View source for Cave Hill Cemetery

{{Short description|Historic cemetery in Jefferson County, Kentucky}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Infobox NRHP
  | name = Cave Hill Cemetery
  | nrhp_type = nrhp
  | image = Cave hill-rework.jpg
  | caption = Main entrance on Baxter Avenue
  | location = 701 Baxter Avenue<br />[[Louisville, Kentucky]]
  | mapframe = yes
  | mapframe-zoom = 11
  | coordinates = {{coord|38.2456|-85.7161|type:landmark_region:US|display=inline,title}}
  | area = {{convert|296|acre|km2}}
  | built = 1848–1913
  | architect =
  | architecture = Corinthian, Victorian
  | website = {{URL|https://www.cavehillcemetery.com/|cavehillcemetery.com}}
  | added = 1979
  | refnum = 79000999
  | mpsub =
}}

'''Cave Hill Cemetery''' is a {{convert|296|acre|km2|adj=on}} [[Victorian era]] [[National Cemetery]] and [[arboretum]] located at [[Louisville, Kentucky]]. Its main entrance is on Baxter Avenue and there is a secondary one on Grinstead Drive. It is the largest cemetery by area and number of burials in Louisville.

Cave Hill was listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 1979. '''Cave Hill National Cemetery''', containing military graves, is also on the National Register, added in 1998.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cem.va.gov/cems/nchp/cavehill.asp|title=Cave Hill National Cemetery – National Cemetery Administration|access-date=October 21, 2016|archive-date=October 19, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161019005638/http://www.cem.va.gov/cems/nchp/cavehill.asp|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/national_cemeteries/Kentucky/Cave_Hill_National_Cemetery.html|title=Cave Hill National Cemetery – Civil War Era National Cemeteries: A Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary|publisher=[[National Park Service]]|access-date=October 21, 2016|archive-date=September 20, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160920213136/https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/national_cemeteries/Kentucky/Cave_Hill_National_Cemetery.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== History ==

[[File:Smyser Memorial.jpg|thumb|left|Smyser Memorial]]

Chartered in 1848, Cave Hill was logged for construction on what was William Johnston's Cave Hill Farm, a rural property some distance east of Louisville.  Johnston, who died in 1798, had built the first brick house in Louisville on the grounds circa 1788. City officials had purchased part of the land in the 1830s in anticipation of building a railroad through it and a workhouse was built there. The railroad was built elsewhere, and the land was leased to local farmers.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Cave Hill Cemetery & Arboretum (U.S. National Park Service) |url=https://www.nps.gov/places/cave-hill-cemetery-arboretum.htm |access-date=2025-04-28 |website=www.nps.gov |language=en}}</ref>

In 1846, Mayor [[Frederick A. Kaye]] began investigating the possibility of developing a [[Rural cemetery|rural or garden-style cemetery]] on the grounds.<ref name=":0" /> While rural cemeteries were an extremely popular style at the time, utilizing natural topography to build an "untouched, rural" environment, Cave Hill was not initially laid out to be a rural cemetery.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |title=Grave history: death, race, and gender in Southern cemeteries |date=2023 |publisher=The University of Georgia Press |isbn=978-0-8203-6579-4 |editor-last=Fletcher |editor-first=Kami |location=Athens |editor-last2=Towle |editor-first2=Ashley}}</ref> It was when [[Hartford, Connecticut]] [[civil engineer]] Edmund Francis Lee was hired that the plan changed: Lee saw the "undulating hills, promontories, and basins as perfectly suited for landscaping the rural aesthetic."<ref name=":1" /> The Cave Hill Cemetery Co. was chartered in February 1848, and the cemetery was dedicated on July 25, 1848. [[Edward Porter Humphrey|Reverend Doctor Edward Porter Humphrey]] delivered the dedicatory address and elaborated on the idea of the garden cemetery, noting, among other things, that ". . .Reason and taste suggest that [this cemetery] should be decorated appropriately by the beautiful productions of our great Creator. . ."<ref name=":0" />

Before the era of large municipal parks, it was common for cities to promote a [[garden cemetery]] as a green oasis and recreation destination, and Louisville was no exception. Leading up to Cave Hill's formal dedication on July 25, 1848, the ''Louisville Daily Courier'' promoted this idea with multiple articles singing the praises of rural cemeteries.<ref name=":1" /> Wrote the ''Courier'', "ladies and gentlemen of the city, visit these grounds on the day of consecration, and see the beauties of the place."<ref>{{Cite news |date=July 13, 1848 |title=Cave Hill Cemetery |work=Louisville Daily Courier}}</ref> This movement simmered with the opening of nearby [[Cherokee Park]] in 1892.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Living History: The Physical City as Artifact and Teaching Tool|journal=The History Teacher|volume=8|issue=4|pages=535–556|date=August 1975|author=Goldfield, David R.|doi=10.2307/492666|publisher=The History Teacher, Vol. 8, No. 4|jstor=492666}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.kentuckymonthly.com/explore/places/cave-hill-cemetery/ |title=Cave Hill Cemetery |last=Hill |first=Sean Patrick |journal=[[Kentucky Monthly]] |access-date=October 21, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161021140043/http://www.kentuckymonthly.com/explore/places/cave-hill-cemetery/ |archive-date=October 21, 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
After administrators sold several acres of land for the burial of Union soldiers during the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], local Confederate supporters purchased nearby land as well. Several deceased patients from the [[Brown General Hospital]] and other nearby army medical facilities were interred in Cave Hill Cemetery.<ref name=":0" />

