Mount Vernon Cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

About

Get directions Ridge and Lehigh Avenue
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19132 United States

Coordinates: 39.99890, -75.18610
Cemetery ID:

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About these numbers These percentages indicate the number of Find a Grave memorials that have a grave photo or GPS coordinates. We don't know the total number of burials in a cemetery, so we cannot calculate a percentage of those with memorials, photos or GPS coordinates.

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Joseph Dinsmore Murphy, a lawyer from Washington D.C. began his ownership of the cemetery in 1973 when he inherited it from his father. The cemetery was not abandoned, however no plots were sold since 1968 and it became heavily overgrown. Many graves fell into disrepair and some were looted for scrap metal. Mount Vernon was not open to the public and the owner required an appointment be made for visitations 24 hours in advance and only for people who had a family plot in the cemetery and know the location.

On May 1, 2020 the Philadelphia Development Coalition petitioned to be appointed conservator of the property due to its abandoned and neglected condition. In 2021 a Philadelphia judge ordered the cemetery be placed in conservatorship due to neglect. Mount Vernon Cemetery is temporarily under the stewardship of the Philadelphia Community Development Coalition, Inc. However, the Mt. Vernon Cemetery Conservation Company is seeking to raise charitable pledges to cover the costs of transfer of the cemetery to their stewardship. Once this occurs, concerted capital and operating fundraising can be undertaken to restore the cemetery and initiate public programming.

Weekend volunteer clean-ups are currently in process at Mount Vernon.