The Most Famous Cemeteries In America

The real problem with life is that it always ends in death. In the United States, there were 3.4 million deaths in 2020, which is equivalent to 9,315 deaths a day or 6 to 7 deaths a minute (via the CDC). Each death causes grief, suffering, and a terrible vacancy in someone's family. Collectively, all those deaths also create a practical problem: what to do with 3.4 million bodies?

Fortunately, American families have at least 144,847 choices in the form of at least 144,847 cemeteries, according to data compiled from OpenStreetMap by visualization expert Joshua Stevens. That number doesn't include home burials, burials at sea, or the place where you spread grandpa's ashes, so really, there are infinite options. You can choose a traditional churchyard cemetery, a big urban cemetery, or a tree (via Better Place Forests) — you can even be mummified (via Atlas Obscura). Or, maybe you'd just like to be buried somewhere notable. After all, if you can't be famous, you can at least be buried somewhere famous, maybe even a few tombs down from a celebrity.

If you're planning your afterlife, here is a short list of some of the most famous cemeteries in the United States. Keep in mind, though, that "famous" is subjective. Some cemeteries are locally famous, some are famous for their quirks, some are famous for their occupants, and with 144,847 graveyards to choose from, many famous locations did not make this list.

One of the oldest cemeteries in the U.S. is Old Burying Point in Salem, Massachusetts — yes, the town that gained infamy for murdering its own townspeople because of false accusations made by children.

Also called Charter Street Cemetery, Old Burying Ground dates all the way back to 1637, though none of the original grave markers survived since they were made out of wood. According to the town's government website, the oldest headstone in the cemetery belongs to Doraty Cromall, who died in 1673 and was fortunate enough to have her name carved in stone instead of wood.

Old Burying Point does contain the graves of a couple of people associated with the Salem Witch Trials: Mary Corey, wife of the unfortunate Giles Corey, an old man who was pressed to death under heavy stones for refusing to participate in the stupidity by entering a plea (via ThoughtCo), and John Hathorne, who was one of the trial judges and was therefore probably a terrible person. Underrepresented — actually, not represented at all — are the people who were accused and executed: Witches weren't supposed to be buried in consecrated ground, so they got thrown into pits instead. According to legend, some were retrieved in secret by family members so they could be properly buried. Today there is a memorial just behind the Old Burying Point Cemetery, featuring the victims' names, execution dates, and some of their statements of innocence.

According to the "Dictionary of American Family Names," "Bonaventure" comes from the Italian name Bonaventura meaning "good fortune" (via Ancestry.com), so it could be said that Bonaventure's occupants are indeed fortunate to have their own piece of 2.5' x 8' real estate in one of America's most beautiful cemetery.

The Bonaventure Historical Society calls Bonaventure a "traditional Victorian cemetery," but it isn't just the old stones and monuments that make it beautiful: it's the Spanish moss that grows on the live oak trees, giving them the appearance of being draped in soft netting (via Bonaventure Historical Society). The effect is both lovely and eerie at the same time. Visit during the day, and you'll be overwhelmed by the almost otherworldly beauty; visit at dusk, and frankly, you might be a little creeped out.

Bonaventure's most famous occupant is Gracie Watson, who died of pneumonia at the age of six. Gracie didn't accomplish much in life (because she was six) other than being especially cute and popular with the people who stayed in the Savannah hotel her father managed. Her notoriety happened after her death, when her father commissioned a life-sized sculpture of Gracie to mark her grave. According to Atlas Obscura, the sculpture is said to bear a keen resemblance to the little girl, which naturally means it's also haunted. In fact, Conde Nast Traveler says if anyone removes any of the flowers or toys left at the gravesite by random people, the sculpture will cry tears of blood.

Besides having one of the oddest names for a cemetery anywhere, the Hollywood Forever Cemetery is the final resting place for hundreds of stars from old Hollywood films, including Rudolph Valentino, Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, and a bunch of other people you may never have heard of. Some rock stars are buried there, too ... according to the cemetery's website, visitors can view the graves of Johnny and Dee Dee Ramone, and grunge legend Chris Cornell, who died in 2017.

Weirdly, besides being a place of eternal rest, Hollywood Forever also calls itself "Los Angeles' most dynamic cultural event center." This is probably a debatable claim, but to be fair, it might be the only local venue where ordinary people can mix with hundreds of Hollywood stars, as long as you don't actually care if those stars are breathing or not. Hollywood Forever has it all — it's a gravesite, it's a concert venue, it's an outdoor movie theater, which also means it isn't super peaceful, but hey, it's not like the stars buried there came to Hollywood because they were looking for a quiet afterlife.

Hollywood Forever also hosts the nation's largest Dia de Los Muertos event, an all-day event that includes music, arts and crafts, costume contests, and Aztec dancers. Locals build "altars" to remember deceased loved ones, and, quite often, deceased celebrities (via Hollywood Forever).

With more than three million occupants, Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New York, is the largest cemetery in the United States by population (Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, California, is the largest by acreage, but it has just a half million occupants, via San Gabriel Valley Tribune). Calvary Cemetery was established out of necessity back when diseases like cholera and yellow fever were producing more corpses than churchyards could manage. According to Atlas Obscura, Calvary's oldest grave dates back to 1848, and during its early years, it was mostly a Catholic church-funded free burial site for poor immigrants. Over the years, it gained some famous occupants, including Annie Moore, the first immigrant to pass through Ellis Island, and mafia bosses Joe Masseria and Thomas Lucchese.

If you love the big city and constantly being elbow-to-elbow with other humans, and you think you might like to be buried at Calvary, well, you can't, though Atlas Obscura does say new burials are "rare," which implies there might be a loophole. For the most part, though, Calvary is at capacity, and since it's also right next to the Long Island Expressway, you might prefer to find a quieter place to spend eternity anyway.

Three million dead people is a lot of dead people, but it's worth noting that Calvary is not the world's largest cemetery — that honor goes to Najaf Cemetery in Iraq, which is believed to host more than five million graves (via the BBC).

Forest Lawn Glendale is one of 11 Forest Lawn locations in Southern California, but it's the original and, therefore, the most famous. The celebrities buried there are mostly old Hollywood stars like Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart, and Errol Flynn. Walt Disney and Michael Jackson are there, too, though the latter is in a private crypt that you're not allowed anywhere near (via the BBC). According to Seeing Stars, it's not exactly easy to even find celebrity graves at Forest Lawn on account of the staff not really wanting you to, and also not providing maps with gravesite locations, or directions when you ask for them.

There's also an art museum at Forest Lawn Glendale — its most famous piece is "The Crucifixion" by Polish artist Jan Styka, which is 195 feet long and 45 feet high. The painting was abandoned by the artist in 1904, because the poor man couldn't afford to pay the export duties and was unable to bring it home from an exposition — that it wasn't even displayed in — because it was so freaking huge. It remained in storage until 1951, when Forest Lawn put it on display in an exhibition hall built specifically for it (via Forest Lawn).

If you want to visit modern Hollywood celebrities, you can try the Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills location, the final resting place of Carrie Fisher and her mother, Debbie Reynolds (via the Guardian), and "Fast & Furious" star Paul Walker (via Find a Grave).