Palmer Cemetery aka The Kensington Burial Grounds. | |
---|---|
Palmer Cemetery gatehouse | |
![]() | |
Details | |
Established | About 1732 |
Country | United States |
Type | Public |
Owned by | Managed by unpaid volunteer trustees. |
Size | 5 acres [1] |
No. of graves | 40,000 to 50,000 [2] |
Website | http://palmercemeteryfishtown.org/ |
Find a Grave | Palmer Cemetery aka The Kensington Burial Grounds. |
Palmer Cemetery, originally known as the Kensington Burial Grounds, was established around 1732 in the Fishtown section of Philadelphia. [3]
The cemetery holds the remains of many of the original families of Kensington such as the Cramp and Shibe Families. [4] There are veterans of every war buried here, beginning with the American Revolutionary War. There are markers for veterans of the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
The cemetery is also home to one of the first memorials to local World War I Veterans (1921). The exact number of burials is unknown, but it is estimated that 40,000 to 50,000 people are buried in Palmer Cemetery. [2] The cemetery is maintained by volunteer trustees who oversee its operation and preservation.
Palmer Cemetery is a 501c3 Non profit. All donation are used for the care and preservation of the historic grounds.
The cemetery is named for the founder of Kensington, Philadelphia, Captain Anthony Palmer, its actual name is the Kensington Burial Grounds. Palmer was originally from England, and came to America from Barbados around 1700–1705. He became a sizable landowner in the area north of the city of Philadelphia (The Northern Liberties). Using proceeds from the sale of the Hope Farm estate (present-day Port Richmond), which included three slaves named Abraham, Hannibal, and Phillis, [5] he purchased the "Fairman Estate" in about 1730, which consisted of 191.5 acres of land along the Delaware River. The Fairman Mansion was located at the current Penn Treaty Park where William Penn made his famous treaty with the Lenni-Lenape Indians. This is where Anthony Palmer laid out the town of Kensington. It is believed that Palmer gave a small parcel of land in his town, to be used as a 'free burial ground" for the people of Kensington. If you lived within the original boundaries, you were allowed to be buried in the burial grounds. [6]
Anthony Palmer was a member of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania from about 1710. He began his political career as a judge, and eventually, as senior member of council, he would become President of Council and Acting Provincial Governor of Pennsylvania in 1747–48. Palmer died in 1749 and was buried in the Christ Church Burial Grounds located at 2nd and Market Streets. (As with many old cemeteries, the exact location of the Palmer Family Grave is unknown.) Anthony Palmer's will did not mention the land for the cemetery. The cemetery land was mentioned in the will of his daughter, Thomasina Keith, who died shortly after her father. In 1765 a "deed of trust" was formally filed in the City of Philadelphia. The trust stated that the grounds were to be used for a burial grounds for the residents of Kensington and managed by trustees from the community. The deed of trust named the original six trustees and the rules they were to follow in managing the burial grounds.
In 1975, a receiving vault built in 1870 of brick and marble exploded and was destroyed due to the build-up of kerosene fumes and the activity of juvenile delinquents. [7]
In July 2012, the cemetery was recognized by the Philadelphia Historical Commission as a historic city landmark. [2]
The Congressional Cemetery, officially Washington Parish Burial Ground, is a historic and active cemetery located at 1801 E Street, S.E., in Washington, D.C., on the west bank of the Anacostia River. It is the only American "cemetery of national memory" founded before the Civil War. Over 65,000 individuals are buried or memorialized at the cemetery, including many who helped form the nation and Washington, D.C. in the early 19th century.
Fishtown is a neighborhood in the River Wards section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Located northeast of Center City Philadelphia, its borders are somewhat disputed today due to many factors, but are roughly defined by the triangle created by the Delaware River, Front Street, and York Street. Some newer residents expand the area to Lehigh Avenue to the northeast, while some older residents shrink the area to Norris Street. It is served by the Market–Frankford Line rapid transit subway/elevated line of the SEPTA system. Fishtown was a largely working class Irish Catholic neighborhood, but has recently seen a large influx of young urban professionals and gentrification.
Frankford is a neighborhood in the Northeast section of Philadelphia situated about six miles (10 km) northeast of Center City. Although its borders are vaguely defined, the neighborhood is bounded roughly by the original course of Frankford Creek on the south to Castor Avenue on the northwest and southwest, to Cheltenham Avenue on the north, and to Aramingo Avenue and I-95 on the east. [source: GoogleMaps] Adjacent neighborhoods are Bridesburg, Juniata, Northwood, Summerdale, and Wissinoming.
Kensington is a neighborhood in Philadelphia that belongs to Lower Northeast. As with all neighborhoods in the city, the lack of any official designation means the boundaries of the area vary between sources over time and are disputed among locals. Kensington, as most long-term residents view it, refers generally to the area consisting of Kensington, East Kensington, West Kensington, and Harrowgate. The adjacent Fairhill and Norris Square neighborhoods are more separate but may be included in Kensington; Fishtown and South (Olde) Kensington were historically included. The most conservative boundaries of the neighborhood, shown in the map below, are Front Street and 5th Street to the west, the Amtrak train tracks to the North, Trenton Avenue, the Trenton Avenue train tracks, and Frankford Avenue to the east, and Cecil B. Moore Avenue to the south.
