Woodland Cemetery

About this property

Woodland Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery located at 6901 Woodland Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio. Established in 1853, it became Cleveland's main public cemetery after its founding and remained so for the next half-century. It fell into extreme disrepair, and most of its outstanding architectural features dismantled or demolished. In 1986, Woodland Cemetery was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The cemetery has since undergone restoration. In 1832, Colonel George Bomford purchased 200 acres (810,000 m2) of land in Newburgh Township, a civil township on the outskirts of Cleveland, Ohio. Bomford later sold 100 acres (400,000 m2) to John Whipple, and 60 acres (240,000 m2) to Benjamin Franklin Butler, the United States Attorney General. In 1848, the Erie Street Cemetery was Cleveland's main public cemetery. Once located on the edge of the city, Erie Street Cemetery was now nearly enclosed by city streets. There was no room for expansion, and the cemetery was rapidly filling. City officials began looking to purchase land in July 1848. The city twice made offers to buy land at Kelly Street and Kinsman Avenue (now Woodland Avenue) from owner J. W. Allen, but he refused to sell. City officials twice reached a tentative agreement to buy part of the land owned by W. H. Otis, but the city council declined to act on either agreement. A cholera epidemic in 1849 led to many deaths in Cleveland, which heightened the need for a new city cemetery. The Plain Dealer newspaper reported on June 14, 1851, that the city was close to reaching a deal to purchase 60 acres (240,000 m2) on the north side of Kinsman Avenue just east of St. John Cemetery. A "level plain of wood land", the burial ground was to be called Green Lawn Cemetery. The report proved accurate: On July 22, 1851, Butler offered to sell his land to the city. After further negotiations, Butler sold the land to the city on August 20, 1851, for $13,639.50 ($512,369 in 2025 dollars). The city paid Butler half the price in cash, and half in 10-year, 7 percent bonds. The total cost of the land was $23,189 ($897,414 in 2025 dollars). By the beginning of January 1852, the city had hired landscape architect H. H. Blackmore to survey the cemetery grounds. Design work appeared to be complete by the end of February, at which time Blackmore was paid $40 ($1,548 in 2025 dollars) for his work. The city council approved the sale of timber from the land in April in order to finance improvements, and by July work on grading roads and pathways, platting, and landscaping were well under way. A second landscape architect, Howard Daniels, was hired in October 1852 to complete the design of the cemetery. Paid $22 a day ($851 in 2025 dollars), Daniels employed a civil engineer, two drafters, and an assistant while working on the property. Daniels designed Woodland to be a rural cemetery, with winding paths, plenty of trees, and room for monumental funerary monuments.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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