GREEN LAWN CEMETERY IN COLUMBUS OHIO

On August 2nd, 1848, a group of local leaders met to form the Green Lawn Cemetery Association. Through the spring of 1849 a charter was granted, 84 acres were acquired from local ranchers, and landscape gardener Howard Daniels was hired to plan the cemetery. 

The intent of this effort was to replace earlier cemeteries in the city which had become landlocked, where near the river, and were nearing capacity. Influenced by the Romantic Era in the arts and contemporary poetry, attitudes towards death were changing and cemetery design was moving away from the older graveyards, churchyards, and potters' fields towards more natural and serene settings. This was the Rural Cemetery Movement.

Howard Daniels was a purist of this landscape concept, envisioning winding roads and paths following the natural contours of the terrain through native trees and dense shrubbery.  Along the paths openings would dramatically reveal family lots with monumental art or a view of a pond or a natural prominence.