Oakwood Cemetery

Historic Oakwood Cemetery is located on “18.5 peaceful acres in the center of downtown Niagara Falls.” It was founded in 1852, predating the city’s incorporation by 40 years. Lavinia Porter, daughter of Judge Augustus Porter, donated the land. The Porter family were among the first settlers of European descent in the area.

Oakwood Cemetery was designed by two civil engineers. T.D. Judah (of Transcontinental Railroad fame) designed the map of the grounds in 1852, including the present-day “topography of curving roadways and planned landscaping.” Drake Whitney, “nephew of the three Whitney sisters for which Niagara Falls State Park’s Three Sisters’ Island is named,” enhanced the landscaping design in 1882. 

The Buffalo architectural firm Green and Wicks designed the Oakwood Mausoleum in 1913. The exterior of the mausoleum is “covered by hand cut gray Vermont marble” and “features soaring stone columns.” The interior has over 350 crypts and is “faced and floored in white Vermont marble, lit by clerestory windows and two stained glass windows.” One of the stained-glass windows was designed by famed artist and designer Louis Comfort Tiffany.   

Oakwood Cemetery is the final resting place for over 22,000 residents, both ordinary and extraordinary. This includes families like the Porters and Whitneys, “whose names are associated with the growth and development of Niagara Falls as a great industrial city and a world-renowned tourist attraction.” 

Other residents include Underground Railroad agents, civil rights activists, and prominent members of the African American community in Niagara Falls. Louis H.F. Hamilton and his wife Clarissa Condol, for example, were both waiters at the Cataract Hotel and very active in its Underground Railroad network.

Oakwood Cemetery is home to over 1,000 military members, dating back to the American Revolution. Part of the cemetery, including a memorial, is dedicated to over 100 veterans of the Civil War. Elizabeth Porter--an Army nurse, abolitionist, and charitable public servant--is buried in the Porter family plot.

In the triangular ‘Strangers’ Rest’ section of the cemetery lay several famous daredevils. Among them are Captain Matthew Webb, the first man to swim the English Channel unaided and one of the most famous Niagara Falls daredevils, and Annie Edson Taylor, the first person to travel over the Falls in a barrel and survive.

Once inside the gates of Oakwood Cemetery, visitors will forget they are even in the city. It is the perfect place to take a walk or a guided tour through historic burial sites and magnificent architecture, statues, and funerary art.

In 2014, Oakwood Cemetery was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Hope L. Russell, Ph.D.