619 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
CAVE HILL CEMETERY, LOUISVILLE, KY. 
In making its claim as being one of 
the leading cemeteries in the coun- 
try, and by this is understood excell- 
ing in beauty, Cave Hill Cemetery, 
at Louisville, Ky., has just cause to 
its title. From its earliest days, 
when, in the bleak month of Feb- 
ruary, 1848, it was dedicated, until 
the very present there has been no 
•other idea in mind than that of per- 
fect care and excelling in splendid at- 
traction. 
The cemetery is owned and con- 
trolled by the Cave Hill Investment 
Co., an organization chartered by the 
Legislature for the purpose of con- 
trolling the cemetery and likewise 
for the purpose of receiving special 
bequests. The cemetery proper turns 
over 20 per cent of the lot and grave 
sales to this company. The invest- 
ment of this fund is restricted to 
bonds of the Ignited States, or of 
Kentucky, or of the City of Louisville 
or to other good and safe securities, 
provided the president and all the di- 
rectors of the said company shall 
consent thereto in writing before 
such investment is made. These con- 
sents are to be recorded in the rec- 
ord book of each board respectively, 
and should any other investment be 
made except as herein provided, the 
directors making or consenting to 
the same shall be personally liable 
for any loss arising therefrom. This 
makes the financial section of the 
operating department above reproach 
and is a protection to all investors. 
At the present time this fund amounts 
to about $204,000, and the same will 
not be touched until the last lot in 
Cave Hill has been sold. It has been 
estimated that this will not be the 
case until the year 1975. 
Cave Hill Cemetery contains 287 
acres, of which 157 acres is now im- 
proved, which includes about 37 
acres of reserves, some of which will 
eventually be available for lots. The 
yearly average of interments is now 
1,100, and the total to May 31, 1911, 
was 44,495. The National Cemetery, 
which has an area of 150,000 square 
feet, is owned by deed by the United 
States Government, and to the pres- 
ent time there are buried here 4,501 
Union soldiers. The government has 
erected in this section of the ceme- 
tery a beautiful stone rostrum for 
use on Decoration Day. The Confed- 
erate Association of Kentucky also 
has a large plot for the burial of ex- 
Confederate soldiers, and there are 
now buried there 308 members of the 
Lost Cause. In this connection it 
might be mentioned that this ceme- 
tery is unique in this respect. It is 
one of a very few cemeteries in the 
country where there are both the 
Ll^nion and the Confederates buried and 
where each celebrates its special Dec- 
oration day services annually. The 
Llnion section is under the guidance 
of a special U. S. Government super- 
intendent, and the graves are looked 
after by the regular force (another 
unique idea) just as any other lot 
holder. There are no monuments 
erected in the National Cemetery to 
officers of distinction as in Arlington 
and elsewhere, but the large number 
of little slabs show how many heroes 
fell in the cause of the Union. 
There are thirty sections thus far 
laid out and planted in Cave Hill 
and their average size is five acres. 
In the single grave sections, which 
includes all three and four grave lots, 
the graves are made flat and marked 
with numbered concrete markers, and 
the headstones are restricted to ten 
inches in height. There are , eight 
miles, 4,555 feet, of twenty-foot mac- 
adam roadways, the principal of 
which are covered with asphaltoil- 
ST.-PERINTENDENT’S OFFICE, CAVE HILL CEMETERY, LOUISVILLE. KY. 
