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| Gloria Dei Old Swedes Church, Philadelphia |
I must thank my readers for prompting me to write about the graveyards associated with the first churches of Philadelphia! I swear this was next on my list. Of
course I will discuss Old Swedes Gloria Dei in the Queen Village neighborhood - this is actually a few blocks from where I live and therefore a place I visit often!
But first, lets talk about the settlement of Philadelphia. I thank historian Tom Keels for sparking my initial interest in Philadelphia’s original burial grounds with his wonderful book, Philadelphia Graveyards and Cemeteries (Arcadia, 2003). As Keels says, the city’s 18th century cemeteries spanned its residents’ social hierarchy from “the elegant obelisks and table tombs of Christ Church [est. 1733] to the unmarked trenches of Strangers Burial Ground" [a potters field, established in 1706 in what is now Washington Square Park at Fifth and Walnut Streets – yes, there are thousands of people buried under that park!]  |
| Washinton Square Park, 5th and Walnut, Philadelphia (former potters field) |
Burial grounds in 1700s Philadelphia consisted of those associated with churches or synagogues, private family burial grounds, and public cemeteries (Potters’ Fields). I’ll cover the latter two categories in an upcoming blog post, but for now, we’ll focus on churches and their adjacent graveyards.
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| Early 1700s gravemarkers, Old Swedes |
The oldest church in Philadelphia, in fact the oldest in Pennsylvania, is Gloria Dei Old Swedes Church, which was built in 1698 (see black and white photo at top). The Swedes’ settlement on the Delaware River in what is now the city‘s Queen Village neighborhood (historically called Southwark) occurred in 1638, predating the establishment of the city itself (1682). The Old Swedes Church is actually the oldest original building surviving in Philadelphia (and in my opinion, its graveyard has the oldest standing gravemarkers (1708) in the city. Betsy Ross was married here in 1777. Imagine that! You can actually stand at the same altar, on the same marble floor on which she stood. There is a story that the lightning rod and cabling running down the building was installed by a company owned by Benjamin Franklin.
Old Swedes is about ten blocks south of Independence Hall, so if you’re visiting the area, it is a lovely walk down through the Society Hill and Queen Village neighborhoods. And these are neighborhoods in the truest sense – Philadelphia has an oddly high percentage of residential housing mixed in with commercial and historic properties.
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| Old St. Mary’s Church, with open graveyard entrance gate |
Old St. Mary's Church
If you start your tour of historic Philadelphia near Independence Hall, and decide to head on down to Queen Village to see Old Swede’s, do make it a point to walk down Fourth Street, so that you pass Old St. Mary’s Church, at Fourth and Spruce. Its graveyard entrance is only about thirteen feet wide (the width of a typical rowhome in this city), and you might not even see it if you’re driving. You might not even see the massive church itself! Even though the church is not a rowhome (it is about the width of four rowhomes), it’s entrance directly borders the sidewalk on Fourth Street. This is a densely populated city, and you might be surprised that the churches and synagogues are typically not set back from the street separated by a green lawn like you see in the suburbs. Another interesting fact about the building is its unusual rear architectural design (see photo below). All rowhomes in Philly look alike from the front, but they can be wildly different once you get beyond that!
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| Visitors in Old St. Mary's Church graveyard |
St. Mary’s graveyard entrance is bordered by a heavy black iron fence, directly to the right of the church. Its gate is open from about 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays and is one of the city’s oldest burial grounds (it was established in 1759). Commodore John Barry, Father of the American Navy (whose statue you see on the giant pedestal behind Independence Hall), is buried here, along with many early Philadelphians. Signers of the Constitution, artisans, publishers, General George Meade’s grandfather George Meade, Jaqueline Kennedy’s great-great grandfather, Michael Bouvier (who was a renowned cabinet maker), are all buried here in this well-maintained graveyard that opens up into a large area behind the church. Helpful placards are placed throughout the graveyard to identify specific graves and to relate a bit of each person's contribution to our country's history. |
| Rear view of Old St. Mary’s Church and graveyard, Philadelphia |
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| Grave placard, Old St. Mary's Cemetery |
Old St. Joseph's Church
Old St. Mary’s was the second Roman Catholic church to open in Philadelphia, the first being Old St. Joseph Church (near Fourth and Walnut Streets), which was established in 1729 by the Jesuits. Both churches are still active and regularly celebrate mass. That said, open Roman Catholic worship was not tolerated in Philadelphia until 1734, when it was declared legal. Catholics were discriminated against in the Colonies, and the religion was not tolerated by the Anglican Church (The Church of England). Catholics had to worship and hold mass in secret. In fact, this fascinating bit of history from The Old St. Joseph Church website tells us that the “Church of England was established by law in Maryland in 1702, an Act to Prevent the Spread of Popery was passed in 1704, and Catholics were fully disenfranchised in 1718…” Jesuit missionaries as a result began moving operations to the more religiously tolerant Pennsylvania.