Johnston's farmhouse (in what is now sections 33 and 34) was converted to the city's [[pesthouse]], and was demolished in 1872. Also in 1872, Beechhurst Sanitarium was built near the pesthouse and the modern Grinstead entrance. Beechurst was torn down in 1936.

The entrance lodge and main gates were designed by Louisville architect [[William H. Reddin]] in 1880 in the style of [[Italian Renaissance Revival]].<ref>"Cave Hill Gate-way: A  {{sic|Mag|nificant|nolink=y}} Stone Lodge to be Erected Facing Broadway." Courier-Journal (1869–1922), March 18, 1880, p. 4. {{ProQuest|1081820403}}.</ref>

The grounds were expanded and remapped in 1888 to their modern size of nearly {{convert|300|acre|km2}}. In the 1980s, [[razor wire]] was added to the brick walls surrounding Cave Hill to keep out after-hours visitors.

The first scenic overlook for the cemetery, Twin Lakes Scenic Overlook, opened on August 20, 2008.<ref>{{cite news |title=Cave Hill Cemetery opens new scenic overlook |url=http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080821/ZONE01/80821024/ |publisher=[[The Courier-Journal]] |date=August 21, 2008 |access-date=August 21, 2008}}{{subscription required}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.spirithunterspi.com/CaveHill.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090503052435/http://www.spirithunterspi.com/CaveHill.html|archive-date=May 3, 2009|title=Spirit Hunters – Cave Hill Cemetery|access-date=February 16, 2009}}</ref>

== Buildings and grounds ==

[[File:Colonel Sanders Grave 1.jpg|thumb|right|[[Colonel Sanders]] gravesite]]

The signature Baxter Avenue entrance, called the Broadway Entrance by the cemetery, was completed in 1892. The [[Corinthian order|Corinthian]]-style building includes a {{convert|2000|lb|adj=on}} bell in its [[clock tower]]. The tower, once the tallest structure for miles, was frequently hit by lightning and last renovated in 2001. The Grinstead Drive entrance was built in 1913.

The third public entrance on the residential street of Dearing Court was closed as of 2007. Another public entrance, also no longer in use, was built off Payne Street in 1910, closest to the military sections. There are several service entrances around the perimeter. Other buildings include the stone office building near the lake, and the Rustic Shelter House built in 1892 at a cost of $565.

The cemetery contains monuments and graves of three Union generals.  The [[32nd Indiana Monument]], also known as the "[[August Bloedner]] Monument", is separately on the National Register.

The middle fork of [[Beargrass Creek (Kentucky)|Beargrass Creek]] runs through Cave Hill, and a source stream flowing into the creek roughly divides the cemetery in new (eastern) and old (western) sections. That stream flows from a spring near the cave that gave the property its name.<ref>{{cite web|title=Finding the "Cave" in Cave Hill Cemetery {{!}} The Filson Historical Society|url=http://filsonhistorical.org/finding-the-cave-in-cave-hill-cemetery/|website=filsonhistorical.org|access-date=October 21, 2016|date=March 22, 2011|archive-date=October 21, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161021131321/http://filsonhistorical.org/finding-the-cave-in-cave-hill-cemetery/|url-status=live}}</ref> The cave can be entered for about {{convert|30|ft|m}}, and then there is a marginal amount of crawl space beyond that, however the cave is officially off limits. There are also five man-made lakes.

The cemetery currently features more than 500 species of trees and shrubs, including some two dozen current state champion trees, including both native species such as pignut hickory (''[[Carya glabra]]'') and exotics such as Caucasian wingnut (''[[Pterocarya fraxinifolia]]'').  It is well known as an arboretum.<ref>{{cite web|title=Introduction to Cave Hill Cemetery| website=[[YouTube]] |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWSnPpdJUag |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/ZWSnPpdJUag |archive-date=December 21, 2021 |url-status=live|access-date=May 1, 2018|date=March 9, 2018}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

[[File:GRC Gravesite 2.jpg|thumb|200px|[[George Rogers Clark]] gravesite]]

