Odd Fellows Cemetery (Philadelphia)

Odd Fellows Cemetery was a 32 acre cemetery located North and South of Diamond Street and between 22nd and 25th Street[1] in the North Philadelphia West neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was established in 1849 by the Odd Fellows fraternal organization for the burial of their members. The eighty-one foot high, brown stone, Egyptian Revival gatehouse was designed by architects Stephen Decatur Button and Joseph C. Hoxie.[2]

For other cemeteries with the same name, see Odd Fellows Cemetery (disambiguation).
Odd Fellows Cemetery
Odd Fellows Cemetery entrance gate
Details
Established1849
Location
24th and Diamond Streets, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
CountryUnited States
Coordinates39.9867°N 75.1727°W / 39.9867; -75.1727
Typeprivate
Owned byOdd Fellows
Find a GraveOdd Fellows Cemetery

The Odd Fellows Cemetery was located a short distance from Old Glenwood Cemetery and adjoined the smaller United American Mechanics' Cemetery.[3]

The cemetery was a part of the United States National Cemetery System during the American Civil War with a leased lot within the cemetery for 277 soldiers[4] that died in nearby hospitals. The soldiers' remains were reinterred to the Philadelphia National Cemetery in 1885.[5]

In 1951, the cemetery property was acquired by the Philadelphia Housing Authority for construction of the Raymond Rosen housing project.[6] The bodies were moved to two other cemeteries owned by the Odd Fellows – Mount Peace Cemetery in Philadelphia and Lawnview Memorial Park in Rockledge, Pennsylvania.[7] However, in 2013, workers unearthed 28 graves and remains that were not moved and were still under the playground of the William Dick school built in 1954.[8]

Notable burials
  • Manuel Azadigian (1901–1924), painter and sculptor
  • Peter Cross (1815–1862), U.S. Mint assistant engraver
  • Charles Kochersperger (1826–1867), Union Army officer
  • George Lippard (1822–1854), Novelist, journalist, playwright, social activist and labor organizer[7] The Lippard grave and memorial were moved to Lawnview in 1951.[9]
  • John Francis Staunton (1821–1875), Union Army Colonel[10]

References
  1. "Odd Fellows' Cemetery – Closing and Re-interment at Lawnview". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 5 January 1951. p. 44. Retrieved 27 January 2022.
  2. Smith, R.A. (1852). Philadelphia as it is in 1852. Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston. pp. 355–357. Retrieved 27 January 2022.
  3. United States Congressional Serial Set, Volume 1479. Washington: Government Printing Office. 1872. p. 12. Retrieved 27 January 2022.
  4. Message of the President of the United States and Accompanying, to the Two Houses of Congress. Washington: Government Printing Office. 1868. p. 931. Retrieved 10 January 2022.
  5. Holt, Dean W. (2009). American Military Cemeteries, 2d ed. McFarland. pp. 397 [233]. ISBN 978-0786440238.
  6. Oordt, Darcy (2015). Haunted Philadelphia: Famous. Guilford, Connecticut: Globe Pequot. p. 250. ISBN 978-1493015795. Retrieved 27 January 2022.
  7. Thomas H. Keels (2003), Philadelphia graveyards and cemeteries, Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0738512297. pp. 120–121.
  8. Haas, Kimberly (10 February 2020). "Playing on Hallowed Ground: Hidden Cemeteries and the Modern City". www.hiddencityphila.org. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
  9. Ehrlich, Eugene and Gorton Carruth (1982). The Oxford Illustrated Literary Guide to the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 205. ISBN 0195031865
  10. Hunt, Roger D. (2007). Colonels in Blue: Union Army Colonels of the Civil war – The Mid-Atlantic States: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books. p. 157. ISBN 978-0811702539. Retrieved 27 January 2022.
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