmith C. Nailor. The northeast section contains the state's first community mausoleum, a Classical Revival structure built in 1917 to a pattern design by the American Mausoleum Company of Clyde, Ohio. Riverview Cemetery received two patents; one in 1921 for the manufacture of cement vaults and a second in 1922 for a joint that prevented moisture seepage into cement vaults. In 1921, the First and Central Presbyterian church in Rodney Square was demolished and half of the burials in the graveyard were moved to section G of Riverview Cemetery. There are 35 American Civil War veterans buried in Riverview Cemetery. In the 1950s, Riverview Cemetery was the first cemetery in Delaware to be racially integrated. A chapel and office was built near the entrance to the cemetery in 1951 and was renovated into a visitor and information center in 2018. The cemetery was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.

Notable burials

William L. Carlisle William L. "Wild Bill" Carlisle (May 4, 1890 – June 19, 1964) was one of the last train robbers of the American West known as the "Robin Hood of the Rails" and "The White-Masked Bandit".'William L. (Wild Bill) Carlisle, 74, one of the last train ...

(1890-1964), train robber of the American West * Richard McMullen (1868–1944), Delaware Governor *

John Shilling John Shilling (15 February 1832 – 22 July 1884) was a first lieutenant of the United States Army who was awarded the Medal of Honor for gallantry during the American Civil War. He was awarded the medal on 6 September 1864 for actions perfor ...

(1832–1884), American Civil War Medal of Honor recipient * George Lovington "Sassafrass" Winter (1878–1951), Major League Baseball pitcher

Gallery

File:Historical Marker at Riverview Cemetery.jpg, Historical Marker File:Riverview Wilm DE Community Masoleum.JPG, Community masoleum

References

1872 establishments in Delaware Buildings and structures in Wilmington, Delaware Cemeteries established in the 1870s Cemeteries in Delaware Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in Delaware Knights of Pythias National Register of Historic Places in Wilmington, Delaware Odd Fellows cemeteries in the United States {{US-cemetery-stub

Description

Notable burials

Gallery

See also

References