Today was my first time in Spring Grove Cemetery.  I took 200 pictures, and felt like I'd hardly taken any at all...what an amazing place.  I'd figured a cemetery would be open and lawn-like, but Spring Grove is so well wooded, it's like a series of clearings in a beautiful woods.  I'll definitely be back on a nicer day, but I was happy for today's rainy, chilly weather - I didn't have to dodge people to get pictures.

 

I'm going to split this up into two threads - one the general Spring Grove thread, and then one that looks at three monuments in more detail - Edwards, Fritz, and Erkenbrecher.  Those three really struck me, so I wanted to show them in detail, but with 43 pictures here, and 35 pictures in the detail series, I thought splitting them up was wise.  That detail thread is here.

 

 

So let us begin.  Thanks for the park, Mr. Burnet!

 

 

 

Stained glass from inside a mausoleum:

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the tower, Mr. Carew!

 

 

 

There are a few areas with soldiers from the Civil War buried around upright cannon barrels (a common monument at Civil War battlefields):

 

 

 

Detail of an individual soldier's stone:

 

 

 

I didn't get a shot of the field cannon, but this is its plaque:

 

 

 

The soldiers' monument:

 

 

 

The cemetery is also an arboretum, and has some amazing trees - some huge trees, and some rare ones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some monuments - some with detail shots:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A deer in the background:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the park, Mr. Alms!

 

 

 

Thanks for the company you started, Mr. Procter!

 

 

 

The stained glass piece inside the Procter mausoleum:

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the high school, Mr. Hughes!

 

 

 

The grave of Major General Joseph Hooker.  I knew he was buried here, but I never understood exactly why.  Turns out his wife was Olivia A. Groesbeck, who is buried next to him.  They're under the smaller stones to the left.

 

 

 

Salmon P. Chase's grave.  Talk about a career - Senator, Governor, Secretary of the Treasury, and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.  He was among the strongest voices for abolition in the pre-war years, was the strongest abolitionist in Lincoln's cabinet, and was able to keep the Union's finances together during the Civil War.  Thanks for helping preserve the Union and end slavery, Mr. Chase!

 

 

 

This looks like it's a gothic church, but it's another mausoleum:

 

 

 

 

 

What an amazing, gorgeous place...I will definitely be back...

Some nice shots - too bad it was all grey but that does give it a cemeteryish kinda feel.

It is nice in every season.

 

Things to do in a cemetery

http://www.springgrove.org/sg/calendar/EventCalendar/EventCalendar.shtm

I went to the Lantern Lighting last year & it was kinda lame but kinda cool.

 

Spring Grove is seriously a cool cemetery

I posted some pics here

http://home.fuse.net/christol/CemPics/CemPics.html

WOW I had no idea that many important people were burried there... Thanks.

 

 

That's such a kickass place.  Did you get a map from the service center?  It helped me find a lot of people I had forgotten were buried there.

 

The place is just gorgeous.  It was a pretty hip place back before city parks became all the rage.  People used to take horsecars out Spring Grove (when it was a private dirt turnpike arched by trees) and use it for picnics and strolls.

 

God bless Adolph Strauch!

 

A very beautiful cemetery indeed!  I'm surprised you hadn't been there before.

 

Thanks for the photos, Mr. RiverViewer! :wink:

Actually, I went with some friends - my wife, Issue430 and his boyfriend, and our hosts for dinner...so no map, but guides!  I definitely want to get a good map and go back on my own sometime, track stuff down...

 

Thanks to everyone for the kind words!

I am embarrassed to say I still haven't been there.  If it is any satisfaction to you, your photos have moved it up on the list of places I must visit this summer.  Wow just stunning.  That is a place Cincinnati should promote more.

Spring Grove is an amazing park (yes, PARK) and is easily one of the most studied landscapes for ANY landscape architect (due to the Stourhead influence from England).  I hope you folks realize how important that cemetery is to this country (along with Mt. Auburn in Boston).

^What about it makes it so studied?  Like, are there specific characteristics that are the "Spring Grove Look", or an approach, or something else?

 

^Well, while we wait for ColDay's response, I'll do a shameless bump for another cemetery designed by Adolph Strauch, Greenwood in Hamilton (found here). The Journal-News did a story on the two cemeteries a couple months back, saying that Stauch's idea for one grand, central family marker, surrounded by small, flat markers for individuals was copied all across the country because it made for a "cleaner-looking" landscape.

