Woodland Cemetery, the second-oldest cemetery in Cleveland, was named after a romantic description of an unseen Cleveland that was part of a popular 1803 pastoral poem, The Pleasures of Hope, by Scottish poet Thomas Campbell. Its 60 acres provide a primer on American cemetery design from the "rural cemetery" intricacies of the 1850s to the more rambling style of the late 19th century to the rectangular 20th-century grid.
Its mausoleums are designed in Classical, Victorian, Egyptian, and Richardson rustic styles. These varied structures along with angels, obelisks, and military memorials are symbolic of the residents resting within the gates.
Author Michelle A. Day has been an active cemetery volunteer since identifying, then working to remedy, numerous needs while conducting research on her own family. Her involvement in Woodland Cemetery began in 2001 and in 2003 she felt its 150th anniversary needed to be recognized.
In 2007, Day founded the Woodland Cemetery Foundation to assist the city with restoration and repair projects within the cemetery. Gail Chambers, another family researcher, became interested in volunteering her time and skills after being contacted about one of her husband's relatives, a Civil War nurse who is buried in the cemetery.
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