Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville, KY

This is certainly one of the most amazing cemeteries I have ever visited. It was chartered by the General Assemby of Kentucky on February 5, 1848 for the purpose of operating a rural cemetery. The cemetery was dedicated in July of that year, and the transition of Cave Hill Farm into beautiful Cave Hill Cemetery began.

Edmund F. Lee, a local civil engineer, concluded that Cave Hill Farm's irregular landscape was ideally suited for the formation of a rural cemetery.

The cemetery, located at the far east end of Broadway was "out in the country", if you will, and away from the bustle of city life. This was an ideal location, a rural location, to bury many Louisville citizens that died from a large number of cummunicable diseases prevalent in the mid-1800's. The city grew rapidly during this time, and there was a great demand for lots in the cemetery.

The cemetery's 296 acres were acquired in various tracts from adjoining land owners over a period of thirty years. Within the grounds, known in the mid 1800's as the "city of the dead", are sixteen miles of paved roads, five lakes and one quarry.

Cave Hill was named for the cave on the east bank of the main lake below the Administration Offrice that runs 246' into the hillside. The limestone caverns beneath Cave Hill are made up of chain-coral and upper magnesian cliff limestone. This rock was buried in sea water during it's deposition and formation to a depth of 120' beneath a tropical sea. In various parts of the grounds, caverns were made in the rocks by the solvent power of carbonated rain water. The roofs of some of the caverns fell in to the floor of the cave making numerous depressions. These are called basins (not sink holes) since there is not an opening at the bottom for future sinking.

As of 2006, there have been over 122,000 people interred on the grounds. Cave Hill is an outdoor museum with many hundreds of exquisite works of monumental art marking the gravesites of Louisville citizenry.