Basically every American political figure of note has had to come to D.C. at some point.
Some of them like it enough to make their careers in the District, leaving behind home state politics to ascend to higher offices like the Senate or presidency. A few even become true Washingtonians, electing to be buried in the District and spend eternity in D.C. We covered three of the District’s most notable cemeteries last month in this blog — below are three more.
Mount Olivet Cemetery
Mount Olivet Cemetery, tucked right next to the National Arboretum, is perhaps the best cemetery to visit for true architectural enthusiasts. The cemetery has elaborate memorials, with intricately carved spires and statues of angels decorating its 85 acres, and James Hoban, the original architect of the White House, is buried within.
But perhaps the most famous burial within the cemetery is a co-conspirator of the Lincoln assassination, Mary Surratt. There’s actually more co-conspirators to the Lincoln assassination buried within D.C. than there are presidents — a fact renowned musical director Steven Sondheim would doubtless appreciate.
1300 Bladensburg Road NE, Washington, D.C. Open Monday to Friday 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
The Oak Hill Cemetery
In the heart of Georgetown, Oak Hill Cemetery is the final resting place of two radically different sides of the Cold War. Katherine Graham, the former publisher of The Washington Post and a Georgetown resident, is buried in the cemetery. Graham is remembered for authorizing the publication of the Pentagon Papers in the Post in the 1970s — and is remembered even more now that Meryl Streep played her in 2017’s The Post.
The cemetery is also home to Dean Acheson, who was Harry Truman’s Secretary of State and helped design the administration’s early Cold War policy — which, in a way, was the first of many, many steps that ended up with people across the states reading the Pentagon Papers with their morning coffee.
Oak Hill Cemetery also is home to the losing side of possibly the most important Supreme Court case in United States history, Marbury v Madison. John Marbury, whose insistence upon being appointed to the Court let Chief Justice John Marshall establish judicial review, never got to sit on that prestigious bench, but he does still call D.C. home as he’s buried in Oak Hill.
3001 R St NW, Washington, D.C. Open Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Rock Creek Cemetery
Ironically nowhere particularly near Rock Creek Park, within Rock Creek Cemetery visitors can find one of the District’s most famous monuments outside the National Mall: the Adams Memorial. Created for photographer Marian Hooper Adams’ grave by sculptor Augusts Saint-Gaudens, the memorial features a metallic hooded figure, meant to represent grief, sitting up crying.
Rock Creek Cemetery is a must visit for any aspiring journalist — yours truly included. Tim Russert, the longtime host of Meet the Press, might have seemed like he lived all over the country as he was broadcast into homes nationwide for years, but Russert spent most of his time in D.C. while working on the show. He’s still in the District, having been buried in Rock Creek.
Upton Sinclair, the crusading writer who exposed the horrors of early 1900s working conditions in meat packing factories, is also laid to rest at the cemetery. So is Charles Corby, who created Wonder Bread — so thankfully for lovers of the brightly-packaged bread, the proximity of the two’s graves to each other probably ensures that Sinclair is making sure working conditions at Wonder Bread factories are up to snuff.
201 Allison St NW, Washington, D.C. Open Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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