About Oak Hill Cemetery

Background

Oak Hill’s visionary founder, Mr. W.W. Corcoran contributed the land to the Oak Hill Cemetery Company to serve as a place of beauty and inspiration for the living. Our National Historic Places status recognizes the Historic Renwick Chapel for its significance as one of the finest English specimens of old Gothic chapels, with the cemetery itself as a major example of the 19th century romantic movement.

Mr. William W. Corcoran was the founder of the Riggs National Bank also known as “Corcoran & Riggs”, which is now PNC Bank. The bank was most notable for financing Samuel Morse’s invention of the telegraph and being assigned as the only federal depositary in the Washington. Corcoran & Riggs lent 16 million dollars to the U.S. government to pay for the Mexican-America War in 1847 and in 1868 provided $7.2 million in gold towards the purchase of Alaska. Lastly, other notable financing included Robert Peary’s first expedition to the North Pole and the expansion of the Capitol Building in the 1860s. As a man of real estate and philanthropies such as, the Corcoran Gallery and the Louise home, he also purchased 15 acres along Rock Creek from George Corbin Washington (a distinguished lawyer and a great-nephew of the First President) and his son Lewis W. Washington. When an Act of Congress incorporated the Cemetery Company on March 3, 1849, Mr. Corcoran contributed the land to the Company.

Once the Company was formed, Captain George F. de la Roche, a master engineer, supervised the grading, including the creation of a grand bank along Rock Creek, and the plotting. James Renwick Jr. architect of the Smithsonian building and of the original Corcoran Gallery, now the Renwick Gallery, designed the iron enclosure and the Historic Chapel (built in 1849). The cemetery represents a natural not formal English garden, an acceptance and blending of nature rather than a geometrical imposition. The greatest American proponent of the natural garden and its application to cemeteries was Andrew Jackson Downing, and there is evidence but no conclusive record that he did the landscape designs of Oak Hill Cemetery. Maintenance of the natural garden is the Cemetery’s greatest tenet.

Considered a “rural cemetery”, it is among only a few in the nation. The foresight and vision in 1849 by Mr. W.W. Corcoran was bold and innovative. Oak Hill was to be a cemetery to serve as a place for families to bury and commemorate their loved ones, while at the same time it could be designed as a place of great natural beauty and inspiration for the Georgetown community. This concept proved to be a success.

In 1972, the United States Department of the Interior National Park Service designated the Oak Hill Cemetery Chapel (known as the Historic Renwick Chapel) a National Historic Place, recognizing it as the only know example of Renwick’s Gothic Revival church design in Washington, DC and of significance to the cultural heritage and visual beauty of the District of Columbia. The Chapel (which faces west) is about 350 feet east of the gatehouse and lightly to the north, at about the point where 29th Street intersects R Street. The one story, rectangular Chapel is constructed of Potomac gneiss and red sandstone. The Chapel is often referred to as a miniature Gothic gem is an excellent example of Gothic Revival architecture.

Today, Oak Hill is still an active cemetery, providing a high level of service to families at their time of need, while we also work to preserve and enhance the character of this historically significant place. Money raised by the Oak Hill Cemetery and its Historic Preservation Foundation helps us to achieve our mission by caring for our historical collections, conserving our historic monuments, beautifying our landscape, and protecting wildlife habitat.

Today, Oak Hill is still an active cemetery, providing a high level of service to families at their time of need, while we also work to preserve and enhance the character of this historically significant place. Money raised by the Oak Hill Cemetery and its Historic Preservation Foundation helps us to achieve our mission by caring for our historical collections, conserving our historic monuments, beautifying our landscape, and protecting wildlife habitat.

Today, Oak Hill is still an active cemetery, providing a high level of service to families at their time of need, while we also work to preserve and enhance the character of this historically significant place. Money raised by the Oak Hill Cemetery and its Historic Preservation Foundation helps us to achieve our mission by caring for our historical collections, conserving our historic monuments, beautifying our landscape, and protecting wildlife habitat.

Mission

Oak Hill Cemetery Company Mission Statement

Oak Hill Cemetery’s mission is to serve the community by operating a historic cemetery in the community of Georgetown and the City of Washington, DC; by developing and offering for sale interment and inurnment spaces; to provide interment and inurnment services by site owners and to maintain the buildings and landscape of the cemetery.

Oak Hill Cemetery Historic Preservation Foundation Mission Statement

The mission of the Oak Hill Cemetery Historic Preservation Foundation (OHCHPF) is to preserve the publicly accessible Oak Hill Cemetery, a nineteenth century romantic garden park cemetery, its historic internment sites, structures and records, and to support its functions and activities. To accomplish these goals, OHCHPF raises funds from both public and private sources.

Leadership & Staff

Oak Hill Cemetery Company Board of Managers

George G. Hill

President

David De Vicq

Vice President

Patricia Berl

Secretary

Loretta Castaldi

Treasurer

Oak Hill Cemetery Historic Preservation Foundation Board

George G. Hill

President

L. Richard Fischer

Vice President

Darla Jackson

Secretary

Judi Cochran

Board Member

Michael R. Weaver

Board Member

Thomas E. Crocker

Board Member

Clift Seferlis

Board Member

Staff

Paul Williams

Superintendent, COO

Laura Hackfeld

Office Manager, Director of Social Media

Laura Thoms

Weekend Host & Archivist

Grounds Staff

Scott Staples

Grounds Manager

Ricardo Araujo

Groundskeeper

Jose Guzman

Groundskeeper

Ernesto Araujo Torres

Groundskeeper

Mainor Pinar Torres

Groundskeeper

Jorge Robles

Groundskeeper

Jose Mejia

Groundskeeper

Feline Staff

Gypsy & Nomad