Oakwood Cemetery

Oakwood Cemetery covers about 160 acres in southeastern Syracuse, with eight miles of roadway winding across hills, ravines and valleys left by glaciers. Howard Daniels, a New York City landscape gardener who had laid out some fifteen cemeteries, designed the original 82 acres around 1859. Later parcels, bought between 1869 and 1889 and developed until about 1940, followed the same picturesque principles. The grounds hold about 300 varieties of trees and shrubs, including a remnant native oak grove, along with vaults, mausolea, monuments and funerary art. Near the old western entrance are a granite railroad bridge built in 1902 for the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western line, a Romanesque Old Office from the same year and a chapel. The cemetery is recognized as a well-preserved example of the rural cemetery movement, where winding paths, views and plantings were meant to bring visitors close to nature. Highway construction removed the outer entrance park, but the interior design remains largely intact.