Follow
Charles Evans Cemetery is an historic, nonsectarian, garden-style cemetery located in the city of Reading, Pennsylvania. It was founded by Charles Evans (1768-1847), a son of Quaker parents and native of Philadelphia who became a prominent attorney and philanthropist in Reading during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
After donating the cemetery's first twenty-five acres and $2,000 to support the early development and operations phase of this public burial ground, he then ensured the cemetery's long-term stability by bequeathing a roughly $67,000 endowment from his estate, following his death in 1847 to support beautification of the grounds and other perpetual care activities. Sited atop a hill, the cemetery was initially located outside of the city when Evans first donated the land, but was absorbed into Reading's boundaries as the city developed to meet the needs of its expanding population.
By the 1870s, cemetery administrators had expanded the grounds significantly, according to the Huntingdon Journal, which reported on the cemetery in its September 10, 1873 edition as follows:
The Charles Evans Cemetery, the beautiful "City of the Dead" of Reading contains one hundred acres of ground. The total number of interments within its precincts last year was 483; for the months of January, February, March, April, May, June, and July of this year the number was 267.
Roughly six thousand of the seventy-two thousand individuals interred since the cemetery's establishment have been veterans of the U.S. military, including two thousand men who served during the American Civil War.
Official Website
Charles Evans Cemetery Drone Tour