Holmead's Burying Ground, also known as Holmead's Cemetery and the Western Burial Ground, was a historic cemetery located in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in the United States. It was founded by Anthony Holmead in 1794 as a privately owned secular cemetery open to the public. The city of Washington, D.C., constructed the Western Burial Ground on the remainder of the city block in 1798, and the two burial grounds became synonymous. The city took ownership of the private Holmead cemetery in 1820. The unified cemetery went into steep decline around 1850, and it was closed on March 6, 1874. Removal of remains, most of which were reinterred at Graceland Cemetery or Rock Creek Cemetery, continued until 1885.
Burying ground history
Founding Holmead's Burying Ground Holmead's Burying Ground was built on land originally owned by Anthony Holmead, a tobacco farmer who lived in Prince George's County in the Province of Maryland in the early and mid 1700s. In 1718 or 1726, Holmead purchased of land in the northern section of what was known as the "Widow's Mite" tract in what would later become the District of Columbia. Holmead died intestate in 1750, and his nephew, a 22-year-old from Devon, England, also named Anthony Holmead, inherited the estate and emigrated to America to take ownership of it. Upon his arrival in Maryland, the younger Holmead purchased two additional land patents (Beall's Plains and Lamar's Outlet) along Rock Creek north of Widow's Mite.
The younger Holmead wanted to build a burying ground on part of the Widow's Mite tract. It is unclear whether he actually established a family burial plot there by 1791, or merely contemplated one, but the intended location was a space on the southwest corner of what is now 19th and T Streets NW. (The long edge was along 19th Street.) His plans were complicated by the establishment of the District of Columbia. On July 9, 1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River. The exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, who chose a portion of the states of Maryland and Virginia on January 24, 1791. Only a portion of the new "District of Columbia" was intended to be used as a city. This "Federal City", or City of Washington, was laid out in the L'Enfant Plan of 1791, and was bounded by Boundary Street (northwest and northeast; now Florida Avenue), 15th Street Northeast, East Capitol Street, the Anacostia River, the Potomac River, and Rock Creek. The federal government purchased title to all land within the Federal City, which included land owned by Holmead. Holmead was entitled to repurchase his land at £12 and 10 pence per acre, and did so. Part of his repurchase involved the rectangle on the northeast corner of what was now called Square 109.
Holmead's purchase was delayed for nearly five years. Square 109 lay just inside the city limits, it was unclear just where streets were to be laid out. It took five years for surveying and platting of the city to be completed. Finally, on August 31, 1796, the federal government at last determined the exact locations of 19th and T Streets and the boundaries of Square 109 and permitted Holmead to purchase his plot of land.
Founding the Western Burial Ground The City of Washington designated the entirety Square 109 as a public burying ground on February 28, 1798, turning the rest of the block into a publicly owned cemetery known as the Western Burial Ground. Unfortunately, the Western Burial Ground was not as ideally sited as Holmead's Burying Ground. The southern end of the cemetery was just a few feet above the water table, which meant that coffins could be buried only down, and erosion often exposed burials in this section.
Operation Even though technically within the boundary of the city, for most of its history Holmead's was essentially in a rural area of forest with heavy undergrowth. There were almost no buildings around it, and the cemetery could only be reached by 20th Street—which could be distinguished from the surrounding forest only because the trees along the route had (mostly) been cut down and there was a rutted wagon track to follow. The site was so rural that, for many years, the track followed by the northbound mail stagecoach ran through the center of Square 109.
Early burials Burials at Holmead's began even before the Holmead purchased his land. The first recorded burial occurred on May 29, 1794, when Robert Smith of Boston was interred in the far northeast corner of the burying ground. Other burials soon followed. There were enough burials at the site (even though it had not officially opened) that the interment of Patrick McGurk in 1802 created a serious controversy. McGurk was the first man ever executed in the District of Columbia (he murdered his wife while drunk). His body was buried at Holmead's, but relatives of those already buried there decided it was an affront to their loved ones. That night, a mob disinterred McGurk's corpse and buried it in a ravine to the east. When McGurk's friends discovered the desecration of his remains, they dug up the body and had it reburied at Holmead the following night. Members of the Hines family (a prominent and wealthy clan living in the District) discovered that McGurk had been buried next to one of their kin, they disinterred the body yet again and buried it in a marsh immediately to the west of Holmead's. This time, the body was not easily discovered, and it lay there undisturbed for almost 80 years. Another early burial was that of the entire Pearce (or Peerce) family. About 1804, as Lafayette Square was about to be developed, the entire Pearce family cemetery was relocated to Holmead's. The Pearces owned a farm on the land north of the White House, and the family's burying ground was located on the north side of Pennsylvania Avenue NW near the southwest corner of the soon-to-be-constructed square.
