Swan Point Cemetery is a cemetery located in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. Established in 1846 on a 60-acre (0.24 km²) plot of land, it has approximately 40,000 interments.
First organized under the Swan Point Cemetery Company, with a board of trustees. In 1858, a new charter was developed to make the cemetery administration non-profit, and it was taken over by a group known as the Proprietors of Swan Point Cemetery. In 1886, landscape architect H.W.S. Cleveland was hired to redesign the area. It is a cemetery park with its design inspired by the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Among the first to make use of a tract of land within the cemetery was the First Congregational Society (now First Unitarian Society). They moved several interments from older plots in Providence to Swan Point. Over the years additional land acquisition has expanded the cemetery to 200 acres (0.81 km2), and is still open to new interments today.
The Swan Point Cemetery is widely considered to be the most prestigious cemetery in Rhode Island due to the number of prominent citizens of the state buried there. There are more governors, senators and congressmen buried there than any other cemetery in Rhode Island.
Swan Point Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. It is one of the two largest cemeteries in Providence with the other one being the North Burial Ground.
Swan Point has the burials of many notable Rhode Island figures:
David Aldrich, American artistNelson W. Aldrich, U.S. Congressman, U.S. Senator, grandfather of Vice President Nelson RockefellerRichard Steere Aldrich, U.S. Congressman, son of Nelson W. AldrichHenry B. Anthony, Governor of Rhode Island, and President pro tempore of the U.S. SenateLemuel H. Arnold, U.S. Congressman, Governor of Rhode IslandRichard Arnold, Union army generalSullivan Ballou, state politician, Civil War officer killed in action at the Battle of Bull RunDavid Leonard Barnes, U.S. District judge, litigant in West v. BarnesCharles R. Brayton, Civil War officer, Postmaster of Providence and long time Republican political bossAmbrose Burnside, Major General in the Civil War, Governor of Rhode Island and U.S. SenatorAdin Ballou Capron, U.S. CongressmanMalcolm Greene Chace (1875–1955), industrialist, hockey innovator, and amateur tennis playerMalcolm Greene Chace, Jr., (1904–1996) chairman of Berkshire Hathaway during the 1960sMalcolm Greene Chace III (1934–2011), board of directors of Berkshire Hathaway 1992-2007George Henry Corliss, inventor of the Corliss steam engineThomas Davis, U.S. CongressmanThomas Wilson Dorr, Political reformer, revolutionary and Governor of Rhode Island Sarah Elizabeth Doyle, Educator and reformer.Thomas Arthur Doyle, long-serving mayor of ProvidenceElisha Dyer, Governor of Rhode IslandElisha Dyer Jr., Governor of Rhode Island, Mayor of ProvidenceBenjamin Tucker Eames, U.S. CongressmanC. M. Eddy, Jr., authorTheodore Foster, U.S. SenatorAlbert Gallup, U.S. CongressmanLucius F. C. Garvin, Governor of Rhode IslandDarius Goff, Pawtucket businessman and textile mill owner.Daniel L. D. Granger, U.S. CongressmanTheodore F. Green, Governor of Rhode Island and U.S. Senator William S. Hayward, Mayor of ProvidenceRobert Henri, American painter and teacherWilliam Warner Hoppin, Governor of Rhode IslandCharles Tillinghast James, U.S. SenatorThomas Allen Jenckes, U.S. CongressmanWilliam Jones, Governor of Rhode IslandHerbert W. Ladd, Governor of Rhode IslandBenedict Lapham, industrialist, philanthropistOscar Lapham, U.S. CongressmanCharles W. Lippitt, Governor of Rhode Island Henry Lippitt, Governor of Rhode Island Henry Frederick Lippitt, U.S. SenatorAlfred Henry Littlefield, Governor of Rhode IslandH. P. Lovecraft, American authorJesse Houghton Metcalf, U.S. SenatorSeth Padelford, Governor of Rhode IslandCharles H. Page, U.S. CongressmanVahram Papazyan, Olympic runnerWhipple Van Buren Phillips, businessmanElisha Hunt Rhodes, Union Civil War veteran featured prominently in Ken Burns's The Civil WarJohn S. Slocum, Colonel of the 2nd Rhode Island Volunteer Infantry, killed in action at the Battle of Bull RunJames Y. Smith, Mayor of Providence and Governor of Rhode IslandWilliam Sprague III, Governor of Rhode Island and U.S. SenatorWilliam Sprague IV, Governor of Rhode Island and U.S. SenatorAlfred E. Stone, Providence architectRoyal C. Taft, Governor of Rhode IslandGeorge William Whitaker (1840–1916), the "Dean of Providence Painters"
