Cedar Hill Cemetery, Hartford

Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford, Connecticut is located at 453 Fairfield Avenue. It was designed by landscape architect Jacob Weidenmann (1829–1893) who also designed Hartford's Bushnell Park. Its first sections were completed in 1866 and the first burial took place on July 17, 1866. Cedar Hill was designed as an American rural cemetery in the tradition of Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The cemetery straddles three towns. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997, in Hartford, Newington, and Wethersfield. It includes the Cedar Hill Cemetery Gateway and Chapel, also known as Northam Memorial Chapel and Gallup Memorial Gateway, which is separately listed on the NRHP.

Cedar Hill Cemetery encompasses 270 acres (1.1 km2) and includes several historic buildings, including the Northam Memorial Chapel (built 1882), which was designed by Hartford architect George Keller, and the Superintendent's Cottage (built 1875), which continues to be occupied by Cedar Hill's Superintendent to this day.

Open from dawn til dusk 365 days a year, Cedar Hill Cemetery welcomes visitors to walk the grounds and partake in the expansive art, history and natural resources this park-like space has to offer.

Notable monuments

Cedar Hill has many unique monuments. One of the most recognizable is the 18-foot (5.5 m) tall pink-granite pyramid, and life-sized angel statue, erected in memory of Mark Howard and his wife, Angelina Lee Howard. Mark Howard was president of the National Fire Insurance Company of Hartford and Connecticut's first internal revenue collector.

Another example of an unusual grave is that of Cynthia Talcott, age two, which features her likeness in stone.

John Pierpont Morgan's family monument was designed by architect George W. Keller. Made of red Scottish granite, the monument was designed to portray Morgan's vision of the Ark of the Covenant.

The Porter-Valentine mausoleum features a stained-glass window created by Louis Comfort Tiffany.

Notable burials

More than 30,000 people are buried at Cedar Hill Cemetery, including many Hartford notables such as:

• Allen Butler Talcott, artist.
• Amos Whitney, inventor.
• Annie Warburton Goodrich, physician.
• Benjamin Wistar Morris (1870–1944), architect.
• Charles Bancroft Dillingham, Broadway producer.
• Charles Dudley Warner, writer.
• Charles Keeney Hamilton, aviator.
• Donald Lamont Brown (1890–1940), co-founder of Pratt & Whitney.
• Edward Miner Gallaudet, teacher
• Edwin Denison Morgan (1811–1883), United States Senator.
• Eliphalet Adams Bulkeley, Connecticut businessman.
• Emily Parmely Collins, women's rights legal activist.
• Francis Ashbury Pratt, inventor.
• George Beach (1788–1860), Connecticut politician.
• Gideon Welles (1802–1878), Secretary of the Navy under Abraham Lincoln.
• Griffin A. Stedman, United States Civil War general of the Battle of Fort Stedman
• Henry Barnard (1811–1900), Connecticut educator.
• Henry Roberts (1853–1929), Governor of Connecticut from 1905 to 1907.
• Horace Wells, discoverer of anesthesia.
• Isaac Toucey, Secretary of the Navy
• Isabella Beecher Hooker (1822–1907), women's rights legal activist
• Jacob Weidenmann (1829–1893), Switzerland born landscape architect
• James Goodwin Batterson, Connecticut businessman
• John Moran Bailey, Connecticut politician.
• John Pierpont Morgan, Sr., financier.
• Joseph Roswell Hawley, governor of Connecticut.
• Reverend Joseph Hopkins Twichell, theologian.
• Katharine Hepburn (1907–2003), actress.
• Katharine Houghton Hepburn (1878–1951) women's rights legal activist
• Katharine Seymour Day (1870–1964).
• Marshall Jewell (1825–1883), Connecticut businessman.
• Morgan Gardner Bulkeley, Governor of Connecticut.
• Nicholas Hudson Holt, actor.
• Robert Downing Ames (1889–1931), actor.
• Robert Ogden Tyler, Civil War general.
• Samuel Colt, inventor of the Colt revolver and his wife, Elizabeth Jarvis Colt.
• Sophia Fowler Gallaudet, teacher.
• Thomas Church Brownell, founder of Trinity College.
• Thomas Henry Seymour, Governor of Connecticut.
• Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, educator of the deaf.
• Virginia Dox, frontier educator and popular lecturer.
• Virginia Thrall Smith, children's rights legal advocate.
• Wallace Stevens (1879–1955), poet.
• William James Glackens (1870–1938), artist.
• Yung Wing (1828–1912), first Chinese graduate of an American university.