It contains over 11,000 family lots and more than 33,000 graves, including many adorned with grand marble and granite funerary monuments, elaborately sculpted hillside tombs and mausoleums.

[6][7] The cemetery was founded in 1836 by John Jay Smith,[9] a librarian and editor with interests in horticulture and real estate, who was distressed at the way his deceased daughter was interred at the Arch Street Meeting House burial ground in Philadelphia.

Smith wrote, "Philadelphia should have a rural cemetery on dry ground, where feelings should not be harrowed by viewing the bodies of beloved relatives plunged into mud and water.

"[10] Smith joined forces with other prominent Philadelphia citizens including Benjamin Wood Richards, William Strickland and Nathan Dunn to form the Laurel Hill Cemetery Company and create a rural cemetery three miles north of the Philadelphia border on the east bank of the Schuylkill River.

Designs for the cemetery were submitted by William Strickland and Thomas Ustick Walter[13] but the commission selected Scottish-American architect John Notman.

[2] Notman designed the gatehouse which consists of a massive Roman arch surrounded by an imposing classical colonnade and topped with a large ornamental urn.

[4] To increase its cachet, the cemetery's organizers had the remains of several famous Revolutionary War figures moved there, including Continental Congress secretary Charles Thomson; Declaration of Independence signer Thomas McKean; Philadelphia war veteran and shipbuilder Jehu Eyre; hero of the Battle of Princeton, Hugh Mercer; and first director of the U.S. Mint, David Rittenhouse.

[4] In 1849, a set of iron gates on sandstone piers was built in the southeastern corner of the cemetery and served as a secondary entrance.

The Yellow Fever Monument was built in this section in 1859 to honor the "Doctors, Druggists and Nurses" who helped fight the epidemic in Portsmouth, Virginia.

[10] By the mid-19th century, the creation of Fairmount Park and the encroaching city began to limit the expansion of Laurel Hill Cemetery.

Many bodies were re-interred at the more suburban West Laurel Hill Cemetery and the remaining graves suffered neglect, vandalism and crime.

Cast at the Bureau Brothers Foundry, "The Silent Sentry" weighs 700 pounds and stands 7 feet, 2 inches high.

[27] Laurel Hill Cemetery is a popular tourist destination that attracts thousands of visitors every year for historical tours, concerts, and physical recreation.