Landscape Information
Located in Haller Lake, this 144-acre, L-shaped cemetery includes two roughly rectilinear parcels divided by the north-south oriented Aurora Avenue. The cemetery developed incrementally, beginning in 1884 when David and Louisa Boren Denny acquired a portion of the eastern parcel for family burials. In 1891 they platted and dedicated the cemetery for public use. By the early twentieth century the western half of the 40-acre property was laid out, and in 1913 the American Necropolis Corporation acquired and renamed the cemetery Washelli. In 1920 the Evergreen Cemetery Company of Seattle established Evergreen Cemetery to the immediate west and engaged landscape architect Howard Andrews to design the addition; two years later these properties were consolidated.
The eastern and western parcels are characterized by rolling topography traced by a network of curvilinear drives that originate from respective primary entrances. Located on opposite sides of Aurora Avenue, the entrances face one another and facilitate movement and connectivity between them. Allées of Lombardy poplar trees, planted by the 1930s, line the avenue, visually uniting the two sections. The cemetery is richly planted throughout with deciduous and coniferous trees (e.g. European beech, maple, birch, pine, and cedar) and flowering trees and shrubs (e.g. dogwood and rhododendron).
The western parcel is furnished with flat burial markers and plaques flush with the ground plane, whereas the eastern parcel is decorated with vertical markers, monuments, and a monumental mausoleum (1921) modeled after a Greek temple. Both parcels are partitioned into sections delineated by drives, paths, or vegetation. Sections include those set aside for religious groups, fraternal organizations, benevolent associations, and veterans. Located along the southern edge of the eastern parcel, the Veterans Memorial Cemetery (1927) features ordered rows of marble headstones that ascend a modest hillock. The rise is capped with a Modernist glass and concrete carillon (1961) designed by architects Olson & Olson that serves as a permanent memorial to Seattle veterans who were buried elsewhere.