== Interments ==
{{main category|Burials at Cave Hill Cemetery}}

There were about 120,000 people interred by 2002, with space remaining for 22,000 more graves. Notable among those interred in the cemetery is [[American Revolutionary War]] military war officer and founder of Louisville [[George Rogers Clark]] (1752–1818).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/cave-hill-cemetery|title=Cave Hill Cemetery|website=[[Atlas Obscura]]|access-date=October 21, 2016|archive-date=October 21, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161021134733/http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/cave-hill-cemetery|url-status=live}}</ref>

More than 200 Confederate soldiers are buried in Section "O" of the cemetery, with 30–40 buried in a row near the National Cemetery. The original wooden markers in Section "O" were replaced with stone markers in 1880–1881. A number of markers are marked as unknown. Included in the Section "O" burials is a Confederate [[Brigadier General]], [[Alpheus Baker]]. There are two other Confederate generals buried in other locations in the cemetery. In the addition to Section "O" (lot 267½) are a number of residents of the Kentucky Confederate Home, who died around the start of the 20th century. The [[confederate flag]] flies over the area.

Within another U.S. Soldiers plot in Section E is one [[Commonwealth War Graves Commission|British war grave]], of a soldier of the [[Machine Gun Corps]], a member of the British Military Mission to the United States, who died in 1918.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/4010267/HARTLEY,%20J%20H |title=CWGC Casualty record for Hartley, J H |access-date=October 21, 2016 |archive-date=October 22, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161022091030/http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/4010267/HARTLEY,%20J%20H |url-status=live }}</ref>

Portrait painter and cousin of [[Mark Twain]], [[Xantippe Saunders|Mary Ann Xantippe "Tip" Saunders]], was interred at Cave Hill Cemetery in 1922. [[Patty Hill]] and [[Mildred J. Hill]] (sisters), composers of the Happy Birthday song, are interred here. [[Muhammad Ali]], boxing champion born in Louisville, was interred on June 10, 2016. Also interred are the founder of [[Kentucky Fried Chicken]], [[Colonel Harland Sanders]]; and [[Mia Zapata]], lead singer of punk band [[The Gits]]. [[Paul Hornung]], [[Heisman Trophy]] winner and [[Green Bay Packer]], was interred in 2020.

== Gallery ==
<gallery>
Cave Hill National Cemetery 2.jpg|[[Union Monument in Louisville]]
Cave Hill National Cemetery 3.jpg|Plaque quoting the poem "[[Bivouac of the Dead]]"
GRC Gravesite.jpg|[[George Rogers Clark]] gravestone
GRC Gravesite 2.jpg|George Rogers Clark gravesite
GRC Gravesite M1.jpg|George Rogers Clark marker
32nd Indiana Monument Louisville.jpg|The [[32nd Indiana Monument]]
</gallery>

== Documents ==

<gallery>
CaveHill1.jpg
CaveHill2.jpg
CaveHill3.jpg
</gallery>

== See also ==
* [[Eastern Cemetery (Louisville)]]
* [[History of Louisville, Kentucky]]
* [[List of attractions and events in the Louisville metropolitan area]]
* [[List of botanical gardens and arboretums in the United States]]
* [[List of burial places of justices of the Supreme Court of the United States]]
* [[List of mayors of Louisville, Kentucky]]
* [[Louisville in the American Civil War]]
* [[National Register of Historic Places listings in The Highlands, Louisville, Kentucky]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Thomas, Samuel W., ''Cave Hill Cemetery: A Pictorial Guide and Its History'', Cave Hill Cemetery Company, Louisville, Kentucky 1985
* {{cite web|url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/geo/KY/JF5.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514083928/http://politicalgraveyard.com/geo/KY/JF5.html|archive-date=May 14, 2011|title=The Political Graveyard (Jefferson County, Kentucky)|access-date=May 20, 2006}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Cave Hill Cemetery}}
* {{Official website|https://www.cavehillcemetery.com/}}
* [https://maps.google.com/maps?q=louisville,+kentucky&ll=38.246303,-85.717049&spn=0.015593,0.030088&hl=en Map of the Cemetery]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050713091748/http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Quarters/1864/cavehillcs.htm Confederate Burials]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050925234857/http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Quarters/1864/cavehillcs2.htm Confederate Burials in the Cave Hill National Cemetery]
* {{Find a Grave cemetery|2315685|Cave Hill National Cemetery}}
* {{Find a Grave cemetery|73354|Cave Hill Cemetery}}
* {{GNIS|type=retired|489123|Cave Hill Cemetery}}

{{Louisville}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Arboreta in Kentucky]]
[[Category:Botanical gardens in Kentucky]]
[[Category:Cemeteries established in the 1840s]]
[[Category:Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky]]
[[Category:Louisville, Kentucky, in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:National Register of Historic Places in Louisville, Kentucky]]
[[Category:Cemeteries in Louisville, Kentucky]]
[[Category:1848 establishments in Kentucky]]
[[Category:Rural cemeteries]]
[[Category:United States national cemeteries]]
[[Category:Victorian architecture in Kentucky]]