The oldest burial ground at Saint Elizabeths was created in 1856 on the wooded western slope of the West Campus. In most cases, funeral arrangements for patients who dies at Saint Elizabeths were made by family members of the deceased, and the remains were not interred on the hospital grounds. In some cases, however, when no next of kin could be found or other arrangements made, deceased patients were interred in cemeteries on both the West and East Campuses.

Poor recordkeeping of the period make it difficult to determine the exact number of graves in the West Campus cemetery. In addition to the approximately 450 graves of the Civil War veterans there is an unknown number of civilian burials. Most of the veterans buried in the West Campus cemetery were patients of the hospital and not causalities of the war, who passed away at the army or navy hospitals that were set up on the campus during the Civil War. Both African American and white veterans are buried here. It is also possible that Confederate soldiers were buried in this cemetery, but a lack of concrete evidence or records leaves this up in the air.

Early interments were marked by wooden slabs, with civilian graves only identified with numbers. Stone markers were provided for military graves by the US government after 1873. In that year, the three-quarter-acre West Campus burying ground was deemed full, and a new cemetery was opened on the East Campus. Approximately 2,050 military and 3,000 civilian interments took place in the nine-acre cemetery on the East Campus over the next 120 years.

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Chartered by Congress in 1852, Glenwood Cemetery was the first for-profit cemetery in the District, and among the first nationwide. This business model, initially disdained as disrespectful to the deceased, has since been adopted by most cemeteries, from the late 19th century to the present. Glenwood was laid out by engineer Georges de la Roche, whose landscaping and curving roads frame the cemetery's diverse collection of grave markers, statuary, mausoleums, and other memorials.

The cemetery's picturesque landscape, with curving roads and carefully placed trees and shrubs, frame a diverse collection of funerary markers and memorials. Continuously active since site work commenced in 1852, the cemetery embodies stylistic interpretations of the three major cemetery design movements of the 19th and 20th centuries: the Rural, Lawn Park, and Memorial Park Movements.

DC Inventory: April 28, 2016

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Oak Hill Cemetery, an idea first put forward by notable Washington, DC, banker William Wilson Corcoran, is an example of picturesque landscape architecture – first popularized in early 18th century England. The cemetery sits just south of the Rock Creek Valley, between Montrose Park and Mount Zion Cemetery in the Georgetown Historic District. In 1848, Corcoran bought 15 acres of land from then resident of Dumbarton Oaks and relative of George Washington, George Corbin Washington, to be the site of a new cemetery. There, the Oak Hill Cemetery Company, which was chartered by an Act of Congress in 1849, began the work of designing the grounds of the cemetery.

The sloping hills and manicured footpaths of the cemetery were surveyed and designed by civil engineer George Frederick Frank de la Roche. His plan was based in the English Romantic school of landscape design, popularized in America by Andrew Jackson Downing. Downing is responsible for many notable sites in the district including Lafayette Square and some of the grounds around the Smithsonian Castle. La Roche is also presumed to have been the designer of the Italian Villa style Gate House, which fronts R Street NW, though no official record of its architect exists.

The cemetery’s grounds feature two structures listed on the National Register of Historic Places, George Hadfield’s Van Ness Mausoleum and James Renwick, Jr.’s Oak Hill Cemetery Chapel. The Van Ness Mausoleum, situated at the east end of the cemetery, houses the remains of local politician John Peter Van Ness and his family. The Mausoleum was moved to Oak Hill in 1872 or 1873 from its original site on H Street NW, between 9th and 10th streets. Renwick’s Chapel is a small example of the Gothic Revival designs that made the architect famous, particularly through his designs for St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Grace Church in New York City.

In addition to the Van Ness family, many notable figures of local and national importance from many walks of life are buried at Oak Hill. Some of the individuals buried on the grounds include philanthropist William Wilson Corcoran, writer John Howard Payne, President Truman’s Secretary of State Dean Acheson, President Lincoln’s Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, among numerous others.

DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)

Within Georgetown Historic District and Rock Creek & Potomac Parkway Historic District

Oak Hill Cemetery is included on the Haunted History of DC Tour. As with any burial ground, Oak Hill Cemetery is believed to be haunted by the many spirits that permanently reside there. Over 20,000 people have been buried across the 22-acre cemetery since its founding in 1848. Between its long history and the prominent figures buried there, the cemetery has no shortage of interesting stories. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, banker William Corcoran, and Abraham Lincoln’s son Willie have all been buried at Oak Hill, although Willie’s body was moved to Springfield, Illinois, following his father’s assasination in 1865.

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Mount Zion Cemetery's history and that of the generations of African Americans, both free and enslaved, interred therein highlight life and evolving free African American culture in the District of Columbia from the earliest days of the city.

Located within the Georgetown Historic District, Mount Zion Cemetery is composed of two separate adjacent cemeteries, the old Methodist Burying Ground and the Female Union Band Society Graveyard, which almost equally occupy a wooded site of approximately three acres overlooking Rock Creek Park. The land for the former was purchased in 1809; for the latter, in 1842. No fence separates the two properties, and over the years they have come to be known in the community simply as the Mount Zion Cemetery.

There are few large monuments in Mount Zion Cemetery. Most headstones are simple and modest. The earliest graves, located in the old Methodist Burying Ground section near Mill Road, date from the early years of the cemetery. Marble grave covers seal brick underground vaults. There are a few fenced family plots of later origin.

DC Inventory: April 29, 1975

National Register: August 6, 1975

Within Georgetown Historic District

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Established as a community cemetery in 1855 by twelve residents of Tenleytown, this burial ground is a significant landscape that evokes the geography of early Washington, DC. Shaped as a rectangular plot with parallel gravestones and 19^th century funerary art, the Methodist Cemetery contributed to the initial nucleus of Tenleytown civic life. Despite its religiously oriented name, the cemetery has been independently run since 1855. Initially a small, rural village in Washington County, Tenleytown expanded and developed alongside the urbanization of post-Civil War Washington. The first burial in the cemetery took place in 1857, and the last known burial occurred in 1989. The site has been the location of various preservation battles against roadway construction, a failing cemetery association, and broken gravestones. Today, at over 160 years old, the Methodist Cemetery remains a Tenleytown community symbol and an emblem of an earlier Washington, DC. DC Inventory: April 24, 2008

National Register: September 5, 2008

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The original four and one-half acre tract of Congressional Cemetery was purchased from the Government for $200 on April 4, 1807 as a private burial ground. On March 30, 1812, several years after Christ Church was built, Ingle, one of the buyers, deeded this tract to the church under the name of "The Washington Parish Burial Ground." On May 30, 1849, the vestry changed the name to "Washington Cemetery" which is its correct name today, although it has long been known as Congressional Cemetery because of its associations with the national legislature.

Congressional Cemetery's original plot, east and south of the Superintendent's lodge, contains many of the oldest and most interesting graves. Of particular note are the two large groupings of cenotaphs, one on the east side of the square, and one on the west. These cenotaphs, reportedly designed by Benjamin Latrobe, consist of square sandstone blocks on sandstone slabs and surmounted by short segments of columns topped with a squat cone.

From the time of its establishment in 1807 until the end of the Civil War, three Presidents, two Vice Presidents, seventy-five Senators and Representatives, as well as many high-ranking executive, judicial and military officers and Native Americans were interred in Congressional Cemetery. There are perhaps more early historical figures buried within this "American Westminster Abbey" than in any other cemetery in the country.

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