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Rock Creek Cemetery

Rock Creek Cemetery
Image
Rock Creek Cemetery in September 2008
Rock Creek Cemetery is located in the District of Columbia
Rock Creek Cemetery
Location within the District of Columbia
Rock Creek Cemetery is located in the United States
Rock Creek Cemetery
Location within the United States
Map
Interactive map of Rock Creek Cemetery
LocationWebster Street and Rock Creek Church Road, NW, Washington, D.C., U.S.
Coordinates38°56′52″N 77°0′47″W / 38.94778°N 77.01306°W / 38.94778; -77.01306
Area84.2 acres (34.1 ha)
Built1719
Architectural styleGothic Revival
NRHP reference No.77001498[1]
Added to NRHPAugust 12, 1977

Rock Creek Cemetery is an 86-acre (350,000 m2) cemetery in the Petworth neighborhood of Washington, D.C., located across the street from the historic Soldiers' Home and the Soldiers' Home Cemetery. It also is home to the InterFaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington.

On August 12, 1977, Rock Creek Cemetery and the adjacent church grounds were listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Rock Creek Church Yard and Cemetery.

History

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Image
Adams Memorial, designed by sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens as a gravestone for Marian Hooper Adams, a Washington, D.C. socialite who committed suicide in 1885. A replica sits in the National Portrait Gallery.
Image
The mausoleum's interior at Rock Creek Cemetery

The cemetery was first established in 1719 in the British colonial Province of Maryland as a churchyard within the glebe of St. Paul's Episcopal Church within the Rock Creek Parish. Later, the vestry decided to expand the burial ground as a public cemetery to serve the city of Washington, D.C., which had acquired the cemetery within its boundaries as established in 1791. The cemetery was formally recognized and established through an Act of Congress in 1840.

An expanded cemetery was landscaped in the rural garden style, to function as both a cemetery and a public park. It is a ministry of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Rock Creek Parish, with sections for St. John's Russian Orthodox Church and St. Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral.

The park-like setting of Rock Creek Cemetery has several notable mausoleums, sculptures, and tombstones. The best known is the Adams Memorial, a contemplative, androgynous bronze sculpture seated before a block of granite that was created by Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Stanford White. It marks the graves of Marian Hooper Adams and her husband, Henry Adams, and sometimes, mistakenly, the sculpture is referred to as Grief.[2][3] Saint-Gaudens titled it The Mystery of the Hereafter and The Peace of God that Passeth Understanding.

Other notable memorials include the Frederick Keep Monument, the Heurich Mausoleum, the Hitt Monument, the Hardon Monument, the Kauffman Monument that is known as The Seven Ages of Memory, the Sherwood Mausoleum Door, and the Thompson-Harding Monument.[4]

Sculptors of works in the cemetery

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Numerous fine works by unknown sculptors also exist in the cemetery.[5][6][7]

Notable interments

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A

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B

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Gravesite of inventor Emile Berliner and his family members

C

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D

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E

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F

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  • Charles S. Fairfax (1829–1869), Virginia-born California politician who was entitled to the British title 10th Lord Fairfax of Cameron
  • Stephen Johnson Field (1816–1899), Associate justice of US Supreme Court
  • Peter Force (1790–1868), politician, U.S. Army lieutenant in the War of 1812, newspaper editor, archivist, and historian, who served as the twelfth mayor of Washington, D.C., and whose library of historical documents became the first major Americana collection of the Library of Congress
  • Garrett Ford Sr. (1945-2025), Professional football player, for the Denver Broncos[29]
  • Israel Moore Foster (1873–1950), Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives
  • William H. French (1815–1881), major general during the American Civil War and the Mexican War

G

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Gravesite of Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor, an editor of National Geographic

H

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J

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K

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Gravesite of Oliver Hudson Kelley, who founded the National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry

L

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M

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N

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O

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  • Carmel Offie (1909–1972), Central Intelligence Agency official

P

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R

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Gravesite of George Washington Riggs

S

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Gravesite of Upton Sinclair

T

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V

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Gravesite of Charles Doolittle Walcott
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Grave of Burton K. Wheeler

W

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Y

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  • Helen Yakobson, (1913–2002) academic and professor at George Washington University[50]

