Columbus, Ohio, Green Lawn Cemetery

Green Lawn Cemetery is a large and historically significant burial ground in Central Ohio, United States. Located in the southern section of Columbus, Ohio (at the western terminus of Greenlawn Avenue), it is the final resting place for many local notables and well-known figures from national history. Green Lawn was the most fashionable and sought after final address in Columbus, and maintains that reputation today.

History

Founded in 1848, the facility covers over 360 acres (1.5 km2) and contains nearly 150,000 interments.

The crypts span the breadth of late-Victorian and turn-of-the-century architectural movements, including some styled in the Mesopotamian–Egyptian style favored during the burst of "Egyptian mania" enjoyed after Howard Carter's discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922. Some of the largest family crypts that can be seen are those of the Hayden, Battelle, and Packard families. Also entombed here with their own private burial plots surrounding the central crypt is the Lazarus family, the patriarchal line that founded and ran the popular department store chains known as the F&R Lazarus & Company, the John Shillito Company, and Federated Department Stores.

There are specialized burial areas similar to those found in many other large cemeteries. Specifically, there is "Lullabye Land" where stillborns and infant deaths are laid to rest. There are six distinct areas for war veterans, each one a section dedicated to a specific American war and including the oldest section towards the western rear of the cemetery for Civil War veterans of Ohio infantry battalions. A monument is erected towards the westernmost boundary for the "Soldiers and Sailors" memorial movement.

The center building of the cemetery is the mausoleum and chapel. This building was originally erected in 1902, and then was subsequently added to with an additional wing and carillon bells in the 1960s. Here can be found intricate precious-stone mosaics on the walls and stained-glass windows commissioned by the board of trustees of the Tiffany glassworks studio.

Changes to Columbus growth patterns, and demographics have reshaped the cemetery. Once located in the rural outskirts of Columbus, the cemetery is now surrounded by residential neighborhoods, industrial facilities and Cooper Stadium (the home of the AAA Columbus Clippers baseball team until 2008). This has shifted the main entrance of Green Lawn away from the western, Brown Road (Near US Route 62) Gate to the eastern gate on Greenlawn Avenue.

Green Lawn was intended by the board of trustees overseeing it to be not just a cemetery but also a significant city park and public gathering area, as was intended for all cemeteries of the "rural cemetery" movement of the 1840s and 1850s. To this effect, the cemetery is a large sprawling complex, incorporating over 25 miles (40 km) of roads, paths, and lanes. It has arbors and a butterfly preserve, and at its central pond (also known as "The Pit Pond") is a recognized Audubon Society viewing site.

Notable burials

Five former governors of the State of Ohio are interred in the cemetery as well as five Medal of Honor recipients. Other national and Ohio notables include:

• Charles A. Bond, Mayor of Columbus, Ohio (1908-1909) and founder of Bond Clothing, the first United States national men's clothing chain store company
• Thomas Blakiston, an English explorer and naturalist (1832-1891)
• John W. Bricker, Ohio Governor, U.S. Senator, Vice-Presidential candidate as Thomas Dewey's running mate in 1944.
• Samuel Bush, industrialist and grandfather of U.S. President George H.W. Bush and great-grandfather of George W. Bush.
• William Dennison, Ohio Governor (1860-1862)
• Henry Beecher Dierdorff, engineer and mining pioneer
• Cromwell Dixon, aviation pioneer, first person to fly over the Continental Divide (1911)
• Merie Earle, Maude Gormley on the Waltons
• Marvin Fishman (aka Bob Marvin), Flippo The Clown
• James W. Forsyth, US Army General, Commander of US Troops at the Battle of Wounded Knee.
• Washington Gladden, minister, social reformer
• P.W. Huntington, founder of Huntington National Bank
• Alexander Livingston, creator of the paragon tomato, the first commercial tomato.
• Grant Mitchell (actor)
• John G. Mitchell, American Civil War general in the Union Army
• Max Moorhouse, merchant and first person to commission air freight delivery of goods (November 7, 1910)
• J.A. Morrison, World War II officer of Royal Air Force Ferry Command, a British Commonwealth war grave.
• Frank Packard, architect
• Joseph H. Potter, American Civil War general in the Union Army
• James A. Rhodes, Ohio Governor (1963–71, 1975–83), Mayor of Columbus, Ohio (1944-1952)
• Eddie Rickenbacker, WWI flying ace, race car driver, industrialist, one-time owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and CEO of Eastern Air Lines
• Stanislas Roy, Medal Of Honor recipient
• Alice Schille, watercolor artist
• Friedrich Ferdinand Schnitzer, member of German nobility and father of F.F. Schnitzer, famous architect
• James H. Snook, Ohio State University Professor and convicted murderer
• Billy Southworth, member of Baseball Hall Of Fame
• Lucas Sullivant, land surveyor, founder of Franklinton, Ohio
• James Thurber, humorist, author, and New Yorker columnist
• Max & Erma Visocnik, Founders of Max & Erma's
• Charles C. Walcutt, Civil War general and postbellum Mayor of Columbus
• Rev. Thomas Woodrow, grandfather of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson
• George L. Converse, U.S. Representative from Ohio (1879-1881)
• H. Alfred Glascor, judge, legal scholar, civic leader
• Ephraim Sells, Lewis Sells, and Peter Sells, brothers and co-owners of Sells Brothers Circus