12 Spooky Cemeteries in America Worth a Visit

I collect old cemeteries the way some people collect stamps. Give me a quiet afternoon and a set of iron gates, and I am gone for hours among the angels and the live oaks.

The best of them are not grim at all. They are the country’s first public parks, laid out as green cathedrals where families once picnicked on Sunday. Marble statuary, Spanish moss, presidents, poets, and rock stars all share the shade.

Think of them as history you can walk through, art galleries with no roof, and quiet gardens all at once. A great old cemetery tells you who a city loved and what it hoped to be remembered for.

Below, twelve of the most beautiful and atmospheric historic cemeteries in America, each one worth a slow walk with a camera. They span the country, and one is right here in Texas.

1. Bonaventure Cemetery, Georgia

No cemetery in America photographs like Bonaventure. Sprawling live oaks drip Spanish moss over 160 acres on a bluff above the Wilmington River, and the light comes through in long gold ribbons at dawn.

The grounds began as a plantation and opened to the public in 1907. Songwriter Johnny Mercer and poet Conrad Aiken rest here, and the famous Bird Girl statue once stood among these paths before the movie crowds sent her to a museum for safekeeping.

The book and film “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” turned Bonaventure into a pilgrimage. Aiken’s granite bench invites you to sit, and the sculpted children and sleeping lambs are some of the most tender stone carvings anywhere.

Where: Bonaventure Cemetery, 330 Bonaventure Rd, Savannah, GA 31404. Free to enter daily, with weekend walking tours led by local historians.

2. Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, New York

Yes, that Sleepy Hollow. The Hudson Valley village lent its name to Washington Irving’s tale, and the author himself rests on a gentle rise here, under maples that blaze orange every October.

Consecrated in 1849, the cemetery climbs 90 wooded acres beside the Old Dutch Church. Andrew Carnegie, Walter Chrysler, Elizabeth Arden, and Brooke Astor keep company on the ridges. Come in autumn and the whole hillside glows.

Winding paths follow the Pocantico River past ornate Gilded Age mausoleums and ivy-clad receiving vaults. It is peak New England in October, and the village leans into the season with candlelit evening tours you will remember.

Where: Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, 540 N Broadway, Sleepy Hollow, NY 10591. Open daily, with lantern tours booked through the cemetery in fall.

3. St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, Louisiana

Step through the gate off Basin Street and you enter a small city of the dead, where whitewashed tombs rise above the ground like tiny marble houses. New Orleans buries above ground, and the effect stays with you.

Opened in 1789, it is the oldest cemetery in the city, and the most storied. Voodoo priestess Marie Laveau rests here, her tomb marked with visitors’ offerings, and film crews from “Easy Rider” onward have loved its maze of crumbling elegance.

The family tombs are built to be reused across generations, a Creole tradition you will not find up north. Faded angels, cast-iron gates, and lichen-streaked marble make every corner a photograph waiting to happen.

Where: St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, 425 Basin St, New Orleans, LA 70112, on the edge of the French Quarter. Entry is by licensed guided tour, which is the best way to hear the stories anyway.

4. Hollywood Forever Cemetery, California

Palm trees, a mirror-still lake, and the back lot of Paramount Studios rising over the wall: Hollywood Forever is exactly as cinematic as it sounds. This is where the movie capital honors its own.

Founded in 1899, the 62-acre grounds hold Judy Garland, Cecil B. DeMille, Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks, and punk legend Johnny Ramone. On summer nights the lawns fill with blankets for classic film screenings under the stars.

Peacocks strut past reflecting pools, and grand marble memorials sit beside the palm-lined water. Fans still leave flowers for Valentino on the anniversary of his death, a small ritual that has run for nearly a century.

Where: Hollywood Forever Cemetery, 6000 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90038. Open daily; the Cinespia screenings run through summer and sell out fast.

5. Mount Auburn Cemetery, Massachusetts

Mount Auburn started it all. When it opened in 1831, it was the first garden cemetery in America, a radical idea that turned burial grounds into landscaped parks meant for the living to wander.

Today its 175 acres are a beloved arboretum, thick with rare trees, ponds, and migrating songbirds that draw birdwatchers each spring. Climb Washington Tower for a view of Boston, then find Winslow Homer and Isabella Stewart Gardner among the dogwoods.

The idea spread fast, and nearly every garden cemetery on this list traces its design back to Mount Auburn. Its Egyptian Revival gateway and granite tower are landmarks, and the spring bloom is worth planning a trip around.

Where: Mount Auburn Cemetery, 580 Mount Auburn St, Cambridge, MA 02138. Open daily and free, with maps and guided tours at the visitor center.

6. Texas State Cemetery, Texas

Our own Texas foot in this list is a beauty, and one most Texans have never wandered. Just east of downtown Austin, the Texas State Cemetery holds the people who built the state, on gentle green slopes lined with oaks.

Established in 1851, it is the resting place of Stephen F. Austin, the Father of Texas, along with governors, Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, and coach Tom Landry. A quiet reflecting pond and a granite plaza anchor the grounds.

A bronze statue of Austin by Pompeo Coppini watches over the hill, and the walking paths make a genuinely lovely history lesson. It is one of the most peaceful spots in the city, and hardly anyone thinks to visit.

