Hollywood Cemetery
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is for the cemetery in Richmond, Virginia; for the cemetery in Hollywood, California, see Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Hollywood Cemetery is a large, sprawling cemetery in Richmond, Virginia, characterized by rolling hills and winding paths overlooking the James River. Opened in 1849, Hollywood Cemetery is the resting place for two U.S. Presidents as well as the only President of the Confederacy. The name "Hollywood" comes from the holly trees dotting the hills of the cemetery, and has nothing to do with the neighborhood in Los Angeles.
The cemetery was constructed on land known as "Harvie's Woods" that was once owned by William Byrd II. In 1869 a ninety-foot-high granite pyramid was built as a memorial to the more than 18,000 enlisted men of the Confederate Army who are buried in the cemetery. Many Union soldiers are also interred here.
Hollywood Cemetery is one of Richmond's major tourist attractions. There are many local legends surrounding certain tombs and grave sites in the cemetery, including one about a little girl and the black iron statue of a dog standing watch over her grave (a picture can be found here). Other notable legends rely on ghosts haunting the many mausoleums. A place rich in history, legend, and gothic landscape, Hollywood Cemetery is also frequented by many of the local students attending Virginia Commonwealth University.
Among the notables interred here are:
- Alden Aaroe, broadcast journalist
- Joseph R. Anderson, civil engineer, industrialist, soldier
- Benjamin Barrett, artist, poet, writer
- John M. Brockenbrough, Confederate Army colonel and brigade commander at Gettysburg
- James Branch Cabell, novelist
- Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America
- Varina Howell Davis, Confederate First Lady
- Richard B. Garnett, Confederate Army general
- Lewis Ginter, tobacco executive, philanthropist
- Ellen Glasgow, Pulitzer Prize winning novelist
- Henry Heth Confederate Army general
- Edward Johnson, Confederate Army general
- Eppa Hunton, Confederate Army general and Virginia politician
- John D. Imboden, Confederate Army general, statesman
- Mary Johnston, bestselling novelist
- Fitzhugh Lee, Confederate Army general
- William Mayo, Colonial engineer
- Polk Miller, musician
- James Monroe, 5th President of the United States
- Elizabeth Kortright Monroe, U.S. First Lady
- Emma Gilham Page railway industrialist
- William Nelson Page co-founder of the Virginian Railway
- George Pickett, Confederate Army general
- John Garland Pollard, Governor of Virginia
- Lewis F. Powell, U.S. Supreme Court justice
- John Randolph, politician
- William Alexander Smith, politician
- David Gardiner Tyler, U.S. congressman
- John Tyler, 10th President of the United States
- Julia Tyler, U.S. First Lady
- J.E.B. Stuart, Confederate Army general
- Reuben Lindsay Walker, Confederate Army general
- Henry A. Wise, Governor of Virginia, Confederate Army general
- Allen Caperton Braxton, descendant of Declaration of Independence signer, Carter Braxton.
