History
Springfield’s Oak Ridge Cemetery was created in 1856 as the city’s response to the desire for more burial space and to create a cemetery with a park like setting away from the populated areas. As detailed by local historians Curtis Mann and Ed Russo in their book Images of America: Oak Ridge Cemetery, the rural landscape cemetery, which is one of the greatest contributions to landscape architecture, is a prime example of the romantic landscape which came to spark the American park movement in U.S. cities. Becoming a garden-like naturalistic cemetery that later would become the resting place of Abraham Lincoln the 16th President of the United States in 1865. Eventually two cemeteries within the city limits would be relocated to the Oak Ridge site.
Oak Ridge is home to several war memorials including Civil War, World War II, Korea and Vietnam. Knows for its botanical treasures and visited by Presidents and foreign dignitaries, visitors from around the world, Oak Ridge Cemetery is the second most visited cemetery in the nation.
Oak Ridge Cemetery Foundation 