Riverside Cemetery. Photos courtesy of North Carolina Collection, Pack Memorial Public Library, Asheville, North Carolina and City Development, Asheville via NPS.Riverside Cemetery, on rolling, tree-covered grounds in the historic Montford District of Asheville, was established in 1885 by the Asheville Cemetery Company. The property overlooks the French Broad River and contains 87 acres of beautifully landscaped grounds on five terraced levels with more than three miles of roads. The natural beauty of ancient and massive oaks, poplars, evergreens, dogwoods, mimosas, azaleas, rhododendrons, and laurels complement unusual monuments and mausoleums.
Riverside Cemetery contains the graves of many people important to the history of Asheville and western North Carolina, as well as other North Carolina notables.
When the cemetery was established, graves were moved from earlier burial grounds, including three church cemeteries on Church Street. By the middle of the twentieth century, the Asheville Cemetery Company was having financial problems. In 1952 the cemetery was taken over by the city of Asheville, and it is still maintained by the City Parks and Recreation Department. There are approximately 13,000 graves, and grave sites remain available. The cemetery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Riverside Cemetery. Photos courtesy of North Carolina Collection, Pack Memorial Public Library, Asheville, North Carolina and City Development, Asheville via NPS. Available from https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/asheville/riv.htm (accessed October 12, 2012).
Grave of William Sydney Porter (O. Henry), b.1862, d.1910. Grave is in Riverside Cemetery, Asheville, NC. Photo taken 28 August 1954 by Dorthy Phillips. From the General Negative Collection, North Carolina State Archives, call #: N_54_8_4. Available from https://www.flickr.com/photos/north-carolina-state-archives/2989492991/ (accessed October 12, 2012).
