64 
THE MODERN CEMETERY. 
Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, Ind. 
Three miles and a half northeast of the center of 
the city of Indianapolis, adjoining its northern 
suburbs, and on the highest ground in the vicinity, 
lies Crown Hill Cemetery. The ground chosen for 
the site is nearly two hundred feet above the streets 
of the city; so diversified with hill and plain, gentle 
modulations and lowly dells, heavy forest and open 
lawn, that there is not a foot of the ground that can 
not be conveniently used, nor a foot that can not be 
made beautiful and grateful to the weary or perhaps 
grief-stricken visitor. 
On the 12th of September, 1863, three pioneer 
citizens of Indianapolis, who had been chiefly con- 
cerned in the planning and extension of the old 
graveyard, called a meeting for the consideration of 
the far more important work of establishing a new 
cemetery. These citizens were James Blake, Cal- 
vin Fletcher, Sr., and James M. Ray, all of whom 
now rest in the home of the dead so largely created 
by their public spirit. To their initial meeting 
they invited Mr. John Chislett, then superintendent 
of the Allegheny Cemetery, at Pittsburg. Mr. 
Chislett strongly advised the purchase of the Crown 
Hill site, 'and the committee, relying very largely 
on his counsel, purchased the property, which now 
contains, with recent additions, 348 acres, making 
it one of the largest cemeteries in the world, and 
fully entitled, both in e.xtent and beauty, to rank 
with our leading American cemeteries. 
Crown Hill was formally dedicated with appro- 
priate ceremonies on the 1st of June, 1864. The 
fundamental principle of the organization then pro- 
mulgated was that all receipts from the sale of lots 
shall be restricted to the maintenance and improve- 
ment of the cemetery; except that, after twenty-five 
years, any twenty-five corporators of the cemetery 
may direct the managers, if a fund sufficient for all 
cemetery uses has been accumulated, to appropriate 
a portion to the benefit of the poor of Indianapolis. 
This unalterable provision is a perpetual assurance 
that the property can never be devoted to specula- 
tive purposes. The board of managers is elected 
annually by the board of incorporators, and vacan- 
cies in the latter body are filled by vote of the re- 
maining members. The board of incorporators is 
therefore self-perpetuating. 
It is given to but few men to foresee the changes 
that time will bring. Thirty years have elapsed 
since the projectors of Crown Hill Cemetery laid 
deep and broad the foundations of their philanthro- 
pic enterprise, and great are the changes wrought by 
those thirty years. At the time of the purchase of 
the site it was thought that it was too far from the 
city. Now it is evident that it could not advanta- 
geously be nearer. Then there was some objection 
on the score of the distance to be traversed. Now 
the cemetery is the terminus of three electric street- 
railway lines and is easily reached from every part 
of the city. The commanding view afforded from 
Crown Hill, the beauty and restfulness of its prime- 
val foliage, which under the careful guardianship of 
the incorporators is destined never to be disturbed 
amid all the changes of an encroaching civilization, 
the great extent of the acreage of the cemetery, 
and the very general favor with which it is regarded 
by the citizens of Indianapolis — all these and other 
considerations combine to testify to the wisdom of 
the original incorporators and the care of their suc- 
cessors. 
Crown Hill Cemetery was organized on the prin- 
ciple that every lot-owner has an interest equal to 
that of the incorporators. On this basis the man- 
agement has been conducted for thirty years, and 
to this principle is largely due the remarkable suc- 
cess attained. From a primeval forest, or swampy 
glade, the greater part of the large tract belonging 
to the corporation has been converted into a vast 
and exquisite lawn, studded with native trees and 
groups of shrubbery, swelling into graceful undula- 
lations or sinking into shaded and solitary dells, and 
everywhere revealing the sedulous care and earnest 
labors of the superintendent. The simple uniformity 
and harmony of the grounds is the result of the 
policy of banishing conspicuous marks of individual 
interest, except monuments, and, fortunately, this 
policy has been generally concurred in by the lot- 
owners. Crown Hill may be said to have gone to 
the extreme of the tendency to reduce the prom- 
inence of individual display, simplifying as far as 
possible the entire scheme of landscape decoration. 
The adoption of this policy is due largely to the 
influence of the late Mr. Adolph Strauch, formerly 
superintendent of Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincin- 
cinnati; also to Mr. John Chislett and, since his de- 
cease, to his son, the present superintendent of 
Crown Hill, Mr. Frederick W. Chislett. The policy 
of these gentlemen has been, in accordance with 
modern ideas of cemetery gardening, to make their 
burial ground as attractive as a park. The glare of 
monuments and copings has been avoided as far as 
possible, and the attractiveness of graceful foliage 
and handsome lawns has been substituted for the 
bare hideousness of the old-fashioned graveyard. 
The approaches to the cemetery are along foliage- 
embowered roads. Within the entrance and close 
to the ground set apart for a national cemetery, are 
the chapel and vaults. The vault and chapel com- 
bined is a handsome Gothic structure built entirely 
of Indiana stone. The chapel is in the center of 
the building, a large room with stained glass win- 
dows, tiled floor and walls and groined arched 
