Established in 1807 , Congressional Cemetery sits nestled in the Southeast side of the bustling city of Washington DC. The 35 acre cemetery is surrounded by a Victorian era iron fence protecting the many historic burials it holds. A total of 70,000 burials now occupy this sacred ground and there are approximately 300 notable burials including sixth US President John Quincy Adams. Adams was buried in the public vault there for a bit but later moved to a family plot in Quincy, MA. A cenotaph (empty tomb) still remains as a memorial to him.
Also buried there is J. Edgar Hover, notorious gangster chaser and infamous director of the FBI and Belva Lockwood, first woman to practice law before the Supreme Court.
Pictured Above: Top left corner: J. Edgar Hoover and family
Grave site, Photo by Author
Top Right: J. Edgar Hoover
Bottom left: John Quincy Adams Cenotaph Photo by Author
Bottom Right: John Quincy Adams, Sixth President of the US
In addition to the burials, Congressional cemetery is home to many other unique points of interest. One being that of the Latrobe Cenotaphs sitting in neat, uniform rows in a section of the Cemetery.
Pictured right is Benjamin Henry Latrobe who is called the "father of American architecture". Latrobe was one of the first formally trained architect's to immigrate to the US from England in 1796. He specifically choose Virginia and worked on the Virginia State Penitentiary until he moved for a short while to Philadelphia. He then moved on in 1803 to DC where he served as Surveyor of Public Buildings in the US until 1817. During his time there he also was the second architect in the design and construction of the Capitol building, designed the White house Porticos and worked on the Baltimore Basilica ( later renamed the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary).
He would go on to design the Latrobe Cenotaphs. A few months after the Congressional Cemetery opened, Senator Uriah Tracy of Connecticut died while in service in DC. Embalming was not commonly practiced before the Civil War so burial options were limited and had to be done quickly. Latrobe was called in to design a memorial marker that would be only for congress members who died while in service.
It was after Senator Tracy's death that it was also decided that any member of Congress who died in service in DC would be buried in Congressional Cemetery. Senator Tracy was the first to be buried under one of Latrobe's wide sturdy monuments made out of the same Aquia Creek Sandstone as the Capital building.
Out of the 171 Latrobe Cenotaphs only 59 bodies actually occupy the burial spot beneath the marker. Once embalming became a more popular practice, most families opted to have their loved one returned to their hometowns. They were still given a cenotaph in Congressional Cemetery. They stopped making the markers in 1877 due to the lack of interest. In later years the plots were not very popular with people because of their large and looming appearance. Shortly before the decision, a local Congressman stated that being buried under one of the cenotaphs would add a new terror to death, spurring the discontinuation of the practice.
Latrobe moved to New Orleans in 1817 where he continued his work. He died of Yellow fever three years later and is buried in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1.
Above photos: The Latrobe Cenotaphs in Congressional Cemetery, Washington DC. Photos by Author
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