Mount Pleasant Cemetery (2024)

Mount Pleasant Cemetery, the first "rural cemetery" in the Newark area and a leader in the Rural Cemetery Movement in New Jersey, is among the finest surviving examples of its type in America. As the city's oldest cemetery—a distinction it assumed in 1959 following the conversion of the Old First Presbyterian Church Burial Ground into a parking lot—Mount Pleasant is the final resting place of many leading figures in Newark and New Jersey, as well as American history. In 1962, the Cemetery property was designated a Newark Historic Landmark by the Newark Historic Sites and Buildings Committee, forerunner of the Newark Preservation and Landmarks Committee, and placed on a list of Newark sites and structures deemed worthy of preservation. Its entrance gates, office, and the Opkyke and Cook monuments were included in a photographic survey conducted in 1967 by the Historic American Buildings Survey (Project NJ-761).   

The 2023 Trust grant will help fund the preservation and restoration of 20 stained glass windows in the gatehouse.  

The 2002 Trust grant helped fund phase three of the cemetery's on-going building restoration program. The work consisted of stabilization and repairs to the two brownstone buildings at the Belleville entrance of the cemetery, the Liche Gate entranceway, the receiving vault, and the founders' monument.

For more information, visit:https://www.mtphistoriccemetery.com/