BNHA Old Saint Paul's Cemetery

In the year 1800, Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church purchased two contiguous parcels of land in the Ridgely’s Delight neighborhood for use as a cemetery. Many of Baltimore’s most prominent early citizens were buried in this cemetery including John Eager Howard, Revolutionary War hero, and Samuel Chase, one of Maryland’s four signers of the Declaration of Independence.

By the late 1830s, Saint Paul’s conservative attitudes towards death and burials became outdated which began a push outside the church for a more rural, non-sectarian and democratic cemetery. As a result, Greenmount Cemetery was established in July 1839. The cemetery has improved considerably since its decline in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and has become an excellent example of preservation of an urban cemetery. The Old Saint Paul’s Cemetery was designated a city landmark in 1982 and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.