Washington’s historic cemeteries: Where the nation’s past lives

Inside the cemetery grounds is the grave of Patricia Roberts Harris, a member of President Carter’s Cabinet and the first black woman to serve as an ambassador. Also buried at the site are such figures as muckraking author Upton Sinclair, department-store magnate Julius Garfinckel, Alice Roosevelt Longworth and “Meet the Press” anchor Tim Russert.

Rock Creek Cemetery also contains one of the most famous sculptures in the city, the grieving hooded figure that serves as the grave marker for famed Washington author and historian Henry Adams and his wife, Marian Hooper “Clover” Adams, done by Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Stanford White.

The cemetery is across the street from the U.S. Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home, a historic site whose ground contain the summer cottage Abraham Lincoln used during the Civil War.

© Copyright 2013 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.