4. Historic Cemeteries of Houston

The entire history of Houston can be seen in its rich collection of cemeteries, all described in The Book, as well as some fascinating individual stories. None of the cemeteries provide online site maps, although Glenwood provides a brochure in their office with locations for some of the notables. To partially fill this gap, site maps with locations of a few notable burials and interesting sights are provided here for several historic Houston cemeteries.

When many of these cemeteries first opened, infant mortality was extremely high. Several of these cemeteries, including Glendale and College Park Memorial, have sections known by such names as babyland or infants rest, shown in the photos, where large numbers of infants are buried. At the beginning of the 20th century, approximately 10 percent of infants died before the age of 1 year. Infant mortality has declined dramatically since it was first assessed in 1915, attributed to improved nutrition, improved sanitary measures, immunization, antibiotics and access to medical care.

4.1 Beth Israel Cemetery

Beth Israel Cemetery (photos and biographical notes), 1207 W. Dallas at     Cushing, founded in 1844, the oldest Jewish institution in Texas. A site         map and a burial locations for a few notables are given here.

4.2 College Memorial Park Cemetery

Originally a Black cemetery, founded in 1896. Photos and historical                   information are here, and a site map is here.

4.3 Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery

Many prominent Houstonians are buried in this beautiful cemetery.             Photos are here, and bios and map  locations for burials and or other         points of interest are here.

4.4 Glendale Cemetery 

Glendale Cemetery (photos 32 to 49), 1826, lies across the railroad tracks at the east end of E. Magnolia, with a historical marker. Glendale uniquely embodies earliest Houston; burial place of Texas pioneers, predating the Texas revolution by 10 years, the oldest cemetery within the city limits of Houston, the oldest structure of any kind in its original location in Houston, with fine view of Buffalo Bayou, the body of water that created Harrisburg and Houston. Three years before his death in New Orleans from yellow fever, John Richardson Harris, founder of Harrisburg and namesake of Harrisburg and Harris County, established Glendale Cemetery. A list of notable burials and monuments is here along with a map of their locations.

4.5 Glenwood and Washington Cemeteries, 2525 Washington at Custus, 1872

The Glenwood Cemetery website includes a cemetery site map with section designations (a better quality map is available here and at the office). Listed here are about 100 of the most notable burials and other points of interest, organized by section name on the cemetery map. For Re-interments from the Masonic cemetery formerly at Sam Houston park, listed in section G-1, if the actual remains could not be recovered, dirt was taken from the grave site in accordance with then-existing regulations.

The Glenwood Cemetery website also provides short biographies of some of the individuals listed. More biographical information can be found in The Book or with an internet search on their names.

Glenwood does not allow the use of photos from this extremely beautiful cemetery in commercial publications, so no Glenwood Cemetery photo album is linked on this website. The Glenwood website, www.glenwoodcemetery.org, presents a number of photos as well as a list of notables buried there. An internet image search for “Glenwood Cemetery, Houston” produces an enormous number of images of monuments and views. Photos of individual gravestones can often be found for any cemetery by a web search or on findagrave.com, and some are linked in the above list. The Glenwood website also offers a search function that gives burial site location for any individual identified by name and approximate burial date.

In the 19th century, burgeoning cities everywhere in America and Europe demanded scarce land for development, putting pressure on church cemeteries. Cities also needed open spaces where crowded residents could connect with nature in a peaceful setting. In response, cities developed rural garden-style cemeteries on their outskirts to provide the land needed for burials, and these cemeteries doubled as public parks. In 1804, the first of these opened on the outskirts of Paris, the magnificent Pere Lachaise Cemetery. Inspired by the English concept of naturalistic picturesque and romantic landscaping, on sites selected for their varied topography, cemetery designers landscaped with natural plantings and curving roadways following the land forms. Americans adopted this style in their first major urban cemeteries and later in Central Park in New York.

The founders of Glenwood Cemetery, built in part on a former brickyard, also adopted this style, unique in the southern states at the time. Although several other Houston cemeteries, including Hollywood and Forest Park Lawndale, later followed this approach, Glenwood stands out for its extraordinary beauty, not only in Houston but nationwide. The premier resting place for Houston’s elite, one Houstonian described it as “River Oaks of the Dead”. Opened in 1872, its hilly topography, meandering roads, exquisite grave sculptures, historical markers and magnificent long views all lie beneath some of the largest oaks in Texas, some registered as champion oaks. Sited at the west end of Houston’s earliest mule-drawn streetcar line, Glenwood served as the first city park, the only one in Houston until the city acquired Sam Houston Park in 1899.

Stone carver and sculptor Frank Teich (1856-1939) created several of the most beautiful monuments in Glenwood Cemetery, among them the Dunn, Hill, Baker, Dunovant and Sternberger figures. Teich worked primarily in granite, difficult to carve but extremely durable. He also carved the Frederick Allen Rice monument (brother of William Marsh Rice). At Hermann Park, he provided the base for the Sam Houston equestrian statue, the Dick Dowling memorial sculpture (photo) on Cambridge Street, and the fifty foot centennial obelisk at the south end of the Herman Park reflecting pool, the largest monolith ever quarried in Texas. He also carved the World War One monument (photos) at Sam Houston Park. Teich carved so many Confederate monuments that the Daughters of the Confederacy made him an honorary “Daughter”.

One of the largest oak trees in Texas, the Cemetery Oak, a registered champion oak, stands in the Forest Mound section near the center of the south boundary of the cemetery, immediately to the east of the Hillside sections.

Please note the following guidelines for cyclists from the Glenwood Cemetery website: Small groups of casual bicyclists (no more than four) are welcome, provided they observe the 10-mph speed limit and ride single file to allow other vehicles to pass.

4.6 Hollywood Cemetery

A nondenominational cemetery with a rural landscape architecture in the style of Glenwood Cemetery. The original section in the southeast corner, holding the oldest graves, originally opened onto North Main via a narrow lane. Photos are here, and bios and map locations for burials and other points of interest are here.

4.7 Holy Cross Cemetery

Holy Cross Cemetery, primarily for lay and clerical Catholics, opened when the 1852 St. Vincent Cemetery on Navigation 

Blvd. filled up from yellow fever epidemics. Photos are here, bios and map locations for burials and other points of interest are here.

4.8 Old City Cemetery

1100 block of Elder at Girard, 1840, the second oldest city cemetery, underneath former Jefferson Davis hospital.  Photos here. 

Forty to sixty ​“black earth” graves have been found on this site. Archaeologists found the graves under the parking lot on the west side of the hospital building, and under the adjacent fire department facility. Ceramic fragments from the gravesites and archival documents in England point to a ​British settlement during the mid 1600’s, believed to be pirates preying on Spanish shipping in the Gulf of Mexico. Said to be part of a much larger English “colony” extending from Florida to New Mexico, the English abandoned the settlement after 25 years of heat, humidity, snakes, Indians, mosquitoes and yellow fever. Around 1840, when the original city cemetery ​(Founders Cemetery) filled up, the city established a ​new cemetery, the “Old City Cemetery”, bounded by Girard, Elder, Dart and Holly. On land purchased by the City of Houston from the Allen Brothers, the five acre cemetery consisted of six sections: paupers, negroes, families, suicides or deaths in duels ​(section I.3.1), and sections for Masons and Independent Order of Odd Fellows ​(brought to Houston by Jacob de Cordova, section I.3.3.6) . During the yellow fever epidemic of 1867, mass graves using a long trench received some of the victims, among them both former Confederate soldiers and Union soldiers occupying Houston after the Civil War. The cemetery filled up around 1879.