See also

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References

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  1. ↑ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. ↑ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Saint-Gaudens, Augustus" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 5.
  3. ↑ "1886 The Adams Memorial". Archived from the original on May 9, 2008. Retrieved June 29, 2008.
  4. ↑ "Cultural Tourism DC". CulturalTourismDC.org. Archived from the original on October 9, 2007. Retrieved January 12, 2008.
  5. ↑ Goode, James M. The Outdoor Sculpture of Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., 1974 pp. 343–352
  6. ↑ Kvaran, Einar E., Cemetery Sculpture in America, unpublished manuscript
  7. ↑ Marion, John Francis, Famous and Curious Cemeteries, Crown Publishers Inc., New York, 1977 pp. 78–80
  8. ↑ "The remains of Major Wm. T. Abert..." The Baltimore Sun. March 6, 1868. p. 4. Retrieved April 13, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  9. ↑ "George V. Allen". The Herald-Sun. July 13, 1970. p. 14. Retrieved April 5, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  10. ↑ "Funeral Services Held for Justice". The Washington Times. October 6, 1916. p. 4. Retrieved December 11, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  11. ↑ "Funeral of the Late Col. Andrews". The Evening Star. Washington, D.C. March 14, 1868. p. 4 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ↑ "Babcock, Joseph Weeks". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  13. ↑ "Willard L. Beaulac, Former Envoy and Visiting Professor at BSU, Dies". The Muncie Evening Press. August 27, 1990. p. 18. Retrieved November 17, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  14. ↑ "Funeral Services for A. A. Birney Today". The Washington Herald. September 6, 1916. p. 10. Retrieved November 22, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  15. ↑ "Funeral of Mrs. Francis P. Blair - Eliza Violet Blair". Evening Star. July 9, 1877. p. 4. Retrieved April 25, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  16. ↑ "Obsequies". The National Republican. October 23, 1876. p. 4. Retrieved April 14, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  17. ↑ "Noted Architect and Author Dies in Newport News". The Virginian-Pilot. April 23, 1932. p. 1. Retrieved March 12, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  18. ↑ "Washington's Forgotten Grave of "Obstinate Davy" Burns". The Washington Post. April 21, 1907. p. 75. Retrieved April 25, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  19. ↑ "Charles Baltimore Calvert". The Baltimore Sun. September 3, 1906. p. 7. Retrieved April 25, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  20. ↑ "Conway, Martin Franklin". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved February 16, 2025.
  21. ↑ Flitter, Emily (November 7, 2018). "Evelyn Y. Davis, Shareholder Scourge of C.E.O.s, Dies at 89". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 18, 2022.
  22. ↑ "J. Maury Dove". The Washington Herald. June 28, 1924. p. 16. Retrieved November 17, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  23. ↑ Feinsilber, Mike (October 1, 1983). "Noted Syndicated Columnist Roscoe Drummons, 81, Dies". The News Journal. p. 5. Retrieved November 16, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  24. ↑ "Dwight, John Wilbur". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  25. ↑ "Dr. Susan Edson Buried". Washington, DC: The Evening Star. November 15, 1897. p. 13. Retrieved November 27, 2017.
  26. ↑ "H. J. Ellicott Dead". The Baltimore Sun. February 12, 1901. p. 2. Retrieved May 1, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  27. ↑ "Murphy, Helen Essary". Evening Star. August 15, 1951. p. B12. Retrieved April 25, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  28. ↑ "Henry Ellsworth Ewing, 1883–1951". Journal of Economic Entomology. 44 (2): 270. 1951. doi:10.1093/jee/44.2.270.
  29. ↑ "Garrett William Ford Sr". remembermyjourney.com. Retrieved January 24, 2026.
  30. ↑ Seiler, Michael (April 24, 1982). "Geographic's Melville Bell Grosvenor Dies". Los Angeles Times. p. 33. Retrieved April 25, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  31. ↑ "Widow of Justice Harlan Will Be Buried Tomorrow". The Indianapolis Star. October 11, 1916. p. 14. Retrieved April 25, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  32. ↑ "Dr. J. N. B. Hewitt, Linguist, Expires". Evening Star. October 15, 1937. p. 2. Retrieved April 25, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  33. ↑ "L. G. Hine, Aged 81, Dies at Sanitarium". The Evening Star. January 20, 1914. p. 5. Retrieved November 26, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  34. ↑ "Blair Lee". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved October 20, 2024.
  35. ↑ "Death of Ex-Mayor Lenox". The Critic. July 17, 1874. p. 4. Retrieved April 14, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  36. ↑ "Michael Novak Jr., 83". Cresco Times Plain Dealer. March 3, 2017. Retrieved April 28, 2026.
  37. ↑ "Simms". The Evening Star. December 19, 1884. p. 3. Retrieved July 18, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  38. ↑ United States Congress. "Thetus W. Sims (id: S000441)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
  39. ↑ "Alfred Edgar Smith (1903–1986)". Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Retrieved January 7, 2025.
  40. ↑ "Ethel M. Smith". Times Herald. March 26, 1951. p. 5. Retrieved July 17, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  41. ↑ Bernstein, Adam (February 23, 2007). "Frank M. Snowden Jr., at 95; Renowned Authority on Blacks in Antiquity". The Boston Globe. p. C8. Retrieved March 22, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  42. ↑ "The Funeral of the Late Dr. R. King Stone..." The Evening Star. April 27, 1872. p. 4. Retrieved April 14, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  43. ↑ "Mr. Thomas Bell Sweeney, Sr". Sentinel Star. September 10, 1973. p. 4B. Retrieved April 25, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  44. ↑ "Funeral of Dr. Vasey". The Washington Post. March 8, 1893. p. 5. Retrieved April 25, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  45. ↑ McGrath, Charles (August 1, 2012). "Gore Vidal dies at age 86". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Halifax Media Group. Archived from the original on July 15, 2014. Retrieved July 3, 2014.
  46. ↑ "Edward T. Wailes". The Daily Times. July 4, 1969. p. 10. Retrieved November 17, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  47. ↑ "Funeral of B. H. Warder". The Washington Post. March 6, 1894. p. 2. Retrieved February 2, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  48. ↑ "The Funeral of the Late John Wilson..." The Evening Star. January 13, 1876. p. 4. Retrieved April 14, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  49. ↑ "Wright, John Vines". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved October 4, 2022.
  50. ↑ "Support Yakobson". Gwu.edu.
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