Glenwood Cemetery
Landscape map of Glenwood Cemetery
Glenwood Cemetery is a beautiful example of a Victorian era garden cemetery. Originally opened in 1873 on about 50 acres of land, Glenwood was designed to be a place of quiet family gatherings and picnics as well as a burial ground. A landscape architectural drawing for the cemetery suggests it was designed by H. W. S. Cleveland, a friend of Frederick Law Olmsted who designed Central Park.
Why use a cemetery as a park? Prior to the nineteenth century Americans had four types of burial grounds –
- Unorganized isolated burials from the first settlers to an area.
- Family burial plots on rural properties.
- Potters fields for the burials of the destitute, transient and non-religious dead.
- Church yards
By the beginning of the 19th century, however, with the continued use of established burial grounds, particularly church yards, overcrowding became a problem. A common practice was moving bodies to make room for the newly deceased. This practice created a public health concern as people feared that moving victims of cholera, yellow fever, and other epidemics would spread disease.
So began the rural or garden cemetery movement. Basically a rural cemetery was a publicly owned burial ground on the outskirts of a city or town. Rural cemeteries came in all shapes and sizes. The first was Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston and regional examples include Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester and Woodlawn Cemetery in Elmira. Families purchased plots and erected monuments and enclosures on their plot.
Glenwood Cemetery, ca. 1890
The cemeteries were also landscaped to enhance their natural beauty. Fountains and ponds were added, beautiful support buildings constructed, a variety of trees, plants and flowers were planted (In fact evergreens were often selected as they symbolized everlasting life), and paths for walking and carriages were designed. What ultimately developed was the nation’s first parks. Now this is hard for us to understand today but there were no public parks or botanical gardens until the late 19th century so garden cemeteries provided a space for the general public to enjoy outdoor activities. Visitors and locals alike went to cemeteries for picnics, walks and carriage rides.
To learn more about Glenwood Cemetery, joins on October 14 and October 22 for tours of the cemetery.
Glenwood is still my favorite park. I have ancestors and family members in several areas. My husband is there and when the time comes I will be brought to Glenwood from Texas. I love the woodsy feel, the gulleys, the creek and the wild animals that can.be seen there. I wander through every time I come to town.
I have yet to make it to a tour of Glenwood. It is at the top of my to do list. Thank you.
I love Glenwood and many family members are buried there. The last time I was there I was very sorry to see that an invasive plant had spread in the cemetery and seemed to have obscured ground level markers and done other damage.
My foster mother Dr. Beulah Ennis Glasgow and her husband Dr. Hugh Glasgow are both interred in Glenwood cemetery.
Dr. Beulah Glasgow born in Illinois in 1894, was one of the first women to graduate with a Ph.D. in Botany from Yale University. Her grandfather was a friend of Abraham Lincoln, she moved to Geneva when she was married, and opened a Natural History Museum near the Experiment Station. When her husband died, she taught biology for many years in Geneva HS. In addition, she had people from about 120 countries live with her while doing their post-graduate work at Cornell and the main requirement she had, was that everyone had to eat together because that is how people get to know each other. She traveled all around the world, helped many foster children from overseas, and she also brought 6 of us, foster children, to this country to get an education.
If there is a person that needs to be remembered in Geneva NY is Dr. Beulah Ennis Glasgow
Thank you for the information on Dr. Glasgow. I will send it to our archivist so it can be added to our files.
Many miles did I run through Glenwood coming in from Houghton House. Good times, sxorely missed.
The tour last weekend by Historic Geneva was excellent. Archivist/historian Becky Chapin was incredibly well-prepared in her presentation and was obviously very familiar with the cemetery’s history, being able to speak “off the cuff” directly to any and all questions asked. Everyone appreciated that the cold rainy weather did not succeed in postponing the event. I was cold and wet but well worth it. Looking forward to the tour of St. Patrick’s where my parents and other members of the Hennessy clan lie in rest. Thanks for the opportunity to learn about this incredibly interesting aspect of the city… its cemeteries.
Barbara Gioulakis Stockman: The information about Dr. Beulah Glasgow is so interesting… thank you for sharing it…