The Cemetery Traveler

So would YOU look this good after 250 years? This banner was draped on the wall of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church graveyard in Philadelphia – back in 2011. Yes, the church and graveyard were here before the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776 (1761 to be precise).

Peale painted the portraits of George Washington we are all familiar with (see link).

As you walk the historic district in Philadelphia (where the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall are), many cemeteries and graveyards pop into view. While it might seem super cool to step into Ben Franklin’s Post Office a few blocks away (316 Market Street), it really isn’t his actual post office.

St. Peter's Church, 3rd and Pine Streets

Like so many “historic” buildings in this Old City historic district (the original city of Philadelphia), Franklin’s post office is just a facsimile. On the other hand, there are twenty Colonial-era cemeteries and graveyards in the area that are NOT facsimiles! They are the real deal. You can walk through St. Peter’s graveyard and touch the same tombstones that Colonial-era artist Charles Wilson Peale’s family touched as they laid him in this very ground. You can even pick up one of the hefty osage oranges that drop (watch out!) from these trees on the property. Horticulture was a big thing back in the eighteenth century, when people imported all kinds of exotic bushware and treeware to ornament these sites.

Roger Wing's sculpture of Duffield

Then, you can walk across Fourth Street (at Lombard) to another church graveyard that was established prior to 1776, the graveyard of Old Pine Street Presbyterian Church. Old Pine was established in 1768, and has over 200 Revolutionary War soldiers buried in its graveyard. Rev. George Duffield was one of the church’s first ministers, and served as chaplain of the First Continental Congress in 1774 and then chaplain for General Washington’s army at Valley Forge in that winter of 1777-78 (ref.). I really wish the tree that my friend Roger Wing carved into a giant likeness of patriot Duffield still stood in the graveyard for you to see, but alas, it was removed a few years ago.

Teach your children well - daughter Olivia in the Old Pine Churchyard, 2013.

So if you’re into cemeteries, it is super convenient to have two back-to-back, at two separate and wonderful historic sites. Unlike Christ Church Burial Ground (est. 1719, across from the U.S. Mint at Fifth and Arch Streets), St. Peter’s and Old Pine Presbyterian Church graveyards are free to visit. Yes, you actually have to pay to get in to visit Christ Church itself and its cemetery (which is run by the National Park Service).

Old Pine Street Church building with Colonial-era graveyard.

Religion in The Colonies

Franklin's grave, Christ Church Burial Ground

You may have noticed in my prior blogs on cemeteries for “America 250” that these extant Colonial-era burial grounds are typically associated with a church. An astute observation. The practice of burying our dead in the ground is one we brought from Europe. Burial grounds were initially associated with specific communities, e.g. the Quakers, the Swedes, and the early Protestant religions. Christ Church, established in 1695, was Anglican, the Church of England. Its original burial ground was (and still is) on the grounds of the church itself at Second and High Streets (near Market Street). The church building is magnificent, having been completed in its present form in 1754! The relatively remote (a few blocks away) Christ Church Burial Ground was an expansion of the church’s small graveyard and was established in 1719 at Fifth and Arch Streets. It’s big claim to fame is that it boasts the grave of Ben Franklin. By some extreme quirk of non-greed, there exists in the brick wall a stretch of open metal fencing through which observers can see (and toss pennies onto) Franklin’s grave. You don’t actually have to pay admission fee to the graveyard to see the graves of Old Ben and his wife.

Volunteers tend to flowers in Old Pine

So what do you get to see in St. Peter’s and Old Pine burial grounds? Well, Old Pine had its last burial in 1958 so it is no longer an active graveyard. Interestingly, St. Peter’s is still active! And both graveyards are meticulously kept up by volunteers - planting flowers, weeding, mulching, and so on. The grass is cut so you don't have to worry about weeds and deer ticks. It is a bad year for ticks, especially in the larger cemeteries where white-tailed deer live (white-tailed deer, by the way, are the main meeting and mating spot for ticks - they are the party bus for these insects). If you’re a movie buff, you might recognize Old Pine’s graveyard as the setting used in the 2004 movie, National Treasure, in which Nicolas Cage runs through the graveyard. I actually remember seeing all the movie trucks parked around there at the time, but movie shoots are usually top secret so during a shoot, you would never know who was there or what movie they were filming.

