Philadelphia City Cemetery
Also known as Dunks Ferry Road Potter's Field
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, USA
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Get directions Dunks Ferry and Mechanicsville Roads
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19154 USACoordinates: 40.10259, -74.96557 - Cemetery ID:
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Add PhotosFollowing the closure of the old city cemetery at Whitaker Ave. and Luzerne St. in 1955, the City of Philadelphia established a new City Cemetery on a portion of the Holmesburg Prison Farm in the far northeast in January, 1956. In August 1957 the city medical examiner's office buried the most famous person to interred in the cemetery, just a year after it opened — The Boy in the Box, later identified as Joseph Augustus Zarelli.
The potter's field was initially maintained by prisoners from Holmesburg; prisoners were still digging graves and helping transport bodies to the cemetery into the early 1980s. Graves were marked by 5" × 5" cement blocks with numbers inscribed on them; these were used here until 1985.
Increasing burial costs and a lack of funding led the city to stop burying the unclaimed at the city cemetery. Beginning in 1986, unclaimed bodies were cremated by the medical examiner's office.
The cemetery is not maintained and is largely overgrown today.
Following the closure of the old city cemetery at Whitaker Ave. and Luzerne St. in 1955, the City of Philadelphia established a new City Cemetery on a portion of the Holmesburg Prison Farm in the far northeast in January, 1956. In August 1957 the city medical examiner's office buried the most famous person to interred in the cemetery, just a year after it opened — The Boy in the Box, later identified as Joseph Augustus Zarelli.
The potter's field was initially maintained by prisoners from Holmesburg; prisoners were still digging graves and helping transport bodies to the cemetery into the early 1980s. Graves were marked by 5" × 5" cement blocks with numbers inscribed on them; these were used here until 1985.
Increasing burial costs and a lack of funding led the city to stop burying the unclaimed at the city cemetery. Beginning in 1986, unclaimed bodies were cremated by the medical examiner's office.
The cemetery is not maintained and is largely overgrown today.
Nearby cemeteries
Bensalem, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, USA
- 34
- 68%
- 50%
- Added: 24 Jun 2010
- Find a Grave Cemetery ID: 2359354
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