Swan Point Cemetery
About this property
Swan Point Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Established in 1846 on a 60-acre (0.24 km2) plot of land, it has approximately 40,000 interments. The cemetery was first organized under the Swan Point Cemetery Company, with a board of trustees. In 1858, a new charter was developed to make the cemetery administration non-profit, and it was taken over by a group known as the Proprietors of Swan Point Cemetery. In 1886, landscape architect H. W. S. Cleveland was hired to redesign the area. It is a cemetery park with its design inspired by the landscape of the first rural garden cemetery in the United States, Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Among the first to make use of a tract of land within the cemetery was the First Congregational Society (now First Unitarian Society). They moved several interments from older plots in Providence to Swan Point. Over the years additional land acquisition has expanded the cemetery to 200 acres (0.81 km2), and is still open to new interments today. The Swan Point Cemetery is widely considered to be the most prominent cemetery in Rhode Island due to the number of well known citizens of the state buried there. There are more governors, senators and congressmen buried there than any other cemetery in Rhode Island. Swan Point Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. It is one of the two largest cemeteries in Providence with the other one being the North Burial Ground. Nelson W. Aldrich, U.S. Congressman, U.S. Senator, grandfather of Vice President Nelson Rockefeller Richard Steere Aldrich, U.S. Congressman, son of Nelson W. Aldrich Henry B. Anthony, Governor of Rhode Island, and President pro tempore of the U.S. Senate Lemuel H. Arnold, U.S. Congressman, Governor of Rhode Island Sullivan Ballou, state politician, Civil War officer killed in action at the Battle of Bull Run, whose love letter to his wife was featured in Ken Burns's The Civil War David L. Barnes, U.S. District judge, litigant in West v. Barnes Bathsheba A. Benedict, (1809–1897), abolitionist and philanthropist, and benefactor of Benedict College Lester D. Boronda (1886–1953), painter, furniture designer, sculptor Augustus Osborn Bourn (1834–1925), businessman and politician, Governor of Rhode Island 1883–1885 Charles R. Brayton, Civil War officer, postmaster of Providence, and long time Republican political boss Ambrose Burnside, Major General in the Civil War, Governor of Rhode Island and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Buffum Chace (1806–1899), slavery abolitionist, women's suffrage
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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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Questions about this property
When was Swan Point Cemetery listed on the National Register?
Swan Point Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 4, 1977.
What type of historic resource is Swan Point Cemetery?
Swan Point Cemetery is classified as a site in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for Swan Point Cemetery?
The period of significance for Swan Point Cemetery is recorded as the listed era.
Can I research the history near Swan Point Cemetery?
Yes. Aubrey Research reports search National Register listings, battlefield records, land patents, and other primary historical sources within any radius of a US address. A report for an address near Swan Point Cemetery will include this listing and all other historical records in the area.
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