Green Lawn Cemetery is an active historic private rural cemetery located in Columbus, Ohio, in the United States. Organized in 1848 and opened in 1849, the cemetery was the city's premier burying ground in the 1800s and beyond. An American Civil War memorial was erected there in 1891, and chapel constructed in 1902. With , it is Ohio's second-largest cemetery.

History

Franklinton Cemetery was the first cemetery established in what later became Columbus. It was built on land donated by Lucas Sullivant on River Street near Souder Avenue in 1799. Many of the early settlers of Franklinton and Columbus were buried there. The North Graveyard followed in 1812, and the East Graveyard in 1841. A Roman Catholic cemetery opened in 1848 (although it had been in use as early as 1846).

Establishment of Green Lawn

By the mid-1840s, growing settlement in the area left the Franklinton, North, and East cemeteries too small to accommodate more burials. On February 24, 1848, the Ohio General Assembly enacted a law providing for the incorporation of cemetery associations by 10 or more people. On August 2, 1848, a group of Columbus area business and civic leaders that included A.C Brown, William G. Deshler, William A. Platt, Thomas Sparrow, Alfred P. Stone, Joseph Sullivant, William B. Thrall, and others formed the Green Lawn Cemetery Association. The group secured a charter from the Ohio General Assembly on March 23, 1849, incorporating the "Green Lawn Cemetery of Columbus". A public meeting was held on July 12, and a committee of 11 local leaders appointed to select a site and draft articles of incorporation. The committee presented the public with draft articles of incorporation on August 2. These were accepted, and the first board of directors organized on August 26.

The board sought a site of about of gently rolling land well-covered in trees and shrubs. The first purchase of of forested land was made in the early spring of 1849 at a cost of $3,750 ($ in dollars). This consisted of a tract obtained from Judge Gershom M. Peters and a tract from William Miner. A public picnic was held on the ground on May 23, during which a partial clearing of a small portion of the land occurred. Architect Howard Daniels was hired to lay out the roads, paths, and plots. Daniels had spent several months in Europe studying rural cemetery design there, and had recently designed his first cemetery, Cincinnati's widely praised Spring Grove Cemetery. A formal dedication of the cemetery occurred on July 9. A superintendent's cottage was erected near the main gate on Brown Road, and Richard Woolley appointed the first superintendent. Daniels, who died in December 1863, is buried in the cemetery.

Growth of the cemetery

thumb|Packard family mausoleum

thumb|Gay family mausoleum

At the time, the cemetery was located west of the nascent village of Columbus. The first burial at Green Lawn Cemetery was that of a child, Leonora Perry, on July 7, 1849. The second, and first adult, was Dr. B. F. Gard on July 12. The first headstone or other monument in the cemetery was erected the second week of October 1849 by William G. Deshler. It was for his wife, Olive, who had died at the age of 19. The monument consisted of an upright stone slab depicting a rose branch. The bloom itself was carved on the plinth on which the slab stood, and was inscribed "Olive, wife of William G. Deshler, age 19". After Green Lawn opened, most of the families with graves at Franklinton Cemetery moved their ancestral remains to Green Lawn. Franklinton Cemetery quickly fell out of favor as a place to be buried. Those buried at North Graveyard also disinterred loved ones' remains and moved them to Green Lawn. By 1869, about half of those buried at North Graveyard had been reinterred at Green Lawn.

Green Lawn Cemetery lotholders voted to bar non-whites from being buried at Green Lawn in 1856. It was not until 1872 that this restriction was lifted, and a segregated section set aside for African Americans.

In February 1864, the trustees of Green Lawn Cemetery offered to exchange burial lots with those individuals who still retained plots at North Graveyard. Green Lawn intended to build homes on the site of the abandoned North Graveyard and lease them in order to generate income. In addition, the Columbus, Chicago and Indiana Central Railway sought to condemn a portion of the burying ground for a railroad right of way. The two offers generated extensive litigation, as lotholders sought to prevent the disinterment of loved ones and those who had deeded land to the city tried to regain title to it. This litigation was not resolved until the late 1870s, and it was not until 1881 that most graves were removed from North Graveyard.

On April 1, 1872, the cemetery purchased a tract from Samuel Stimmel and a tract from John Stimmel, bringing the cemetery's total size to . In 1887, Green Lawn expanded to , and Green Lawn Avenue opened to create an eastern entrance to the cemetery. In 1898, an iron bridge was built over a ravine between sections 54 and 55. Cemetery officials contracted full nighttime security patrols in the cemetery and installed numerous security cameras which resulted in identifying the vandal, but he was never charged by law enforcement. By 2021 most of the damage was repaired except for a few broken obelisks.

The enhanced security measures have, as of 2026, curtailed any similar vandalism after-hours.

In the wake of the vandalism, cemetery volunteers and instructors at Columbus State Community College created a geographic information system capstone course. Taught by Doreen Whitley Rogers, nonprofit executive and wife of a cemetery trustee, students in the course donated more than $10,000 ($ in dollars) in free consulting services to the cemetery. Damaged graves were identified and damage documented, potential vandal points of entry noted, repair cost analyses generated, and patterns of criminal activity in the cemetery identified. The dome bears a resemblance to the Ohio Statehouse (then still under construction). The structure rests on a bed of gravel below the surface. The foundations are of concrete and stone, and arches of brick and concrete support the building above. The exterior walls are of white marble, while the interior walls are clad in "English vein" Italian marble. The main entry doors were wood with an iron set of gates and flanked by Ionic columns, while the interior floor is a geometric pattern of black and white tile. The dome, made of leaded art glass, supported by interior pilasters of bronze and marble. The stained glass windows were designed by Tiffany & Co. The north window depicts Peggy Thompson, the first white woman known to die in the area, and the south window Isaac Dalton, a superintendent of the Soldier's Home in Columbus who took special care of wounded soldiers during the American Civil War. Peletiah Huntington, founder of what became Huntington Bancshares, donated the mosaics, murals, and stained glass windows. The rest of the chapel cost $24,000 ($ in dollars). The cemetery is one of Ohio's most prominent rural (or "garden") cemeteries. Any member of the public may purchase a plot.

