{"nrhp_refnum":"92000991","name":"West Laurel Hill Cemetery","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"227 Belmont Ave., Lower Merion Township","address_restricted":false,"city":"Bala Cynwyd","county":"Montgomery County","state":"PA","lat":40.01528500650005,"lon":-75.22262291636243,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1992-08-14","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Landscape Architecture","Art","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"West Laurel Hill Cemetery is a late 19th century rural cemetery on a plateau overlooking the Schuylkill River in Bala Cynwyd, Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, covering about 187 acres divided into 44 sections. It remains in active use and includes 270 family mausoleums and several cemetery-built structures.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the cemetery is a well-preserved example of the parklike, romantic rural cemetery of the second generation, with an uncluttered Landscape Lawn layout and a large, mature planting collection. It also holds regionally outstanding funerary art and architecture from the 1870s onward, including the largest mausoleum collection in Pennsylvania, and works by Cope and Stewardson, Horace Trumbauer and Tiffany Studios.","narrative":"Laid out on a plateau above the Schuylkill River in Bala Cynwyd, West Laurel Hill Cemetery covers about 187 acres in 44 sections divided by winding roads with circular focal points. It was established in 1869 by the founders of the Laurel Hill cemetery, who bought two farms that year and in 1870, and it expanded westward toward Belmont Avenue. The grounds follow the Landscape Lawn system, which limited individual markers and accessories, and they hold many mature trees planted in the early years. The cemetery is regarded as a well-preserved example of the romantic rural cemetery of the later nineteenth century. Its 270 family mausoleums, built from 1875 onward, include the French Second Empire Betz mausoleum of 1885, and its monuments range from 1870s marble stones to Art Deco-era work. Company-built structures include an 1887 bell tower by Cope and Stewardson.","period_of_significance":"1869-1940","architect_builder":"Trumbauer, Horace; Cope and Stewardson","architectural_style":"Late Victorian-Gothic; Late 19th and 20th c. Revivals-Classical Revival, Beaux Arts","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Continues in active use as a cemetery.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:36.077712-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/92000991.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/92000991/e909bc7357-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/92000991/e909bc7357-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aspden_tomb_West_Laurel_Hill.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aspden_tomb_West_Laurel_Hill.JPG"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"72001151","name":"Fairmount Park","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/pennsylvania/fairmount-park-72001151/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71994565","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Laurel_Hill_Cemetery","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7985717"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/montgomery-county/west-laurel-hill-cemetery-92000991/"}