Kensington District, or The Kensington District of the Northern Liberties, was one of the twenty-nine municipalities that formed Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, United States prior to the enactment of the Act of Consolidation, 1854, when it became incorporated into the newly expanded City of Philadelphia. Lehigh Avenue roughly bounded the district to the north; Germantown Avenue and 6th Street to the west; Cohocksink Creek to the south; and an L-shaped line formed by Frankford Avenue, Norris Street, and York Street to its northeast. The Delaware River was the eastern boundary. Today the area would include the Philadelphia neighborhoods of Olde Kensington, West Kensington and Fishtown, as well as portions of the neighborhoods of Ludlow, Hartranft, Fairhill, Northern Liberties and the current Kensington. The District of Kensington was a self-governing district between the years 1820 and 1854.
Mikveh Israel Cemetery is the oldest Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, giving evidence of a settled community as early as 1740. A number of outstanding patriots, pioneers, and other notables of the Jewish faith who made important contributions to the history and freedom of America during the Colonial and Revolutionary period were interred here, and for this reason, in 1959, by an act of Congress, the burial ground was designated as a unit of the Independence National Historical Park, while continuing to be maintained by the sponsoring Congregation Mikveh Israel. The cemetery was certified by the Philadelphia Historical Commission, and in 1971, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Philadelphia National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery located in the West Oak Lane neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was established in 1862 as nine leased lots in seven private cemeteries in the Philadelphia region. The current location was established in 1881, and the graves of soldiers were reinterred from the various leased lots. It is administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, and managed from offices at Washington Crossing National Cemetery. It is 13 acres in size and contains 13,202 burials.
The Woodlands is a National Historic Landmark District on the west bank of the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. It includes a Federal-style mansion, a matching carriage house and stable, and a garden landscape that in 1840 was transformed into a Victorian rural cemetery with an arboretum of over 1,000 trees. More than 30,000 people are buried at the cemetery. Among the tombstones at Woodlands cemetery is the tombstone of Dr Thomas W. Evans, which at 150 feet (46 m), is both the tallest gravestone in the United States and the tallest obelisk gravestone in the world.
Crown Hill National Cemetery is a U.S. National Cemetery located in Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana. It was established in 1866 on Section 10 within Crown Hill Cemetery, a privately owned cemetery on the city's northwest side. Administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Cemetery encompasses 1.4 acres (0.57 ha) and serves as a burial site for Union soldiers who fought in the American Civil War.
Cypress Hills National Cemetery is a 18.2-acre (7.4 ha) cemetery located in the Cypress Hills neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. It is the only United States National Cemetery in New York City and has more than 21,100 interments of veterans and civilians.
Winchester National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery located in the city of Winchester in Frederick County, Virginia. Administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, it encompasses 4.9 acres (2.0 ha), and as of the end of 2005, it had 5,561 interments. It is closed to new interments.
Penn Treaty Park is a small park on the western bank of the Delaware River, in the Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is located on Beach Street, near its intersection with Delaware Avenue.
East Perth Cemeteries was the first cemetery established for the Swan River Colony in 1829 in East Perth, Western Australia. It is estimated that as many as 10,000 people were buried there between 1829 and 1919 in seven independently administered denominations or sections which is why the place is known as 'East Perth Cemeteries'. Only around 800 gravesites have been identified. A large section of the original site has since been built over, leaving about 5 hectares remaining.
The Arch Street Meeting House, at 320 Arch Street at the corner of 4th Street in the Old City neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is a Meeting House of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). Built to reflect Friends' testimonies of simplicity and equality, this building is little changed after more than two centuries of continuous use.
A receiving vault or receiving tomb, sometimes also known as a public vault, is a structure designed to temporarily store dead bodies in winter months when the ground is too frozen to dig a permanent grave in a cemetery. Technological advancements in excavation, embalming, and refrigeration have rendered the receiving vault obsolete.
New Southgate Cemetery is a 22-hectare cemetery in Brunswick Park in the London Borough of Barnet. It was established by the Colney Hatch Company in the 1850s and became the Great Northern London Cemetery, with a railway service running from near Kings Cross station to a dedicated station at the cemetery, similar to the service of the London Necropolis Company to Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey.
Glenwood Memorial Gardens is a 70-acre lawn cemetery in Broomall, Pennsylvania. It was originally established in 1849 as a rural cemetery on 20 acres in North Philadelphia as Glenwood Cemetery. Over 700 Union and Confederate soldiers who died in local hospitals during the American Civil War were buried in Glenwood cemetery. The soldiers' remains were moved to the Philadelphia National Cemetery in 1891.
The Presbyterian Burying Ground, also known as the Old Presbyterian Burying Ground, was a historic cemetery which existed between 1802 and 1909 in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in the United States. It was one of the most prominent cemeteries in the city until the 1860s. Burials there tapered significantly after Oak Hill Cemetery was founded nearby in 1848. The Presbyterian Burying Ground closed to new burials in 1887, and about 500 to 700 bodies were disinterred after 1891 when an attempt was made to demolish the cemetery and use the land for housing. The remaining graves fell into extensive disrepair. After a decade of effort, the District of Columbia purchased the cemetery in 1909 and built Volta Park there, leaving nearly 2,000 bodies buried at the site. Occasional human remains and tombstones have been discovered at the park since its construction. A number of figures important in the early history of Georgetown and Washington, D.C., military figures, politicians, merchants, and others were buried at Presbyterian Burying Ground.
Warwick General Cemetery is a heritage-listed cemetery at Wentworth Street, Warwick, Southern Downs Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Dornbusch & Connolly and built from 1853 onwards by Phil Thornton. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 27 April 2001.
Girard Avenue is a major commercial and residential street in Philadelphia. For most of its length it runs east–west, but at Frankford Avenue it makes a 135-degree turn north. Parts of the road are signed as U.S. Route 13 and U.S. Route 30.