Where: Texas State Cemetery, 909 Navasota St, Austin, TX 78702. Open weekdays with a small visitor center; admission is free.

7. Laurel Hill Cemetery, Pennsylvania

Perched on a hillside above the Schuylkill River, Laurel Hill was designed to be visited. Victorian Philadelphians rode carriages out just to stroll its terraces, and the marble statuary still stops you in your tracks.

Founded in 1836, it became one of the first cemeteries named a National Historic Landmark. General George Meade of Gettysburg rests here, along with several Titanic passengers, among obelisks and weeping angels carved by master hands.

The river views from the upper terraces are worth the climb, especially in golden hour. Ornate Victorian mausoleums line the drives like a museum of nineteenth-century taste, and the year-round tours are among the liveliest anywhere.

Where: Laurel Hill Cemetery, 3822 Ridge Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19132. Open daily, with popular guided and themed tours all year.

8. Spring Grove Cemetery, Ohio

Spring Grove is so vast and so green that most visitors mistake it for a botanical garden, which is very nearly what it is. At 733 acres, it is one of the largest cemeteries in the country and a certified arboretum.

Opened in 1845, it was shaped by landscape designer Adolph Strauch into a rolling landscape of lakes, sweeping lawns, and specimen trees. Bronze memorials and a Norman Chapel reflect in still water, and the fall color is a genuine draw.

Strauch’s lawn-plan design influenced parks across the country. Swans glide across the ponds, champion trees tower overhead, and a slow drive through the grounds feels more like a nature preserve than a burial ground.

Where: Spring Grove Cemetery, 4521 Spring Grove Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45232. Open daily and free, with a driving loop and printed tree guides.

9. Graceland Cemetery, Illinois

Graceland reads like an outdoor museum of American art and architecture. Chicago’s great builders are buried here, and they left behind monuments as bold as the skyline they raised.

Dating to 1860, it holds architects Louis Sullivan and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, retailer Marshall Field, and rail magnate George Pullman. Do not miss Eternal Silence, a haunting bronze figure in a black hood, or Sullivan’s jewel-box Getty Tomb.

The Getty Tomb is considered a turning point in American architecture, and Lorado Taft’s brooding statue draws photographers all year. A small lake, Daniel Chester French’s memorials, and the city skyline make this a designer’s dream walk.

Where: Graceland Cemetery, 4001 N Clark St, Chicago, IL 60613. Open daily; the office sells an excellent self-guided map.

10. Magnolia Cemetery, South Carolina

Magnolia is the Lowcountry at its most dreamlike. Oaks arch over quiet lagoons on the banks of the Cooper River, and the reflections double every monument into something out of a painting.

Established in 1850 on a former rice plantation, the grounds mix grand mausoleums with a striking pyramid tomb and gentle tidal marsh. Come near sunset, when the moss glows and herons stalk the shallows between the graves.

Egg-and-dart cornices, marble urns, and mossy live oaks give Magnolia a painterly, almost timeless feel. Photographers travel here just for the reflections in the lagoons, and the light in the last hour before dusk is pure gold.

Where: Magnolia Cemetery, 70 Cunnington Ave, Charleston, SC 29405. Open daily and free to walk or drive.

11. Bellefontaine Cemetery, Missouri

Bellefontaine is where St. Louis planted its history and its trees. The 314-acre garden cemetery unfolds in rolling drives and towering oaks, so peaceful that deer and foxes wander the lawns at dawn.

Founded in 1849, it holds explorer William Clark of Lewis and Clark fame and brewer Adolphus Busch, whose grand Gothic mausoleum is a landmark. Louis Sullivan’s Wainwright Tomb, a perfect little cube, is a pilgrimage for architecture lovers.

Miles of paved drives loop past ornate ironwork and thousands of labeled trees, so it doubles as an arboretum. Spring dogwoods and autumn maples make it a year-round destination for anyone who loves a quiet, leafy ramble.

Where: Bellefontaine Cemetery, 4947 W Florissant Ave, St. Louis, MO 63115. Open daily and free, with maps at the gatehouse.

12. Hollywood Cemetery, Virginia

Not to be confused with its California namesake, Richmond’s Hollywood Cemetery drapes over rolling hills above the James River, with some of the finest views in the city framed by dogwoods and holly.

Laid out in 1847, it is the resting place of two U.S. presidents, James Monroe and John Tyler, plus a beloved cast-iron dog that guards a child’s grave. A 90-foot granite pyramid crowns the ridge, striking against a blue sky.

The winding carriage roads were designed to show off the river, and they still do. Monroe’s ornate Gothic tomb, nicknamed the birdcage, and the sweeping overlooks make this one of the most scenic strolls in Virginia.

Where: Hollywood Cemetery, 412 S Cherry St, Richmond, VA 23220. Open daily, with walking tours from the visitor center in season.

Plan Your Walk Among the Angels

These places reward slow travelers. Bring good shoes, a full camera battery, and a little curiosity about the names on the stones.

Many run free walking tours, and a good guide turns a stroll into a story you will retell for years. Check hours before you go, since some grounds keep shorter winter schedules.

Go early for the light, stay quiet out of respect, and let the oaks and marble do their work. Pick the one nearest you, point the car that way this weekend, and see how beautiful a garden of memory can be.

Featured image: Lisa Nicolella via Bonaventure Cemetery