History
The cemetery dates from 1844, when members of the Cincinnati Horticultural Society formed a cemetery association. They took their inspiration from contemporary rural cemeteries such as Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, and Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. On December 1, 1844 Salmon P. Chase and others prepared the Articles of Incorporation. The cemetery was formally chartered on January 21, 1845, and the first burial took place on September 1, 1845. In 1855 Adolph Strauch, a renowned landscape architect, was hired to renovate the grounds. His sense and layout of the "garden cemetery", made of lakes, trees and shrubs, is what visitors today still see. In 1987, the association officially changed its name to "Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum" to better represent its remarkable collection of both native and exotic trees, as well as its State and National Champion Trees.
On March 29, 2007, the cemetery was designated a National Historic Landmark
Spring Grove encompasses 733 acres (2.97 km2) of which 400 acres (1.6 km2) are currently landscaped and maintained. Its grounds include 12 ponds, many fine tombstones and memorials, and various examples of Gothic Revival architecture. As of 2005, its National Champion trees were Cladrastis kentukea and Halesia diptera; its State Champion trees included Abies cilicica, Abies koreana, Cedrus libani, Chionanthus virginicus, Eucommia ulmoides, Halesia parvifolia, Metasequoia glyptostroboides, Phellodendron amurense, Picea orientalis, Picea polita, Pinus flexilis, Pinus griffithi, Pinus monticola, Quercus cerris, Quercus nigra, Taxodium distichum, Ulmus serotina, and Zelkova serrata.
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