Hollywood Cemetery (Richmond, Virginia)

Description

The cemetery is in the Oregon Hill neighborhood of Richmond. It is 135 acres in size

Presidents Circle

Hollywood Cemetery is the only cemetery besides Arlington National Cemetery that contains the burials of two U.S. Presidents.

President James Monroe was originally interred in Marble Cemetery in New York City when he died in 1831. Virginia petitioned to have his remains reinterred to Hollywood Cemetery. The Gothic Revival James Monroe Tomb monument designed by Albert Lybrock resembles a bird cage surrounding a simple granite sarcophagus. It was built in the Presidents Circle section of the cemetery and dedicated by Virginia governor Henry A. Wise on July 5, 1858. The monument was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1971.

President John Tyler was buried in the Presidents Circle section of the cemetery in 1862 and a monument was dedicated by Congress in 1915. His death was not recognized in Washington, D.C., due to his allegiance to the confederacy. His burial ceremony was escorted by Jefferson Davis and address given by Armistead C. Gordon.

Confederate president Jefferson Davis died in 1889. He was initially interred in Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans,

Monument of Confederate War Dead

In 1869, a 90 ft high granite pyramid designed by Charles H. Dimmock was built as a memorial to the more than 11,000 enlisted men of the Confederate Army buried in the cemetery. The burials of 25 Confederate Army officers includes J.E.B. Stuart, Fitzhugh Lee and George Pickett. The cemetery is unofficially considered the Confederate National Cemetery.

The monument is made of roughly cut James River granite blocks. The monument is inscribed with text in Latin that translates to, "In eternal memory of those who stood for God and Country." The pyramid became a symbol of the Hollywood Memorial Association, appearing on its stationery as well as on the front of a pamphlet of buried soldiers, the Register of the Confederate Dead.

History

William Byrd III, a wealthy planter, politician and military officer, was facing financial problems and divided his estate in Richmond known as the Belvidere into several plots 100-acres in size for sale. The Harvie family bought several of these lots which became known as "Harvie's Woods."

In 1847, Joshua J. Fry and William H. Haxall, visited Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts. They were impressed with Mount Auburn and proposed the creation of a similar rural cemetery in Richmond. It was through their efforts and the subsequent cooperation of local citizens that Hollywood Cemetery was created.

Fry, Haxall, and 40 other prominent Richmond citizens purchased 42 acres It was originally planned to be named Mount Vernon Cemetery, however Notman proposed the name Hollywood delivered the dedication address in 1849.

Hollywood Cemetery became so popular, that by the mid-1850s, the city of Richmond implemented an omnibus to transport visitors there every afternoon. A streetcar line was added in the 1860s.

American Civil War

At the outbreak of the American Civil War, the cemetery directors set aside two acres for confederate soldier burials which became known as the Soldiers' Section. Richmond citizens became outraged when they learned that soldiers that died in local hospitals were buried in potter's fields. In response to the outrage, the city increased the number of burials of dead soldiers at Hollywood and established Oakwood Cemetery across town for additional burials.

The initial two acres assigned for soldier burials became full by July 1862 and the cemetery purchased additional land funded by the confederate government. By April 1865, the cemetery contained more than 11,000 confederate soldiers, which accounted for more than half of the total burials in the cemetery. After the war, the Ladies' Memorial Association worked to reinter 2,935 confederate soldiers from Gettysburg to Hollywood Cemetery. Confederate Civil War veterans continued to be buried in the cemetery into the 1900s.

At George Pickett's request, he was buried among his men in his native Richmond when he died in 1875. LaSalle “Sallie” Corbell Pickett hoped she could be buried there too. Women were not allowed to be buried in the soldiers’ section of Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery at the time of Mrs. Pickett’s death in 1931. In 1998, for the first time a woman's remains have ever been allowed in this area, Mrs. Pickett was reburied in the Gettysburg soldiers’ section of Hollywood Cemetery by her husband. “Mrs. Pickettt died in the early 1930s, and had wanted to be buried with her husband in the Hollywood Cemetery. But the Hollywood Ladies Memorial Society, which then controlled the Gettysburg Hill portion of the cemetery, would not allow it.” Richmond Discovery tour guide Jim DuPriest said.” So, Mrs. Pickett was buried in Abbey Mausoleum [which was] nearby, besides, and adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery in Northern Virginia.” … “Near the end of the ceremony, the families sprinkled soil from Mrs. Pickett’s home in Chuckatuck, Nansemond County, Virginia.”

Confederate Memorial Day

Main article: Confederate Memorial Day

On May 31, 1866, Hollywood Cemetery held its first Confederate Memorial Day celebration, and over 20,000 people were in attendance. The celebrations "became imbued with cultural and religious symbolism that underscored the gravity of what it meant to be a southerner."

