Colestown Cemetery - Cherry Hill, NJ - USA
N 39° 56.005 W 074° 59.367
18S E 500901 N 4420367
This is a very old cemetery located in western Cherry Hill, NJ. The first recorded burial was in 1684, according to the historical marker out front. The gatehouse dates back to 1858. All of our founding fathers can be found buried here.
Waymark Code: WM3BGF
Location: New Jersey, United States
Date Posted: 03/09/2008
Views: 64
Gatehouse at Colestown Cemetery is located in Camden County, in the city of Cherry Hill. This gatehouse was listed as a historic place according to the laws of the state of New Jersey on the Twenty First day of May 1975.
Some of the information below was gleaned from the
Cherry Hill website:
The Colestown Cemetery is the only remnant of the long-vanished hamlet of Colestown. The stone gatehouse is a familiar landmark for local residents One side of the gatehouse was used as a chapel for funeral services, and the other side was the living quarters for the superintendent of the cemetery. Below the chapel is a vault once used as a winter holding room for bodies that could not be buried in the frozen ground.A
St Mary's Church, one of the first Episcopal churches in West Jersey, stood inside the cemetery gates from 1751 to 1899, when it was destroyed by fire. Legend has it that Unami Indians were buried behind the Church. George Washington is said to have taken communion at the Church, and the brick path over which he might have walked is still visible.
I called the main office and asked about the number of graves (there were way too many to count) and I was told there are approximately 2,400 graves. When I took a look around I understood where the names of al the local roads came from; the namesakes of our highways can all be found here in gigantic family plots!