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Philadelphia City Cemetery

Also known as Philadelphia City Potter's Field

Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, USA

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  • Get directions 260 East Luzerne Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19124, United States
    Coordinates: 40.00991, -75.12230
  • This cemetery is marked as being historical or removed.
  • No longer accepting burials
  • Cemetery ID:

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On June 1st, 1909, Philadelphia opened a new City Hospital for Contagious Diseases at 2nd and East Luzerne Streets. Following the removal of the hospital from its old site at 22nd Street and West Lehigh Avenue, and the closure of the adjoining Hart's Lane Burying Ground which had been used by the hospital and the city as a potter's field, a new municipal burying ground was established on a triangular lot on the southwest corner of Whitaker Avenue and East Luzerne Street, adjoining the new hospital's grounds and New Cathedral Cemetery.


This potter's field became the final destination for thousands who died in the 1918 flu epidemic and those who died destitute during the Great Depression. In those days, the dead were buried for a year and a day before their remains were cremated at a crematorium on the hospital grounds. But after the crematorium broke in the 1940s, the bodies piled up at the potter's field, and the conditions became something of a scandal in the 1955 mayoral race.


The potter's field was officially closed and a new City Cemetery was opened at Dunks Ferry and Mechanicsville Roads in the Far Northeast on January 12, 1956.


Today, the old potter's field site is a police parking lot.

On June 1st, 1909, Philadelphia opened a new City Hospital for Contagious Diseases at 2nd and East Luzerne Streets. Following the removal of the hospital from its old site at 22nd Street and West Lehigh Avenue, and the closure of the adjoining Hart's Lane Burying Ground which had been used by the hospital and the city as a potter's field, a new municipal burying ground was established on a triangular lot on the southwest corner of Whitaker Avenue and East Luzerne Street, adjoining the new hospital's grounds and New Cathedral Cemetery.


This potter's field became the final destination for thousands who died in the 1918 flu epidemic and those who died destitute during the Great Depression. In those days, the dead were buried for a year and a day before their remains were cremated at a crematorium on the hospital grounds. But after the crematorium broke in the 1940s, the bodies piled up at the potter's field, and the conditions became something of a scandal in the 1955 mayoral race.


The potter's field was officially closed and a new City Cemetery was opened at Dunks Ferry and Mechanicsville Roads in the Far Northeast on January 12, 1956.


Today, the old potter's field site is a police parking lot.

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  • Added: 11 Jul 2023
  • Find a Grave Cemetery ID: 2781487