Rock Creek Cemetery

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Rock Creek Cemetery

(Rock Creek Church Yard
and Cemetery)
(Adams Memorial)
Rock Creek Church Road, N.W.
Washington, D.C.

U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Adams Memorial (grave marker)
Adams Memorial (grave marker)
Location: Rock Creek Church Road and Webster Street, N.W.,

Washington, D.C.

Added to NRHP: August 12, 1977
NRHP Reference#: 77001498 [1]
Governing body: St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Rock Creek Parish

Rock Creek Cemetery (also Rock Creek Church Cemetery) is an 86 acre cemetery with a natural rolling landscape that is located at Rock Creek Church Road, NW, and Webster Street, NW, in the Petworth neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It is adjacent to the historic Soldiers Home.

Established in 1719, Rock Creek was designed as part of the rural garden style to function as both cemetery and public park. It is a ministry of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Rock Creek Parish.

Rock Creek Cemetery's park-like setting has many notable mausoleums and tombstones. The most well-known, but sometimes mistakenly referred to as Grief, is Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Stanford White's Adams Memorial, a contemplative androgynous bronze sculpture that marks the graves of Clover Hooper Adams and her husband, Henry Adams. The sculptor had called it The Mystery of the Hereafter and The Peace of God that Passeth Understanding.

Other notable memorials include the Frederic Keep Monument, the Heurich Mausoleum, the Hitt Monument, the Hardon Monument, the Kauffman Monument, known as The Seven Ages of Memory, the Sherwood Mausoleum Door, and the Thompson-Harding Monument.[2]

On August 12, 1977, Rock Creek Cemetery and adjacent church grounds were placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

[edit] National Register listing

  • Rock Creek Church Yard and Cemetery (added 1977 - Site - #77001498)
  • Also known as See Also:Adams Memorial
  • Webster St. and Rock Creek Church Rd., NW., Washington
  • Historic Significance: Event, Architecture/Engineering, Information Potential
  • Architectural Style: Gothic Revival
  • Area of Significance: Architecture, Social History, Art, Historic - Non-Aboriginal, Landscape Architecture
  • Cultural Affiliation: American
  • Period of Significance: 1700–1749, 1750–1799, 1800–1824, 1825–1849, 1850–1874, 1875–1899, 1900–1924
  • Owner: Private
  • Historic Function: Funerary, Religion
  • Historic Sub-function: Cemetery, Religious Structure


[edit] List of notable interments and their families

(Note: This is a partial list.)

Use the following alphabetical links to find someone.

Contents: Top - 0–9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

[edit] A

  • Cleveland Abbe (1838–1916), prominent American meteorologist
  • Henry Adams (1838–1918), American writer, descendant of two U.S. Presidents. Grave is marked by the Adams Memorial (section E)
  • Clover Hooper Adams (1843–1885), Washington hostess and accomplished amateur photographer, wife of Henry Adams. Grave is marked by the Adams Memorial (section E)
  • Alice Warfield Allen (1869–1929), mother of the Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Simpson (section G)
  • Doug Allison (1846–1916), American baseball player
  • Frank Crawford Armstrong (1835–1909), Confederate general
  • James B. Aswell (1869–1931), American educator and member of the House of Representatives from 1913 to 1931
  • Howard Auster (1929–2003), American writer, partner of Gore Vidal

[edit] B

  • Abraham Baldwin (1754–1807), American politician, a signer of the Constitution
  • Melville Bell (1819–1905), Scottish teacher and inventor, father of Alexander Graham Bell (section A)
  • Emile Berliner (1851–1929), German-born American inventor of the gramophone (section M)
  • Montgomery Blair (1813–1883), Lincoln's Postmaster General (section A)
  • Robert C. Buchanan (1811–1878), American military general

[edit] C

  • Catherine Cate Coblentz (1897–1951), writer and wife of William Coblentz (section O)
  • William Coblentz (1873–1962), American physicist, notable for pioneer contributions to infrared radiometry and spectroscopy (section O)
  • Charles Corby, inventor of baking technology used for Wonder Bread (section 13)

[edit] D

[edit] E

[edit] F

  • Ada Benham Fairfax (1833–1888), wife of Charles S. Fairfax
  • Charles S. Fairfax (1829–1869), Virginia born California politician who was entitled to the British title 10th Lord Fairfax of Cameron
  • Stephen Johnson Field (1816–1899), American associate justice of Supreme Court
  • Israel Moore Foster (1873–1950), American Republican Representative in Congress
  • William H. French (1815–1881), American military officer, general during Civil War

[edit] G

  • Julius Garfinckel (1872–1936), American merchant, founder of Washington department store Garfinckel's
  • Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor (1875–1966), President of the National Geographic Society (section A)

[edit] H

  • John Marshall Harlan (1833–1911), American Supreme Court judge, known as the "Great Dissenter;" he wrote the lone dissenting opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson (section R-11)
  • Patricia Roberts Harris (1924–1985), Ambassador, first African American female to serve in a Presidential Cabinet (section 20)
  • George L. Harrison (1887–1958), American banker, insurance executive and political advisor during WWII
  • Frank Hatton (1846–1894), U.S. Postmaster General and editor of the Washington Post

[edit] I

[edit] J

[edit] K

  • Oliver Hudson Kelley (1826–1913), a founder of the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry (The Grange) (section I)

[edit] L

[edit] M

  • Evalyn Walsh McLean (1886–1947), wealthy heiress and one-time owner of the Hope Diamond and the Washington Post

[edit] N

[edit] O

[edit] P

[edit] Q

[edit] R

[edit] S

[edit] T

[edit] U

[edit] V

  • Tran Van Chuong (1898–1986), South Vietnam's Ambassador to the U.S. appointed by Ngo Dinh Diem
  • Willis Van Devanter (1859–1941), Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (section R-11)

[edit] W

[edit] Y

[edit] Z

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ National Register Information System. NR.NPS.gov. Retrieved on 2008-01-12.
  2. ^ Cultural Tourism DC. CulturalTourismDC.org. Retrieved on 2008-01-12.

[edit] External links

Coordinates: 38°56′53″N, 77°0′42″W