Old Saint Paul's Cemetery

Old Saint Paul's Cemetery

Old Saint Paul's Cemetery is a cemetery located in downtown Baltimore, Maryland. It is noted for the several important historical figures that are interred in its grounds.

The first cemetery of Saint Paul's Church in Baltimore was located at intersection of Sollers Road & North Point Road in what is now Dundalk. Organized in 1692 this churchyard is the oldest cemetery that is known to have existed in the Baltimore area.

About 1760 those remains were moved to Saint Paul's Burial Ground which surrounded the original church at Charles Street and Jones Falls Bluffs which stood from 1739 to 1817. That building was replaced by another which burned in 1854 and was later replaced by the present building which fills that entire property, at the current intersection of Charles and Saratoga Streets.

In the late 1700s, the Vestry of Old St. Paul's Church was faced with the need for a third cemetery. Cemeteries had never been viewed as good neighbors, aside from the fact that they contained the bodies and souls of the departed (who, it was believed, had the ability to wander the land), they could become unsightly and even unhealthy.

Therefore, a new cemetery site was purchased in 1800 on the western edge of town at the intersection of Lombard and German Streets (now Redwood), in an area where several members of the Vestry owned a great deal of undeveloped property.

Church member Samuel Smythe purchased 2.8 acres (11,000 m²) of land from the heirs of Alexander Robinson, whose house is found on the 1802 Hanna and Warner map of Baltimore, directly across German Street from the Smythe purchase. The land was subsequently bought by the Church. Many of the parishioners immediately bought grave lots and began construction of vaults and plots.

When Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard was constructed, during the mid 1980's, one end of this cemetery was lost and the remains and markers were moved within the remaining walled cemetery that now sits surrounded by the University of Maryland, Baltimore Medical campus.

Persons of note interred

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Carroll Family Vault

Howard Family Vault

• George Armistead (April 10, 1780 - April 25, 1818) - Commander of Fort McHenry during the War of 1812;
• Lewis A. Armistead (February 18, 1817 - July 5, 1863) - Civil War Confederate Brigadier General. Led one of George Pickett's Brigades at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania;
• George Atzerodt (June 12, 1835 - July 7, 1865) - Lincoln Assassination Conspirator, buried under the fictitious name "Gottlief Taubert;"
• James Carroll (December 2, 1791 - January 16, 1873 - US Congressman. Elected to represent Maryland's 4th District in the United States House of Representatives, serving from 1839 to 1841;
• Samuel Chase (April 17, 1741 - June 19, 1811) - Signer of The Declaration of Independence from Maryland, Former US Supreme Court Justice;
• George Howard (November 21, 1789 - August 2, 1846 Maryland Governor from 1831 to 1833;
• John Eager Howard (June 4, 1752 - October 12, 1827) - Revolutionary War Continental Army Officer, Continental Congressman, former US Senator;
• Francis Scott Key (August 1, 1779 - January 11, 1843) - Cenotaph - original burial site of the author of the national anthem of the United States;
• Alexander Reinagle (1756 - 1809) - composer, known as the "Master of Music".

See also

• List of cemeteries in the United States
• List of other famous cemeteries