Eden Cemetery

Eden Cemetery occupies 49 acres in Collingdale Borough, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and holds more than 90,000 gravesites across twenty-three named sections. The Eden Cemetery Company established it in 1902 as a burial ground for African Americans in the Philadelphia region, at a time when many cemeteries in the area excluded them or set aside segregated plots. Four original sections, Celestine, Lebanon, Home and Olive, were laid out first, and Lebanon and Olive received burials moved from older Philadelphia African American cemeteries. Other sections are named for Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Harriet Tubman and Richard Allen. The cemetery's significance lies in its role as a community-owned burial place during segregation and in its continued use by African Americans across the region. The grounds are laid out in a pastoral lawn-park style, and the 1972 administration building is non-contributing.