The second Confederate Memorial Day celebration in 1867 at Hollywood Cemetery differed greatly from the one the year before. There were fewer marches and military bands and more women and children in attendance.

Other history

In 1876, the Gothic Revival stone structure designed to look like a ruined medieval tower was built at the entrance. It was expanded to include the chapel, office and receiving vault. The current Cherry Street gate was constructed in 1897 when the city raised Cherry Street by 5 feet, which also required the stone Gatekeeper's tower to be heightened. In 1915, the Cherry Street entrance was closed and the present one was opened to better facilitate cars.

The cemetery expanded in 1877 with the purchase of an additional thirty-three acres along the river.

On November 12, 1969, Hollywood Cemetery was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

The Palmer Chapel Mausoleum was built 1992, adding 730 crypts for caskets and 160 cremation niches.

There are many local legends surrounding certain tombs and grave sites in the cemetery. One interesting grave of Florence Rees, a girl that died at 3 years old in 1862 of scarlet fever. The grave includes a cast-iron statue of a dog that stands watch over her. There is also the legend of Richmond Vampire which purports that William Wortham Pool, buried in the cemetery, was a vampire.

In 2020, Hollywood Cemetery's board of directors banned the display of Confederate flags in the cemetery due to its connection as a symbol of racism and the potential to provoke vandalism.

A place rich in history, legend, and gothic landscape, Hollywood Cemetery is also frequented by many of the local students attending Virginia Commonwealth University.

Notable burials

Main article: List of burials at Hollywood Cemetery

Gallery

File:Monroe Tomb 02.jpg|James Monroe grave after September 2016 renovation File:John Tyler's grave.JPG|John Tyler grave File:Jefferson Davis Grave.JPG|Jefferson Davis grave File:HollywoodChapel.JPG|The chapel at the entrance of Hollywood Cemetery File:Fitzhugh Lee's Grave.jpg|Fitzhugh Lee grave File:Grave Jeb Stuart Flora Stuart.jpg|J.E.B. Stuart grave File:Pickett's Grave.jpg|George Pickett grave File:Hollywood-cast-iron-Newfoundland-and-French-style-cradle-grave.jpg|Cast-iron dog statue overlooking child's grave File:SauerMausoleam.JPG|The Sauer family Mausoleum File:WWPoolGrave.JPG|William Wortham Pool grave is associated with the Richmond Vampire urban legend

References

Citations

Sources

References

1. "Virginia Landmarks Register". Virginia Department of Historic Resources.
2. {{NRISref
3. "About Hollywood Cemetery". Hollywood Cemetery.
4. "National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form". United States National Park Service.
5. (1916). "Monument to John Tyler Address Delivered in Hollywood Cemetery, at Richmond, Va., on October 12, 1915 at the Dedication of the Monument Erected by the Government to John Tyler, Tenth President of the United States". Government Printing Office.
6. (1869). "Registry of the Confederate Dead, Interred in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, VA.". Gary, Clemmitt & Jones.
7. (1994). "The Revival Styles in American Memorial Art". Bowling Green State University Popular Press.
8. Hollywood Cemetery. (2015-04-29). "Confederate Memorial Pyramid (Hollywood Cemetery)".
9. "William H. Haxall". Hollywood Cemetery.
10. (2016). "The President is Dead! The Extraordinary Stories of Presidential Deaths, Final Days, Burials and Beyond". Skyhorse Publishing.
11. (2018). "Grave Landscapes - The Nineteenth Century Rural Cemetery Movement". University of South Carolina Press.
12. "Re: Oliver Perry Baldwin, Publ".
13. Alfred L. Brophy, [http://blurblawg.typepad.com/files/road-to-gettysburg-address.pdf "The Road to the Gettysburg Address," Florida State University Law Review 43 (2016):831-905.]
14. (May 31, 1998). "General's Wife Buried in Confederate Cemetery". The Tuscaloosa News.
15. Kinney, Martha. (1998). "If Vanquished I Am Still Victorious: Religious and Cultural Symbolism in Virginia's Confederate Memorial Day Celebrations, 1866–1930". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography.
16. (2004). "Cities of the Dead: Contesting the Memory of the Civil War in the South, 1865-1914". The University of North Carolina Press.
17. "Hollywood Cemetery and James Monroe Tomb".
18. (March 15, 2023). "Our History-Hollywood Cemetery".
19. "Things to See". Hollywood Cemetery.
20. Kollatz Jr, Harry. (2013-10-30). "W.W. Pool: Richmond's Reputed Nosferatu".
21. (July 12, 2022). "No more Confederate flags at Hollywood Cemetery". Virginia Mercury.