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The Birmingham Lafayette Cemetery is located at 1235 Birmingham Road in West Chester, [Chester County], Pennsylvania. We are a non-profit cemetery in a rural, peaceful, country setting of Chester County, Pennsylvania.
The treelined stone drives, memorial garden and abundant variety of trees throughout the cemetery provide a bucolic environment.
Our Cemetery is rich in history that dates back to the Battle of the Brandywine on September 11, 1777. Numerous historic community leaders, celebrities, and dignitaries have been laid to rest in our cemetery, including renowned artist NC Wyeth.
We provide a variety of burial opportunities including 1, 2, 4, and 8 grave lots as well as cremation sites. Our gates are always open to visitors who wish to quietly pay their respects to loved ones.
The origins of the present day cemeteries at Birmingham can be traced back to 1721 when a parcel of land was purchased from Richard and Elizabeth Webb to build a new Meetinghouse to be used by the Religious Society of Friends. A small burial ground was laid out within a stone boundary wall to the immediate north of the building. The early graves in this original section are mostly unmarked, in keeping with the early customs of the Friends.
The original Friends burial ground would continue to be used into the 1840’s at which time an expansion was found to be necessary. In 1842, a new burial ground, enclosed by a stone wall, was opened for burials by the Friends. By the time of the opening of the new section of the cemetery, Quaker traditions had evolved to allow simple headstones marking gravesites.
The new section of the cemetery was, for a time, used by the Quakers in both the Orthodox and Hicksite branches of the Meeting. In 1874 a plot of land for use as a cemetery was purchased by the Orthodox Friends about ⅛ mile south along Birmingham Road. The Birmingham Hicksite Friends continued using the an expanded stone Meetinghouse adjacent to the original cemetery.
Conflict in grave marking practices led to the formation of the Birmingham Lafayette Cemetery Association in 1891. The once Quaker burial ground was opened up to the public as a non-denominational cemetery. The original section of the Friends burial ground adjacent to the Meetinghouse was subdivided and continued to be used and maintained by the Birmingham Hicksite Friends.
This very, well-kept cemetery is also known as Birmingham Hicksite Friends Burial Ground and Birmingham Meetinghouse Cemetery.