The "#1 In Death" Story

Entrance to the Greenwood Cemetery in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

It was an ordinary day.  Just entered the historic stone-gated entrance to the Greenwood Cemetery which is directly off of South Queen St. to the south of Lancaster City.  The cemetery was chartered on September 4, 1895, being designed by Mr. D.M. Rothenberger and built by Kaufman and Kraemer contractors.  The cemetery is beautiful, if a cemetery can be so, with plenty of trees and shrubs and sprawling green lawns.  

Stevens Section of the cemetery.

I wound my way past signs that designated sections of the cemetery such as the Buchanan, Fulton and General Reynolds sections which were named after famous Americans who resided in the city of Lancaster, PA or in it's neighboring areas.  My mission today it to take a photo of the very first public crematorium in the United States.  It was built before the cemetery was chartered, having been built in 1884.  

Cement vaults stacked at one part of the cemetery.

The very first crema- torium was a private one built eight years earlier by Dr. Julius LeMoyne in North Franklin Township, Washington County, PA.  Dr. Lemoyne's first cremation required four hours, but took close to 48 hours to pre-heat and cool down the crematorium.  Lancaster's crematorium was established by surgeon Miles L. Davis who later founded other crematoria in larger northern cities.  In case you aren't quite sure what happens in a crematorium, a machine known as a cremator, which is a furnace, is used to burn a dead body to reduce it to ashes.  

The Crematorium at the Greenwood Cemetery.  The windows
are boarded shut showing it is no longer in use.  This was the
first public crematorium in the United States.

They are generally found in funeral homes, chapels, cemeteries or in stand-along facilities.  A facility which houses the actual crematory unit is referred to as a crematorim.  The Lancaster Crematorium is a one-story, brick building in the Gothic Revival style which measures 48 feet by 32 feet and has a pitched gable roof.  It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.  It no longer is in use today as you can see by my photo.  

Stones show the date this building was erected.

I'm sure at first it was very hard for people to accept cremation, but today close to 40% of Americans are cremated while in Japan nearly 99% of their residents are cremated.  Countries with very large populations and little land area find it necessary to cremate rather then burying their dead.  Today as I maneuvered the hills throughout the cemetery searching for the crematorium, I found peace and quiet with every turn I made. Many memorials geared toward the military as well as famous Lancastrians dot the landscape.  I finally got my photographs and left through the same stone gate.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.