Cedar Hill Cemetery (Suitland, Maryland)

Cedar Hill Cemetery, previously known as Forest Lake Cemetery, and also formerly Nonesuch Plantation, is a cemetery located in Suitland, Maryland.[1]

"The Bridge of Life", one of six pieces built by Dionicio Rodriguez, located on the cemetery grounds.

History

Following a series of land purchases starting in 1890, Forest Lake Cemetery was chartered and opened in 1895, but by 1913 few bodies were buried there.[1]

In 1913, after going bankrupt in the wake of a failed 1908 sale to a developer, 130 acres (53 ha) of the 400-acre (160 ha) Forest Lake Cemetery were sold to form the Cedar Hill Cemetery.[2][3]

Over time, the cemetery was expanded, and it is now over 150 acres (61 ha) in size. The oldest tombstone reads "Philenia W. Patte, Nov. 19, 1871, 58 years".

From 1936 to 1938, Dionicio Rodriguez, a Mexican builder and artist, built six pieces in concrete at Cedar Hill, most using a faux bois technique to make them resemble wood. He built two footbridges, a bench, a table in a pergola, a hollow "tree trunk", and an Annie Laurie Wishing Chair, also in a pergola.[4]

Notable interments

The cemetery has a mass grave for the victims of the Terra Cotta Railroad wreck.

References
  1. "Forest Lake Cemetery. New Burial Site Selected on Pennsylvania Avenue Extended Southwest". The Washington Post. 7 April 1895.
  2. "Plan a New Cemetery". The Washington Post. 21 December 1913.
  3. "Suit Over Local Cemetery". The Washington Post. 2 March 1913.
  4. Light, Patsy (2008). Capturing Nature: The Cement Sculpture of Dionicio Rodriguez. College Station: Texas A&M University Press. p. 95. ISBN 1585446106.
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