Not all funerals involved hearses and limousines. The first crematorium established in Montgomery County was built at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in 1938 and was the only such structure in the entire county until the Lansdale Crematorium was created in June 1978. The first was established in Washington, PA in 1876 by Dr. Next to come into favor were crematoriums. In a Main Line Times story written about the cemetery in November 1988, Betty McManus of Rosemont tells the story of a small child who referred to the mausoleums as “those little houses where dead people live.”Īs the economic picture changed after the 1929 Depression, the construction of large family mausoleums declined. Among the most ornate and intricately carved mausoleums are those among the 270 found at the West Laurel Hill Cemetery on Belmont Avenue in Bala Cynwyd. Large family mausoleums came into prominence after the Civil War. With the founding of the borough of Norristown, Potter’s Field was created where “indigents, paupers, transients, prisoners from county jails and suicides, which were usually not accepted in churchyards” were buried. The European settlers used two kinds of burial grounds: the family plot and the churchyard. Even after 1682, some authentic Indian burial sites were still being used in the area now known as Montgomery County. No record exists of burial grounds until the coming of the English settlers in 1682. The history of burial practices and funeral customs in Montgomery County, as well as brief histories of many of the cemeteries in Lower Merion Township, are chronicled in the book “Montgomery County, The Second Hundred Years.”

Cemeteries in lower merion township pa