Woodmere Cemetery
9400 West Fort Street | Detroit MI 48209
Phone: 313-841-0188

The natural beauty of the site now known as Woodmere Cemetery is recorded far back in the days of the French occupation of Detroit and vicinity, prior to the eventful year of 1760, and is in fact perpetuated in Indian legends. Once the favorite hunting ground and camping place of the Indian, then the highly prized farm and homestead of the original French settler, its heavily wooded hill sides, long vistas of rolling land, exquisite water glimpses, and natural park-like aspect, have won for Woodmere an international reputation.

The land is high, undulating and drains naturally from the hills and groves down to the picturesque lagoon and the river, which winds tranquilly across the center of Woodmere and joins the River Rouge. This lagoon and river have been used as the keynote of the landscape gardening which for years has distinguished Woodmere from all other cemeteries of this country, with Water gardens of surpassing beauty, luxuriant growths including the gorgeous Egyptian lotus.

The stately entrance gates of Woodmere, on West Fort Street, one of Detroit's radiating thoroughfares, are about four and three-quarters miles from the center of the city. Slowly, but consistently, Woodmere has grown, until now it embraces about three hundred acres, developed to the highest degree under the skill of the landscape gardener, From the very inception of Woodmere Cemetery it has been the aim and ideal to exclude all that is morbid and depressing and provide a beautiful resting place for those who sleep. The symbol of Woodmere is hope and life, not grief and death.

The Woodmere Cemetery Association was organized in July, I867, and the first Board of Directors was composed of these men who have figured prominently in the history of Detroit: John J. Bagley, David Preston, Moses W. Field, M. S. Smith, Eber B. Ward, Elon W. Hudson. C. I. Walker, David M. Richardson, Lemuel H. Davis, Bela Hubbard. Daniel Scotten and Jefferson Wiley. For nearly ten years the late Governor John J. Bagley served as president. Four presidents of Woodmere, John J. Bagley, Isaac M. Swain, Rufus W. Gillett and James A, Brown. now rest under the shade of its elms.