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All the United States New York State New York City Albany Rural Cemetery
AO Edited

Albany Rural Cemetery

The final resting place of President Chester A. Arthur and hundreds of others from Revolutionary War soldiers to poets, politicians, and painters.

Menands, New York

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Paula Lemire
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The grave site of President Chester A. Arthur   Paula Lemire / Atlas Obscura User
Autumn on the South Ridge   Paula Lemire / Atlas Obscura User
A secluded hillside crypt   Paula Lemire / Atlas Obscura User
A bronze relief by Oscar Lenz   Paula Lemire / Atlas Obscura User
Winter on the Middle Ridge   Paula Lemire / Atlas Obscura User
A colonnade and headstones by Tiffany Studios   Paula Lemire / Atlas Obscura User
Autumn in Chapel Grove   Paula Lemire / Atlas Obscura User
Grave of writer and all around weirdo Charles Fort   Moe Cheezmo / Atlas Obscura User
President Chester A. Arthur gravesite.   tehutika / Atlas Obscura User
Gravesite of Gen. Philip Schuyler.   tehutika / Atlas Obscura User
Final resting place of Margaret “Peggy” Schuyler Van Rensselaer l  
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About

Incorporated in 1841 and consecrated in 1844, the Albany Rural Cemetery was founded as a response to the deteriorating condition of old city burying grounds. 

The grounds of the new Cemetery were laid out by Major David Bates Douglass, the landscape engineer who had previously designed Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. Miles of carriage roads and paths wound through hills, glades, woods, and ravines giving visitors a chance to admire the scenery and potential plots to purchase.

The first burials took place in May 1845 with the reinterment of Isabella Strain, Rebecca Strain, and David Strain.  In 1868, 14,000 graves were transferred from the old State Street Burying Grounds to the Rural Cemetery in order to create Washington Park. There are now over 135,000 documented interments at A.R.C.

The cemetery quickly became a destination not only for lot owners and mourners, but for the general public seeking an idyllic place to stroll amid the scenic acres and exceptional monuments by noted carvers, sculptors, and architects.

Among the notable figures buried here are Lydia Mott (abolitionist and influential women's rights advocate), Jack Gwillim (Poseidon in Clash of The Titans), Margaret Schuyler Van Rensselaer (the "and Peggy" of Hamilton fame), Erastus Dow Palmer (prominent 19th-century sculptor, over a thousand Civil War soldiers, and Chester A. Arthur (21st President of the United States).

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The Cemetery grounds are open to the public from 7:30 am to dusk.  Maps and visitor information are available on the Cemetery website and at the office (Monday thru Friday 8:30 am – 4:30 pm, 8:30 am to 12 pm on Saturday). Tours and other events are offered.

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Added By

Paula Lemire

Edited By

Moe Cheezmo, missingfilm, tehutika

  • Moe Cheezmo
  • missingfilm
  • tehutika

Published

December 13, 2021

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Albany Rural Cemetery
New York State Route 32
Menands, New York, 12204
United States
42.701638, -73.716766
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