In 1807, the laying out of burial plots at Holmead's Burying Ground was finally completed, and the cemetery opened for business. Lots were put up for sale for $2 each ($ in dollars), with purchases limited to a total of six lots. At that time, the cemetery was not yet enclosed, but Holmead promised to erect a fence within year.
City takeover On May 15, 1820, the City of Washington took title to Holmead's Burying Ground. The term "Western Burial Ground" and "Holmead's Burying Ground" began to be used as a synonym for the entire square about this time. Three commissioners were appointed to oversee the cemetery, and for many years these positions were held by Lewis Johnson, Jacob A. Bender, and Dr. Joseph Burrows. A sexton was also appointed, and given the duty of not only digging graves but keeping records of burials. Accurate records for both Holmead's and Western were kept back to 1812, although they were incomplete prior to that year. For most of the unified cemetery's history, the position of sexton was occupied by just three men: John Douglas, Guy Graham, and W.R. Graham. To ensure that the cemetery remained open to all members of the public, the city enacted a law in 1829 under which the sexton could be fined $10 for refusing to bury someone.
The city takeover also required that the entire block be enclosed with a split-rail fence with gates. (This was later replaced by a more solid plank fence.) The cemetery was to be segregated by race, with a fence of thorn bushes separating the African American section from the rest of the burial ground. (Racial segregation of burials continued until the cemetery closed.) The price of burial plots was raised to $3 for choice sites and $2.50 for less select sites. Proceeds from lot sales were to pay for the retention of records, the construction of a sexton's house, and for maintenance of the grounds.
Deterioration Much of the land around Holmead's Burying Ground was sold for development by the early 1850s, and houses and other buildings began to be constructed on nearby city blocks. To accommodate the new development, the city graded and gravelled 20th Street in 1856, making it far easier to access Holmead's.
The cemetery began to near capacity in the late 1850s. But burials were also slowing dramatically. The rapidly growing city needed more cemeteries, and as these were built they provided competition for Holmead's. New cemeteries included the Presbyterian Burying Ground in 1802 (which drew wealthy and middle class whites from the Georgetown neighborhood), the massive Congressional Cemetery in 1807, the Roman Catholic Holy Rood Cemetery in 1832, the landscaped and luxuriously designed Oak Hill Cemetery in 1848 (also in Georgetown), the large and landscaped Glenwood Cemetery in 1854, the massive Roman Catholic Mount Olivet Cemetery in 1858 (which largely replaced Holy Rood), and Prospect Hill Cemetery in 1858. There was even competition for African American burials, as new blacks-only cemeteries such as Mount Zion Cemetery (1808), the Harmoneon (1829), the Female Union Band Cemetery (1842), and Columbian Harmony Cemetery (which replaced the Harmoneon in 1859) were constructed. Fewer and fewer whites people were interred at Holmead's, and most of the burials which occurred came from the city's African American population. The lack of activity at Holmead's attracted vandals, who knocked over monuments and desecrated graves there. The situation became so serious that the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department began patrolling the grounds.
The deterioration at Holmead's Burying Ground was accelerated as the cemetery was filled beyond its capacity in the 1860s and 1870s. Burial plots often contained three or four bodies, one on top of the other, with the uppermost coffin just a foot or two below the surface. Space was at such a premium that plots were sold immediately adjacent to the walkways, creating crowded conditions. Changes to Boundary Street worsened the cemetery's appearance. The street was graded in late 1869 and early 1870, which dropped the street some below the surface of the cemetery. But no retaining walls were constructed, leaving the earthen banks prone to erosion. Coffins next to Boundary Street sometimes became exposed, and some even fell into the street.
Closure
1871 attempted closure In August 1871, the D.C. Board of Public Health declared Holmead's Burying Ground a public nuisance. The cemetery was in significant disrepair, and it was overgrown with shrubs, vines, and weeds. Noxious odors and fluids emanated from recent graves, which were too near the surface. Extensive development, primarily housing, had occurred in the area, exposing the public to these problems.
The goal of the designation of Holmead's as a public nuisance was to permit the mass disinterment of bodies and the reclamation of Square 109 for development purposes (such as housing). However, no funds for such disinterment were available, and the Board of Public Health said it lacked the authority to order disinterments. The city also barred new interments at Holmead's Burying Ground some time before December 1873, but the order was not enforced.;
By this time, the cemetery contained more than 9,000 official burials, with unofficial burials bring the total to more than 10,000. All burials were supposed to be registered with the city. But many people could not pay for the burial of a loved one, and it was not uncommon for poorer people to bury their deceased surreptitiously at night or to bribe a sexton to permit an unofficial burial. Unofficial and illegal burials continued despite the city's interment bans. Simply abandoning the cemetery in situ was not an option. Public pressure was mounting to have the cemetery moved, and Square 109 turned into a more useful site. Subsequently, the Board of Public Health recommended that the site be cleared of bodies and turned into a public park.