Hired by the Fairmount Cemetery Company as superintendent on February 16, 1891, German-born and educated Reinhard Schuetze laid out the 285 acre grounds of the cemetery, Denver’s second rural cemetery following Riverside, which opened 15 years earlier.

The design is characterized by an extensive system of carriage roads and pedestrian walkways, whose gourd-shaped form exploits the scenic vantages of the site’s existing topography while resulting in segmented expanses of lawns, with a rich and varied plant palette. Shuetze lived onsite or nearby for three years, planting over 4,000 trees including seven species of oak, sycamores, silver maples, Kentucky coffeetrees, buckeyes, rock and American elms, and several varieties of pines. Fairmount’s gothic revival Ivy Chapel is a Denver landmark, replete with flying buttresses, barbed finials, gargoyles, and a tall steeple.

Schuetze spent the majority of his more than 20 year professional career in Denver and, along with Cheesman Park, Fairmount is amongst his most significant commissions. Today, the cemetery remains one of Colorado’s largest and most diverse arboretums and its historic collection of antique roses, some still unidentified, draw visitors from around the country.