Stories from Elmwood: Exploring the Past in a Detroit Cemetery

The park-like grounds of Detroit’s Elmwood Cemetery provide a unique glimpse into the city’s fascinating past. Join us as we meet the politicians, generals, abolitionists, explorers, businessmen, and everyday figures who repose in this hallowed part of Detroit. Elmwood’s “residents” include numerous “conductors” of the Underground Railroad, a 19th century baseball hall-of-famer, the author of the 13th Amendment of the Constitution, a highly decorated Revolutionary War vet who was born a slave, the doctors who led Detroit through two waves of a deadly Cholera epidemic in the 1830s, the German immigrant who started the Stroh’s brewery in his basement, the engineer who built the first automobile in the Motor City, and many more. Elmwood’s ancient stones have a story to tell, and we are here to tell it.

Host or Publisher Rochester-Avon Historical Society