Mount Pleasant Cemetery (Newark, New Jersey)

Mount Pleasant Cemetery
Tomb of George Opdyke in Mount Pleasant Cemetery
Map
Details
Established1844
Location
375 Broadway, Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
CountryUnited States
Coordinates40°45′50″N 74°09′50″W / 40.7639°N 74.1640°W / 40.7639; -74.1640
Size40 acres (16 ha)
Find a GraveMount Pleasant Cemetery
Mount Pleasant Cemetery
ArchitectHorace E. Baldwin
Architectural styleLate 19th and 20th Century Revivals, Gothic, Egyptian Revival
NRHP reference No.87000836[1]
Added to NRHPOctober 28, 1988

Mount Pleasant Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery[2] in the North Ward of Newark in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. It is located on the west bank of the Passaic River in Newark's Broadway neighborhood, opposite Kearny. It occupies approximately 40 acres (162,000 m2) and was designed by Horace Baldwin.[3]

The cemetery is listed on both the New Jersey Register (ID #1284, since 1987) and the National Register of Historic Places (Reference #87000836, since 1988).[4]

The graves of some of Newark's most eminent citizens are within Mount Pleasant Cemetery. The cemetery is dominated by the marble mausoleum of John Fairfield Dryden, the founder of Prudential Financial. Other notable interments include Marcus Lawrence Ward, Governor of New Jersey; Seth Boyden, inventor of patent leather; and Mary Stillman, first wife of Thomas Edison. Mount Pleasant also contains graves of members of the Kinney, Ballantine, and Frelinghuysen families.

The cemetery itself was opened and incorporated in 1844, but there are graves that date back to the mid-17th century, which were moved from older graveyards that were crowded out due to development.

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. ^ Linden, Blanche M.G. (2007). Silent City on a Hill: Picturesque Landscapes of Memory and Boston's Mount Auburn Cemetery. Amherst, Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press. p. 293. ISBN 978-1-55849-571-5. Retrieved September 20, 2019.
  3. ^ Linden, Blanche M.G. (2007). Silent City on a Hill: Picturesque Landscapes of Memory and Boston's Mount Auburn Cemetery. Cambridge, Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press. p. 293. ISBN 978-1-55849-571-5. Retrieved August 4, 2019.
  4. ^ New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places: Essex County Archived 2009-03-27 at the Wayback Machine, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Historic Preservation Office, last updated August 6, 2007. Accessed August 26, 2007.