As of 2021, Green Lawn Cemetery contained , making it Ohio's second-largest cemetery. About were undeveloped, which cemetery officials said should provide burial space for another 100 to 150 years.

There are roughly 7,200 trees 224 species of birds have been recorded at the cemetery.

According to cemetery records in 2025, more than 160,000 people were buried at Green Lawn Cemetery. it was completed for banker Charles H. Hayden in early 1905. Built at a cost of about $80,000 to $100,000 ($ to $ in dollars), the Neoclassical style tomb had a granite foundation, interior and exterior walls of white Vermont marble, and two Ionic columns on each side of the main entrance. The structure is wide, deep, and has a high dome. The interior is octagonal, and features two columns of marble with a hue like alabaster in each corner. The tomb contains twelve marble sarcophagi, carved in Italy. The main doors are of wood with an iron gate. Hayden wanted the construction of the mausoleum to be a surprise for his family, so Packard refused to tell the press or cemetery officials who commissioned the work until it was completed.

  • Gordon Battelle, founder of Battelle Memorial Institute
  • Thomas Blakiston, English explorer and naturalist
  • John W. Bricker, Ohio Governor, U.S. Senator, and U.S. vice presidential candidate
  • Samuel Bush, industrialist, grandfather of President George H. W. Bush, and great-grandfather of President George W. Bush
  • James E. Campbell, Governor of Ohio and member of the U.S. House of Representatives
  • William Turner Coggeshall, newspaper editor, spy for the Union Army, U.S. Ambassador to Ecuador
  • James M. Comly, Civil War general in the Union Army, newspaper editor, and political backer
  • James L. Conger, member of the U.S. House of Representatives
  • George L. Converse, member of the U.S. House of Representatives
  • Howard Daniels, landscape architect and rural cemetery designer
  • Augustus Stoner Decker, Mayor of Columbus
  • William Dennison Jr., Governor of Ohio
  • Cromwell Dixon, aviation pioneer, first person to fly over the Continental Divide
  • Daniel S. Earhart, member of the U.S. House of Representatives
  • Merie Earle, actress
  • Al G. Field, minstrel show operator
  • Wally Gerber, baseball player
  • Washington Gladden, minister and social reformer
  • Lincoln Goodale, first physician to practice in Columbus
  • Phale Hale, civil rights leader and Ohio state legislator
  • Alfred Kelley, banker, canal builder, and railroad executive
  • Nathan Kelley, architect, designer of the Ohio Statehouse
  • Simon Lazarus, founder of Lazarus department stores
  • George H. Maetzel, Ohio architect
  • William T. Martin, Mayor of Columbus
  • Edward S. Matthias, longest-serving associate justice on the Supreme Court of Ohio
  • Abram Irvin McDowell, Mayor of Columbus
  • William L. McMillen, physician, Civil War general in the Union Army, and carpetbagger legislator
  • Samuel Medary, newspaper owner and territorial governor of Minnesota and Kansas
  • Grant Mitchell, actor
  • John G. Mitchell, Civil War general in the Union Army
  • Heman A. Moore, member of the U.S. House of Representatives
  • George K. Nash, Governor of Ohio
  • Edward Orton Sr., Ohio State Geologist and first president of Ohio State University
  • Edward Orton Jr., Ohio State Geologist and ceramic engineer
  • Joseph H. Outhwaite, member of the U.S. House of Representatives
  • Frank Packard, architect
  • Alice E. Heckler Peters (1845–1921), social reformer
  • Frederick Phisterer, Civil War captain and recipient of the Medal of Honor
  • James Linn Rodgers, American diplomat
  • Alice Schille, watercolor artist
  • Orland Smith, Civil War general in the Union Army
  • James H. Snook, Olympic gold medalist, Ohio State University professor and convicted murderer
  • Billy Southworth Jr., baseball player and bomber pilot, son of Billy Southworth
  • Alfred P. Stone, member of the U.S. House of Representatives
  • Lucas Sullivant, land surveyor, founder of Franklinton, Ohio
  • Joseph Rockwell Swan, associate justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio
  • Edward L. Taylor Jr., member of the U.S. House of Representatives
  • William Oxley Thompson, fifth President of Ohio State University
  • James Thurber, humorist, author, and New Yorker columnist
  • Allen G. Thurman, member of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, associate justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio, and U.S. vice presidential candidate
  • Dan Tipton, sailor, gambler, and posse rider with Wyatt Earp's vendetta ride
  • Edward C. Turner, Ohio Attorney General and associate justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio
  • John Martin Vorys, member of the U.S. House of Representatives
  • Charles C. Walcutt, Civil War general in the Union Army and Mayor of Columbus
  • David K. Watson, member of the U.S. House of Representatives
  • Wallace Ralston Westlake, Mayor of Columbus
  • Wayne Bidwell Wheeler, Prohibitionist and leader of Anti-Saloon League
  • James Andrew Williams, Major League Baseball manager
  • William Tecumseh Wilson, Civil War general in the Union Army
  • George Ziegler, Civil War general in the Union Army

See also

  • Green Lawn Abbey, nearby but unrelated

References

;Notes

;Citations

Bibliography

  • Green Lawn Cemetery burial search and plat maps provided by Central Ohio Gravesearch
  • Green Lawn Cemetery burial search and grave images provided by Franklin County, Ohio Gravestone Photos Etc. at GenealogyBug.net