Mount Vernon Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery located at 3499 West Lehigh Avenue in the East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was established in 1856, is 27 acres in size and contains over 18,000 graves. It was neglected for decades by an absentee landlord. No plots have been sold since 1968, it was not open to the public, many graves fell into disrepair and the cemetery became heavily overgrown. In 2021, a Philadelphia judge ordered the cemetery be placed in conservatorship due to neglect.
History
Aerial view showing Mount Vernon Cemetery on the right and nearby Laurel Hill Cemetery on the leftOvergrown monuments in Mount Vernon Cemetery as viewed from Laurel Hill CemeteryEntrance to Mount Vernon cemetery from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views
The property was originally part of the colonial estate of Robert Ralston named Mount Peace. Another portion of the estate was purchased by the Oddfellows organization for Mount Peace Cemetery.
John Notman, the architect of Laurel Hill Cemetery's Italianate gatehouse was hired to design a larger and grander gatehouse for Mount Vernon Cemetery which was completed in 1858.[3]
Gardel Memorial in 2006
In 1864, the Gardel Memorial was added to Mount Vernon. It is a memorial to Julia Hawks Gardel, the principal of a female seminary in Philadelphia,[4] who died in 1859 while traveling in Syria.[5] Her husband, Bertrand Gardel, commissioned Belgian sculptor Guillaume Geefs to create a 25-foot pyramid made of sandstone, marble and imported granite. The front of the pyramid is adorned with large marble statues which represent the continents of Asia, Europe and Africa to depict Julia's love of travel. Two statues above the pyramid door depict Hope and Faith holding a carved relief of Julia. The statue atop the pyramid represents America surrounded by emblems of the physical sciences. The memorial cost $36,000 which is the equivalent of about $2 million in current dollars. Bertrand Gardel died in 1895 and is interred in the vault beneath the memorial with his wife.[6]
Gardel Memorial from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views
In 1867, the Second Presbyterian Church burial ground on Arch Street was closed and 2,500 bodies were reinterred at Mount Vernon many from the 1700s including several Revolutionary War heroes.[6]
The Drew family plot at Mount Vernon contains generations of the Barrymore family.[7] The family lot was originally located in Glenwood Cemetery but was moved to Mount Vernon when Glenwood Cemetery was closed.[8]John Barrymore left in his will that he wished to be buried in the Drew family plot but was originally interred in Calvary Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. In 1980, his son John Drew Barrymore had his father's remains removed from the family mausoleum, cremated and reinterred in Mount Vernon Cemetery.[7] His grave was unmarked until 1992, when fans had a stone installed which had engraved upon it, "Alas poor Yorick" in a reference to his stage performance of Hamlet.[9]
Ownership change in 1973
Joseph Dinsmore Murphy, a lawyer from Washington D.C., took over ownership of the cemetery in 1973 after inheriting it from his father.[1] The cemetery had not sold any plots since 1968[10] and over the years became heavily overgrown. Many graves deteriorated, and some were looted for scrap metal.[1] Mount Vernon was not accessible to the public,[11] as the owner mandated that appointments for visitation be scheduled 24 hours in advance, exclusively for people with a family plot in the cemetery.[5]
On 1 May 2020, the Philadelphia Community Development Coalition petitioned to be appointed conservator of the property due to its abandoned and neglected condition.[12] A Philadelphia judge agreed, placing Mount Vernon temporarily in the hands of the Coalition the following year.[1] Throughout 2023, volunteers helped clear large amounts of overgrowth.[13] As part of the court process, the cemetery was listed on Zillow for $1 million in July 2024 to see if there were any potential buyers.[14][15]
