Cemeteries generally get kind of a bad rap. Understandably, of course, thanks to their inextricable link with death and loss and grief. Still, there can be beauty to be found in graveyards, just as there can be beauty found even in death. And one of the prettiest cemeteries in West Virginia, which also happens to be the state’s largest and reportedly most haunted, is Spring Hill Cemetery Park in Charleston.
Welcome to the prettiest, most peaceful, most well-designed cemetery you could ever hope to meet.
Friends of Spring Hill Cemetery Park and Arboretum / Facebook
Spring Hill Cemetery is perched on a hilltop in the heart of Charleston, West Virginia, affording a tremendous view of the city, the capitol complex, and the river.
Richard E / TripAdvisor Spring Hill’s beauty is no happy accident; this cemetery was designed by an engineer in the 1800s, and claims the honor of being the first example of landscape architecture in West Virginia.
Spring Hill Cemetery holds other distinctions as well. It’s West Virginia’s largest cemetery, with over 33,000 burials and on more than 168 acres.
Pubdog / Wikipedia And that’s not even counting the four adjacent private cemeteries bordering Spring Hill Cemetery Park, too: Mt. Olivet Catholic cemetery, Bnai Israel’s Hebrew cemetery, Loewenstein Cemetery, and Mountain View Memorial Park.
Scattered throughout the park, beautiful natural features abound. Multiple natural springs. More than 1400 trees in the Mary Price Ratrie Arboretum.
Friends of Spring Hill Cemetery Park and Arboretum / Facebook Some of the trees here are among the largest in West Virginia. Others… well, others were reportedly used for hangings, and that brings us to Spring Hill’s final claim to fame.
This cemetery is said to be extremely haunted. Whether from the unmarked graves, or the graves that were relocated here from other cemeteries, or the grisly history of lynchings that occurred here, no one quite knows.
75NorthernGirl / TripAdvisor Perhaps the three combine to make this one of the most haunted graveyards in the Mountain State.
Either way, don’t come after dark! That’s because the cemetery park is open each day only from dawn to dusk. Explore this hidden gem via one of the park’s provided history walks. Alternatively, if you prefer unique headstones, try the angel walk.
Friends of Spring Hill Cemetery Park and Arboretum / Facebook Information about these walks can be found at the cemetery’s information booth.
You can also learn more about Spring Hill Cemetery at the park’s website. Have you visited this beautiful, haunted cemetery in Charleston, West Virginia? If pretty, spooky cemeteries interest you, make sure to take the time to learn more about some of West Virginia’s other haunted graveyards.
Friends of Spring Hill Cemetery Park and Arboretum / Facebook
Richard E / TripAdvisor
Spring Hill’s beauty is no happy accident; this cemetery was designed by an engineer in the 1800s, and claims the honor of being the first example of landscape architecture in West Virginia.
Pubdog / Wikipedia
And that’s not even counting the four adjacent private cemeteries bordering Spring Hill Cemetery Park, too: Mt. Olivet Catholic cemetery, Bnai Israel’s Hebrew cemetery, Loewenstein Cemetery, and Mountain View Memorial Park.
Some of the trees here are among the largest in West Virginia. Others… well, others were reportedly used for hangings, and that brings us to Spring Hill’s final claim to fame.
75NorthernGirl / TripAdvisor
Perhaps the three combine to make this one of the most haunted graveyards in the Mountain State.
Information about these walks can be found at the cemetery’s information booth.
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Address: Spring Hill Cemetery, 1555 Farnsworth Dr, Charleston, WV 25301, USA
