Mount Holly Cemetery

Mount Holly Cemetery is a historic cemetery located in the Quapaw Quarter area of downtown Little Rock in the U.S. state of Arkansas, and is the burial place for numerous Arkansans of note. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and has been nicknamed "The Westminster Abbey of Arkansas".

For another of this name, see Mount Holly Cemetery, Mount Holly, New Jersey.

Mount Holly Cemetery
Mount Holly Cemetery in May 2008
Location1200 S. Broadway St.,
Little Rock, Arkansas
Coordinates34°44′15.3″N 92°16′42.5″W
BuiltFebruary 23, 1843 (1843-02-23)
Websitemounthollycemetery.org
NRHP reference No.70000125[1]
Added to NRHPMarch 5, 1970

Major events

"Tales of the Crypt"

Every year in October several drama students from Parkview Arts and Science Magnet High School are each given a person buried in the cemetery to research. They then prepare short monologues or dialogues, complete with period costumes, to be performed in front of the researched person's grave. Audiences are led through the cemetery from grave to grave by guides with candles. The event is called "Tales of the Crypt". Although it takes place around the same time as the American holiday Halloween, the event is meant to be historic rather than spooky.

2016 vandalism

The cemetery experienced heavy vandalism in the overnight hours of April 20, 2016. Numerous headstones were toppled and smashed, including the well-known statues of a mourner next to statues of two little girls.[2]

Notable burials

The cemetery is the burial place for ten former Arkansas governors, six United States senators, 14 Arkansas Supreme Court justices, 21 Little Rock mayors, numerous Arkansas literary figures, Confederate generals, and other worthies. There are also several slaves who are buried there, marked by modest gravestones.

  • Dale Alford (1916–2000), U.S. Representative from Arkansas (1959-1963) and noted ophthalmologist
  • Matthew Cunningham (1756-1842), Revolutionary War battlefield surgeon First Mayor of Little Rock , First physician in Little Rock and first surgeon in Arkansas
  • George Izard (1776–1828), governor of Arkansas Territory from 1825 to 1828

See also

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. Koon, David. "Vandals strike Mt. Holly Cemetery, severely damage several monuments and statues". Retrieved July 27, 2016.
  3. "The Late Judge Fletcher". The Tennessean. 4 (1, 415). Nashville. March 3, 1880. p. 2.
Official
General information
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