Privateer Gustavus Conyngham buried in St. Peter’s Churchyard

Gustavus Conyngham is buried in St. Peter’s Churchyard, a merchant sea captain and privateer who worked for the U.S. government attacking British ships during the Revolutionary War – a privateer being a hired gun. “He captured 24 ships in the eastern Atlantic between May 1777 and May 1778, bringing the expenses associated with British shipping to what was then an all-time high. He has been called ‘the most successful of all Continental Navy captains” (ref.) Several privateers are also buried in Old Pine. Were they pirates? Some were. The U,S. government has been forced to engage the services of such bad boys when the U.S. Navy was not able to protect American shores from foreign threats. You’ve no doubt heard of Jean Lafitte? In exchange for a legal pardon, Lafitte and his pirate – er, privateer – fleet aided General Andrew Jackson during the Battle of New Orleans to defend the city against British invasion during the War of 1812.

All is fair in love and war, right? Old Pine also holds an example of one of our early misdeeds - eight dead Indian Chiefs buried in unmarked graves.

Indian chief sign in the Old Pine Church graveyard

The Indian Chiefs and the 1793 Yellow Fever Epidemic

Old Pine Street Church, 4th and Pine Streets

In 1793, the eight Native American chiefs you see listed in the image here traveled to Philadelphia to meet with President George Washington and other officials to discuss boundary disputes in the Northwest Territory. They came from various nations, including the Wabash, Veattonns, and Potowatami (which probably meant that they all spoke different languages, so how could boundary discussions occur?). They were among many foreign dignitaries who visited during the city’s severe yellow fever epidemic (ref.). Apparently, they all died, quickly. Not sure why they were buried in unmarked graves, since their identities were known, or when their deaths were divulged to their respective nations. But it is rather convenient for the U.S. government to eliminate the leaders of those who might resist America’s westward expansion. A happy coincidence - eliminate the chiefs, and the tribes have no leaders. I do wonder about the follow up by the U.S. government after they died, but like our good friends in the current administration, I won’t dwell on any inconvenient disparaging history (like the fact that when Old Pine opened in 1768 slavery was legal in Philadelphia and some of its congregants owned slaves). Can I get an ‘Amen?'”

Cemeteries are perfect for a summer walk!

The actual church buildings of Old Pine and St. Peter’s are the very structures that were built prior to 1776, they are not facsimiles! 1768 for the Old Pine building and 1750 for St. Peter’s. The latter actually still has the original high-backed box pews, including Mayor Samuel Powel’s boxed seat used frequently by George and Martha Washington! St. Peter's was also the site of a memorial service for Alexander Hamilton in 1803 after he was killed in his duel with Aaron Burr. Yes, you can actually stand in the "room where it happened," as they sing in the play, Hamilton (unlike the City Tavern at Second and Walnut where Hamilton, Washington, et. al., supposedly hoisted a few - its not the original building). Check each church’s websites for days and times when you can see the interior of these historic buildings

So come back in the winter!

If you are visiting during the summer, you’ll miss the snow, which creates a magical landscape in these graveyards. In the fall, giant osage oranges fall from the trees and smash on the headstones! These pounders must really hurt if you get struck on the noggin by one, but the squirrels do love them. They go nutso in a wild squirrel-nut orgy eating the pants off these citrus-scented fruits. The grounds are open year-round in both these graveyards and I would suggest you come back to see the Christmas lights and other decorations. One of the oldest cemeteries in the city, Palmer Burial Ground (est. 1732) in the Fishtown neighborhood (a few miles from Old City) has a lovely live pine tree in front of the bier house which is decorated each year for Christmas. Neighborhood tree-lighting ceremonies have been held in the past.