Holmead's Burying Ground
| Details | |
|---|---|
| Established | 1794 |
| Location | Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C. |
| Country | United States |
| Coordinates | 38°54′55″N 77°02′37″W / 38.9153°N 77.0437°WCoordinates: 38°54′55″N 77°02′37″W / 38.9153°N 77.0437°W |
| Type | secular and public; closed March 6, 1874 |
| Owned by | Holmead's: Anthony Holmead (1794 to 1820) Western Burial: City of Washington (1798 to 1820) Unified cemetery: City of Washington (1820 to 1885) |
| Size | 2.94 acres (11,900 m2) |
| No. of graves | about 10,000 |
| Find a Grave | Holmead's Burying Ground |
Holmead's Burying Ground, also known as Holmead's Cemetery and the Western Burial Ground, was a historic 2.94-acre (11,900 m2) cemetery located in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in the United States. It was founded by Anthony Holmead in 1794 as a privately owned secular cemetery open to the public. The city of Washington, D.C., constructed the Western Burial Ground on the remainder of the city block in 1798, and the two burial grounds became synonymous. The city took ownership of the private Holmead cemetery in 1820. The unified cemetery went into steep decline around 1850, and it was closed on March 6, 1874. Removal of remains, most of which were reinterred at Graceland Cemetery or Rock Creek Cemetery, continued until 1885.
Holmead's Burying Ground was built on land originally owned by Anthony Holmead, a tobacco farmer who lived in Prince George's County in the Province of Maryland in the early and mid 1700s. In 1718 or 1726, Holmead purchased 206 acres (830,000 m2) of land in the northern section of what was known as the "Widow's Mite" tract in what would later become the District of Columbia. Holmead died intestate in 1750, and his nephew, a 22-year-old from Devon, England, also named Anthony Holmead, inherited the estate and emigrated to America to take ownership of it. Upon his arrival in Maryland, the younger Holmead purchased two additional land patents (Beall's Plains and Lamar's Outlet) along Rock Creek north of Widow's Mite.
The younger Holmead wanted to build a burying ground on part of the Widow's Mite tract. It is unclear whether he actually established a family burial plot there by 1791, or merely contemplated one, but the intended location was a 100 by 120 feet (30 by 37 m) space on the southwest corner of what is now 19th and T Streets NW. (The long edge was along 19th Street.) His plans were complicated by the establishment of the District of Columbia. On July 9, 1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River. The exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, who chose a portion of the states of Maryland and Virginia on January 24, 1791. Only a portion of the new "District of Columbia" was intended to be used as a city. This "Federal City", or City of Washington, was laid out in the L'Enfant Plan of 1791, and was bounded by Boundary Street (northwest and northeast; now Florida Avenue), 15th Street Northeast, East Capitol Street, the Anacostia River, the Potomac River, and Rock Creek. The federal government purchased title to all land within the Federal City, which included land owned by Holmead. Holmead was entitled to repurchase his land at £12 and 10 pence per acre, and did so. Part of his repurchase involved the 100 by 120 feet (30 by 37 m) rectangle on the northeast corner of what was now called Square 109.
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