Mount Moriah Cemetery Philadelphia
Formerly abandoned
Eerie, overgrown and abandoned for decades, Mount Moriah Cemetery is now open to visitors again! The nonprofit organization Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery has made great strides in restoring, preserving, and clearing parts of the cemetery to make it safe to visit. Thankfully, it still retains its romantic ambiance of ruin.
I love coming here to explore. I take photos of marble monuments covered in vines and swallowed by roots. The headstones of Unknown soldiers lay halfway buried in the ground. Monoliths that once stood straight as an arrow are now tilted and covered by algae.
I rarely see other visitors here, making this an excellent off-the-beaten-path destination. You can spend a quiet couple of hours here wandering the pathways.
I highly recommend coming here on the trolley so you can experience this archaic piece of Philly transportation history as well. Once webbed with trolley lines, a few key routes still hang on like the Route 13 trolley that you can board at City Hall station and take all the way to the Mount Moriah gates on Kingsessing Avenue.
The gates are opened by volunteers, usually at 10:30 am, and closed around 4:30 pm.
Occasionally, Hidden City Philadelphia offers historical walking tours in Mount Moriah. Check their website to see what's coming up.
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