136 
THE MODERN CEMETERY. 
Bellefontaine Cemetery, St. Louis, Mo. 
The history of Bellefontaine is so closely inter- 
woven with that of St. Louis that one would be in- 
complete without the other. The cemetery, how- 
ever, is of more recent origin than the city. It was 
begun in ’49 with one hundred and forty acres. 
These have been gradually added to, by purchase 
of adjoining farm lands, until it now comprises some 
three hundred and forty acres lying along the Belle- 
fontaine bluffs that face the Mississippi and extend 
from St. Louis nearly to the mouth of the Missouri 
river. The cemetery has a frontage of one mile on 
Broadway, a thoroughfare about parallel with the 
Mississippi river, and distant from it at this point 
some three miles. The bluffs are neither precipit- 
ous nor very high, but are in bold contrast to the 
low lands lying between them and the river by their 
abrupt elevation, and in that they are heavily 
wooded. All of the land, however, now included 
in the cemetery has been owned as farms, and the 
long sweeping hill-sides that lie back of the first 
sharp rise, and widen out from the first deep, steep 
sided ravines, had all been under cultivation for 
years before being turned to cemetery purposes. 
The superintendent of Bellefontaine, Mr Hotch- 
kiss, an extremely courteous, not to say courtly, 
gentleman of the old school, has held that position 
from the organization of the Cemetery Association, 
which, without being sure of my ground, I fancy is 
something unique in cemetery history in this coun- 
try, and am quite sure it is at least very unusual. 
Finding the more broken parts of the grounds 
closely covered with an indigenous forest, made up 
largely of oaks and elms, his policy from the outset 
has been to preserve its woodland character. In 
this he has been most successful. It is strictly a 
woodland cemetery. The clearings have been close- 
ly set with trees in variety, and where the native 
trees, resenting as is their habit, the intrusion of 
civilization, have died and been removed, all such 
openings have been similarly filled. 
The first impressions on entering Bellefontaine 
are seclusion, picturesqueness and trees — ever- 
greens being very prominent. Monuments and 
stones have not been allowed to obtrude near the 
several entrances. Barring the lack of waterways, 
the natural beauty of the cemetery site could not be 
better; and barring the lack of enough openings for 
long views through the grounds, the tree planting is 
good. The trees are fine, but more vistas in the 
interior parts of the grounds would be an im- 
provement; the effect now seems heavy, and if this 
is true when all of the deciduous trees are bare, it 
would seem to indicate a summer suffocation of fo- 
liage. The next general impression is that Belle- 
fontaine was intended by nature for a terrestrial 
WINTER LANDSCAPE, BELLEFONTAINE CEMETERY. 
paradise, but that man has so littered it with stones 
that it has become typical af an earthly prison. 
The lawn plan, in its broad sense, is not accep- 
ted here, but that the authorities are leaning that 
way, although perhaps unknowingly, is evident. 
Fences and copings around lots are no longer al- 
lowed, and trees have always been protected. No 
evergreens grew wild on these bluffs, but great 
numbers of them, in well placed groups, have been 
planted, presumably to give pleasing variety. For 
the same reason, (it is supposed) artificial water- 
ways have been constructed consisting of a series of 
ponds and of reservoirs, the latter supplying water 
for a flowing stream during summer which is right- 
ly regarded as a picturesque feature. It might 
however, be made more so by a less formal bit of 
masonry for the larger waterfall — the smaller one 
seems well designed. 
Having done so much for the sake of variety, it 
would not be going very much farther, and it would 
be quite in the line of logical sequence, to provide 
for a still greater diversity by the use of shrubbery, 
hardy ornamental grasses and aquatic and semi- 
aquatic plants. More vines would be well too, al- 
though in some of the dells wild grapes and Vir- 
ginia creeper were noted. Then with the opening 
up of a few interior vistas the thing would be ac- 
complished, with one important exception — stones. 
In nomenclature, Bellefontaine is picturesque. 
The original “beautiful fountain” was a very large 
spring at the foot of this same range of bluffs, but 
on the western or Missouri river side, and farther 
north by some miles. Here on the bluff above the 
spring the early French settlers established old 
“Bellefontaine cantonment,” and Bellefontaine road, 
which passes one front of the present cemetery, was 
in those days the military “trail” connecting this 
“Post” with St. Louis “Post.” 
