Forest Hill & Calvary Cemetery

Forest Hill & Calvary Cemetery was incorporated in 1888. Forest Hill is the final resting place of numerous famous Kansas Citians including but not limited to, Satchel Paige, Buck O’Neil, H. Roe Bartle, Joyce Hall, Hare & Hare Architects, William T. Kemper Sr., R. A. Long, J. C. Nichols, Tom Pendergast, William Volker, Seth Ward, and John Wornall.

According to Forest Hill, initially, it was a segregated cemetery but eventually opened up to all in approximately 1962.

Forest Hill was also home to the Battle of Westport.

From the Mrs. Sam Ray collection of postcards at Missouri Valley Special Collections at the Kansas City Library, “This 1908 postcard (featured below) shows a section of the south-central part of Forest Hill Cemetery in the days when the hearse and other funeral vehicles were horse-drawn. The cemetery, at Sixty-ninth street and Troost avenue, was incorporated in 1888. The building in the right background was the receiving vault used to keep bodies when the weather was inclement or the ground frozen. The Phoenix granite building contained 80 catacombs. There were no mechanical devices for digging graves at the time, and the necessary labor was difficult in zero weather. The building stands today, but it is used for miscellaneous storage. The small lake has been filled with earth and landscaped. Some Kansas Citians can remember driving to the cemetery on Decoration day, with their carriages filled with containers of flowers and water. Others remember riding on the Marlborough streetcar line which ran through the grounds on Woodland avenue. The right of way for the line was given to the streetcar company for use as long as it maintained a carline. Today it has reverted to Forest Hill and is part of the cemetery. A shelter house was located at the entrance on Woodland and a farm pasture bordering the cemetery was filled with daisies. For 25 cents the farmer permitted persons to pick all they could carry. The flowers then were carried into the cemetery and used to decorate graves. The cemetery has been famous through the years for its wealth of and variety of trees. Originally there were 104 species of American, European, and Oriental trees. George Kessler was the landscape architect. The plantings were started by George Law and Sid J. Hare. Kansas City Times, May 30, 1970.

Content Provided by

Carylon Harrison, Forest Hill & Calvary Cemetery

Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, Missouri.