A stroll around the tombs and sepulchres reveals why it was a favorite weekend spot for our Victorian forebears.

by Contributor

In Short
Before Fairmount Park existed, 19th-century picnickers came to Laurel Hill to escape the city and stroll amid the rolling hills tumbling down to the Schuylkill. Today admission's still free, but no picnicking allowed. It's the monuments and mausoleums (many visible from Kelly Drive) that give the place its singular character, though. A hodgepodge of Gothic, Art Nouveau, Egyptian and Greek Revival, it all adds up to a glorious celebration of the sublime. Several of the signers of the Declaration of Independence are buried here. So is architect Frank Furness, civil engineer Charles Ellet and Joseph Wharton, founder of Penn's CEO incubator.