Famous Graves in Kentucky | Kentucky Studies

Kentuckians of the past have been memorialized with stately monuments and works of art. Garden cemeteries became popular in the 1840s as cities were beginning to run out of space for graveyards, and overcrowded church cemeteries were thought to be a source of disease.

People wanted the new cemeteries to be peaceful and beautiful. For several years in England and the United States, interest had been growing in creating a new kind of cemetery filled with trees, flowers, and winding paths.

Frankfort Cemetery, where Daniel and Rebecca Boone were re-interred in 1845, was among the first garden cemeteries in the country and among Kentucky’s most famous.