Crown Hill Funeral Home and Cemetery

Indianapolis, Indiana, United States

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Crown Hill Funeral Home and Cemetery in Indianapolis, Indiana, is a historic, nonprofit, and nondenominational cemetery established in 1863 to address the limited space and lack of care at the city's earlier burial grounds.

Situated on scenic farmland called Strawberry Hill, which is one of the highest points in Indianapolis, it was designed by Pittsburgh landscape architect Frederick W. Chislett to create a park-like setting with rolling terrain and natural beauty.

The cemetery was dedicated in 1864, with the first burial being Lucy Ann Seaton, and quickly became the resting place for over 200,000 individuals, including notable Hoosiers such as James Whitcomb Riley, Oliver P. Morton, and infamous bank robber John Dillinger. It includes a 1.4-acre national military cemetery where Union soldiers from the Civil War were reinterred, and it hosted the first Decoration Day (Memorial Day) ceremonies in Indianapolis in 1868, continuing annually since.

The grounds feature historic structures like the Gothic chapel designed by Diedrich A. Bohlen, various mausoleums, and beautifully landscaped gardens, making Crown Hill a significant cultural and historic landmark as well as the third largest non-governmental cemetery in the United States.