The Egyptian Revival Gateway, designed by Jacob Bigelow and constructed in 1832, was the first Egyptian Revival cemetery gate. The style was soon adopted for cemetery entrances across the country. For example, new Egyptian Revival gates were added to the existing Old Granary Burying Ground in Boston (cemetery founded in 1660s and gate added in 1840) and the Grove Street Burial Ground (cemetery founded in 1797 and gate added in 1845) in New Haven, Connecticut.
Mount Auburn Cemetery, founded on the outskirts of Boston in 1831, was the first American rural or garden cemetery. Many other cities followed the trend. Examples include Laurel Hill in Philadelphia founded in 1836; New York’s Greenwood Cemetery founded in 1838; Louisville’s Cave Hill founded in 1848; Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia founded in 1849; and Chicago’s Graceland founded in 1860. Smaller cities and growing towns followed the trend to showplace their own civic pride and economic success.
For more about Mount Auburn’s Gateway, seemountauburn.org
For more about cemeteries see Discovering Quacks, Utopias, and Cemeteries: Modern Lessons from Historical Themes
Image from Dearborn’s Guide through Mount Auburn, 1851. Courtesy of Archive.org