Mount Mariah Cemetery
6201 Kingsessing Avenue
Philadelphia, PA
Mount Mariah has a fascinating and tragic history, most of which can be found at the website Friends of Mount Mariah Cemetery.
Incorporated in 1855, this approximately 200-acre cemetery was established during the time of “Rural Ideal” cemeteries, a style of cemetery that utilizes landscaping to provide a park-like setting. It once was one of the largest cemeteries in Pennsylvania.
The cemetery fell into disrepair around 2004 and closed, with no notice whatsoever, in 2011.
In September 2014, the Mount Moriah Cemetery Preservation Corporation was appointed receiver of the Cemetery. The former owner, the Mount Moriah Cemetery Association, whose last member died in 2004, was dissolved by the Orphans Court of Philadelphia and a group of volunteers, the Mount Moriah Cemetery Preservation Corporation, was appointed by the court to act as the receiver. The receiver is not the legal owner but works under the auspices of the Court to discharge the business affairs. The court order allowed the Corporation to determine the Cemetery’s assets and liabilities but also required that the Corporation attempt to better secure the site, work with others to better maintain the property and, most importantly, determine a strategic direction for the long-term viability of the Cemetery.
I had actually come because I had seen this photograph in one of my favorite websites, Atlas Obscura.
This Romanesque gatehouse was fabricated from brownstone and designed by local architect Stephen D. Button in 1855. This was once the entrance to Mount Moriah on Kingsessing Avenue, called Islington Lane when it was first built.
Stephen Decatur Button was characterized by his biographer as “a capable, financially successful architect much in demand in the Philadelphia area” in the mid-nineteenth century.
This is what the gatehouse looked like in February of 2018
When walking through the cemetery the more haunting thing is cresting a hill and finding a perfectly maintained military cemetery. The naval plot located within the cemetery is managed by the US Department of Veteran Affairs. They estimate more than 2,400 navy officers and sailors have been buried in Mount Moriah Naval Plot since the first interment on March 26, 1865.
A separate Soldiers’ Lot is also managed by the department.
These graves are so stunningly maintained, including new stones created when the older ones have fallen into disrepair.
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A Brit buried in the cemetery sits a little bit away from the Naval area
There are 22 Medal of Honor winners buried in the Naval Plot of Mount Moriah Cemetery
The Soldiers Lot sits on the other side of Cobb’s Creek and the very busy Cobb’s Creek Parkway, from the Naval lot.
Mount Moriah is stunning in its abandonment and peacefulness, and I applaud the Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery for all they are doing to bring it back and create a respectable place for the dead that are buried there.
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