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September 13, 2025

Ohio Chapter's Day of Service

Mt. Washington Cemetery

Cincinnati

Join Chapter members and Mt. Washington volunteers for a Day of Service coordinated by the Chapter's safety committee.

Date: Saturday, September 13, 2025
Location: Mt. Washington Cemetery, 2030 Sutton Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45230
Time: TBD
Type of Work: TBD
Equipment Needs: TBD

About Mt. Washington Cemetery: Established in 1855, the Mt. Washington Cemetery sits at the heart of Mt. Washington in the shadow of its iconic water tower on Beechmont Avenue. Nearly all of the community's founders, for whom many local roads are named, are buried here: the Corbly, Sutton, Mears, Gerard, Paddison, and Kellogg families. Other luminaries, such as Buck Ewing, a National Baseball Hall of Famer, seen by many as the greatest all-around player of the 19^th Century, and nature and wildlife documentary filmmaker, Karl Maslowski, are buried here.

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows, a fraternal organization that founded cemeteries and used the profits to benefit war widows and their children, founded this 7-acre cemetery in 1855. The IOOF did not set aside any perpetual maintenance funds, so when they walked away from running the Mt. Washington Cemetery, they left no funds to take care of it.

The cemetery's care fell to the City of Cincinnati from 1978 to 1985. Still, the city never mowed the cemetery during those years, and it became a blighted area in the community. A small group of neighbors formed the non-profit Mt. Washington Cemetery Association in 1985 to raise funds for and provide maintenance for the cemetery. Since the cemetery is nearly full, with well over six thousand burials, they have relied on volunteers, fundraising events, and an annual solicitation letter to known descendants of those buried, for maintenance and beautification efforts. Over the past forty years, they have planted a wide variety of trees and shrubs to enhance the ecological function of the cemetery as a green space and sanctuary for native plants and animals. The Mt. Washington Cemetery is now a nationally recognized arboretum (Arbnet), and a rare success story among the legions of abandoned cemeteries nationwide.

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