Glenwood Cemetery (Houston, Texas)
Posted by: 
Raven
N 29° 46.106 W 095° 23.175
15R E 269285 N 3295512
Glenwood Cemetery is one of the most famous and beautiful cemeteries in Houston, built on undulating hills thrown up by Buffalo Bayou floods and home to a large number both city and state celebrities.
Waymark Code: WMJZ6Y
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 01/20/2014
Views: 6
Per the cemetery's own website: (
visit link)
"Designed in the tradition of other romantic rural cemetery parks of the 19th century, Glenwood’s beautiful landscape and towering trees provide the visitor a place of quiet respite just one mile west of downtown Houston. Glenwood’s collection of statuary and monuments are reminders of Houston’s rich history and the men and women who shaped it. Included among them are the last President of the Republic of Texas, four Governors, and more than twenty Houston Mayors, along with founders of major oil companies, religious and professional leaders, and others who have made significant contributions to Houston.
Glenwood Cemetery was established as a private cemetery in 1871 by the Houston Cemetery Company, which was incorporated by an act of the Twelfth Legislature of the State of Texas on May 12, 1871. After construction, Glenwood opened for business in the summer of 1872.
Glenwood shares characteristics of other 19th century romantic garden cemeteries: It was established in a rural area (as Houston existed in 1871). It was built on a site with a distinguishing natural feature. Glenwood’s design takes advantage of the ravines leading to Buffalo Bayou to create a rolling landscape unique in Houston. It was landscaped in a naturalistic style with curving roads and walkways. Newspaper accounts of 1871 compared Glenwood to such well-known garden cemetery parks as Mount Auburn in Cambridge, Mass. (1831), Laurel Hill in Philadelphia (1836) and Green-Wood in Brooklyn (1838)."
Just a few of the people locally famous and interred at this cemetery include:
* Charlotte Marie Baldwin Allen - the "Mother of Houston", wife of Augustus Chapman Allen
* William P. Hobby - Governor of Texas 1917-1921
* George Hermann - Houston business leader
* Roy Hofheinz - Father of the Astrodome
* Edgar Odell Lovett - First President of Rice University
* Howard R. Hughes and his parents
* Joseph S. Cullinan - Founder of Texaco
* William Stamps Farish II - Co-founder, Humble Oil Company
* Harry C. Wiess, Co-founder, Humble Oil Company
* Ross S. Sterling - Governor of Texas 1931-1933; Co-founder, Humble Oil Company
* Maria Franklin Prentiss Lucas Langham Gable - wife of Clark Gable 1931-1939
* Gene Tierney, Hollywood Actress