“After deliberations by the Council, the civil and religious freedom set out in Penn’s Charter of Privileges – the constitution of the colony – took precedence over the Penal Laws of England, and the chapel [what became Old St. Joseph Church] remained, a testament to Penn’s ‘Holy Experiment.’“
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| St. Michael's Church and graveyard, Germantown |
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| St. Michael's, Germantown Ave. |
St. Michaels's Church
While the Jesuits were fighting religious persecution in center city, and the Swedes were eating cheese steaks in south Philly, the Germans were settling an area north of the city, which would become Philadelphia’s Germantown neighborhood. St. Michael’s Lutheran Church (6671 Germantown Avenue) was founded in 1728 and its graveyard is fascinating – if only for this reason: Christopher Ludwick is buried here: George Washington’s Baker General to the Continental Army!
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| Christopher Ludwick, Baker General! |
Someone had to bake the bread to make cheese steaks to feed the army, right? Did you know there was such a person?! You can still stroll the cemetery grounds, but the church actually closed in 2016. Many veterans of the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and the Civil War are buried here, as is Jacob Hinkle. What, you don’t know Jacob Hinkle? Why, he built the Mermaid Inn in Chestnut hill in 1746! The Inn still boasts a rousing folk music jam on a regular basis.  |
| Another view of Ludwick's large table grave in front of St. Michael's Church |
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| Tour guide with open gate, Hood Cemetery |
Hood Cemetery
If you’re touring Philadelphia, and you want to check out Germantown (or “Freedom’s Backyard” as HistoricGermantownPa.org calls it), you can buy something called the OnePass this summer, which grants you access to nine historic Germantown sites. Available through August (2026), the $43 pass allows you access to historic buildings, but alas no graveyards. The Hood Cemetery (est. 1692) at 4910 Germantown Avenue, is actually on the tour map, but you need special access to get through its unusual keyhole-shaped entryway. While scaling the stone wall is possible, you really shouldn’t - you might injure yourself or the fragile grave markers. This small burial ground has 58 Revolutionary War soldiers buried here, fighters from the Battle of Germantown. It is one of a few secular burial grounds established in Philadelphia during the Colonial era, i.e., it was not associated with any church or religion. It was mainly for Germantown residents.
A most unusual grave marker in Hood Cemetery is the highly personalized zinc 1876 marker for Mary Ann, who died, tragically, when she was hit by a train. Odd that in this year of the semiquincentennial, 150 years later, people still get hit by trains. However, it is not odd to find a grave this recent in a cemetery this old. While Hood Cemetery is relatively small and it had been established 184 years before Mary Ann died, it seems they found space for one more. There is even a grave marker from 1937, which is about the time they stopped burying people here. Harrowgate, by the way, is a neighborhood in North Philadelphia, in the Frankford area. The helpful tour guides explained to me that the accident occurred in Germantown, so that may be why the girl is not buried closer to home.This gem of an historic burying ground goes by other names (aka Upper Burial Ground and Axe’s Burial Ground); it was renamed Hood after William Hood donated money in 1850 to have the massive marble entryway and front marble fencing wall installed. The site can be visited on the Second Saturday of each month, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., from May through October. Gates are just open and the well-informed tour guides will let you just wander. throughout, if you like Check out their website:programs@historicgermantownpa.org.
Old Swedes Gloria Dei Church
I think I want to end this piece with a bit more about Old Swedes and its graveyard. I do include it in my latest book, Abandoned and Forgotten Cemeteries of Philadelphia and its Environs (America Through Time, 2025), as an example of one of the twenty oldest burial grounds in Philadelphia that has NOT disappeared! There are literally 200 unmarked burial grounds under the streets, playgrounds, and parking lots of the city! You can see the names and locations of these properties that have been buried or forgotten on the website of the Philadelphia Archeological Forum (link). It is nothing short of a miracle that about twenty burial grounds are still intact. Old Swedes is one of those gems.
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| Grave of Capt. Morris, Old Swedes Church |
Each December, come have a beer in the church hall, mingle with your in-the-know neighbors, then file through the graveyard of sea captains and Swedish settlers into the church for a live musical performance of the movie, Oh Brother, Where Art Thou, all presented by local musicians! You really get that old-time church revival feeling here when you’re singing along with a hundred of your closest friends, Will the Circle Be Unbroken and In the Jailhouse Now. The church is so small and the acoustics so perfect, the musicians need little amplification - the experience is stirring. The early Philadelphia churches are still alive and well. |
| Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? performance, Gloria Dei Church |
Conclusion
And just like that, we make it to the end of another America 250 post, where we visit the Philadelphia burial grounds that were established prior to 1776, and are still with us. It is a powerful thing to remember that these sacred spaces don’t simply still exist. They remain with us because of the ongoing efforts of fiercely dedicated people who value their past, don't cover it up, and want it to live on. In this way, we make history every day.
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| Grave in Old St. Mary's Church graveyard, Philadelphia |
In the book, Pleasure Grounds of Death (University of Michigan Press, 2024), Joy Giguere tells us that the communities that grew during America’s Colonial period “had their origins in the seventeenth century, during which time British, Dutch, and German colonists had created churchyards and common burial grounds for the dead based on Old World practices.” As we continue to explore the people and ideas behind our country’s origins, it becomes obvious how important immigration has been to this nation’s success. You can’t un-ring that bell.
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