^What about it makes it so studied?  Like, are there specific characteristics that are the "Spring Grove Look", or an approach, or something else?

 

 

Spring Grove is one of the first American versions of the Stourhead Garden in England (think of Ha-Ha Walls, tiny replicas of the Parthenon and other Greecian/Roman treasures, lakes, trees, etc).  What is typical today of landscapes when thinking parks and older cemeteries wasn't always like that until the Spring Groves and the Mt. Auburns (Boston) were built.  The idea of an arboretum (with many plant species from Asia, Africa, etc) in the Civil War era was quite unheard of back when Spring Grove was built along with it being the precursor to the Cincinnati park system (that very park system Riverviewer overlooks) is not only a local treasure, but a national treasure.

 

Think of it as the "Paris of Cemeteries" in this country.

Excellent pics of one of Cincinnati's truly fascinating places.  It seems like any time I stop for a little bit, it end up being more like a few hours.  And as grasscat said, the map is really helpful.

Beautiful!

As a life-long resident I am also ashamed to admit that I have never been inside Spring Grove.  I know...very sad.

 

Talking about the park atmosphere, I can't think of a local photography or architecture class that hasn't been to Spring Grove.  It is just a very beautiful and peaceful place.  In fact, my brother is having his wedding pictures taken there when he gets married in November.  At first I thought it was very strange, but after thinking about the cemetary more, I think its a great place for that.

 

I have also heard somewhere that Spring Grove is the second-largest cemetary in the US behind Arlington.

I have heard the second largest statistic as well.

There are people getting their wedding pictures taken there all the time.

People also like to go there to learn how to drive.

heh

be careful

I am embarrassed to say I still haven't been there.  If it is any satisfaction to you, your photos have moved it up on the list of places I must visit this summer.  Wow just stunning.  That is a place Cincinnati should promote more.

 

Say, Monte, maybe we should put together a mini Summer Meet - see if ColDay will lead us on a tour of Spring Grove with an eye to park design, then maybe a thorough Northside tour, and see where it all goes...

So I went to Spring Grove for the first time this weekend so I thought I would bump this thread. 

 

It was amazing and a shame I hadn't been there before.  I have been to Greenwood in Hamilton many, many times and as Ink said was designed by the same person.  But the scale here is so amazing and the notion of having the large singular family markers really stands out. 

I had a temp 2 mth job in Northside this last spring.   I had never been in the cem either until I was told to check it out.    AMAZING!!!    I ended up eating lunch there almost everyday.   I still can't get over how busy it is in there at noon with walkers, lunchgoers, visitors, etc.    Not your typical (sometimes creepy) cemetery.     The park like feeling it gives its visitors is an understatement.      There is some historical story about the soldier at the main entrance.  He was supposed to be placed downtown back in the 1800's as a war memorial but some opposed the idea.  I will have to look it up later if nobody knows.    One of the pics above shows the statue.

^ This is an excerpt from a relatively recent Enquirer article:

 

SO LONG, SENTINEL

 

Quarreling about war memorials is a Cincinnati tradition.

 

Look at what happened to the Sentinel, the oldest guard on duty at Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum.

 

The Sentinel, a bronze statue of a Civil War soldier, watches over 999 graves of his fallen comrades.

 

Cincinnatians raised money for the statue in 1863, shortly after the Battle of Gettysburg. The statue was cast at the same Munich foundry that would - in 1871 - create another Cincinnati landmark, the Tyler Davidson Fountain.

 

The Sentinel was supposed to watch over downtown Cincinnati. But controversy sent him packing.

 

Merchants balked at his appearance. Local lore says they felt he looked too Yankee-esque. The merchants argued that his looks would be bad for business. He might insult customers from Kentucky.

 

City Council also got into the act by failing to allocate money to pay for the statue's stone base. No base. No support. So, away went the Sentinel to Spring Grove.

 

Nicknamed the Jolly Green Giant for his patina, the Sentinel has resided at Spring Grove since 1866. The cemetery has no intention of letting him go.

 

"He's welcome to stand guard in the Grove forever," said Tom Smith, the cemetery's executive vice president.

 

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070521/NEWS01/705210377/-1/back01

 

I think I've asked this before and maybe someone responded but who pays for the upkeep of cemetaries? Or in the case of Spring Grove.