Woodlawn Cemetery - NV

In 1914, prominent Las Vegas citizens persuaded the Union Pacific Railroad to donate ten acres of desert land for a city cemetery. Located on a flat site with few existing trees, the cemetery was designed by city surveyor J.T. McWilliams, with features common to both the Rural and Lawn Cemetery styles. Large expanses of open lawn with deciduous trees and evergreen shrubs were in sharp contrast to the undeveloped desert surrounds. The property was initially bounded by a wooden fence and trees, which were replaced over time with new trees and an ornamental iron fence. McWilliams’ initial design was spacious, with generous 25-foot, tree-lined roadways and five-foot buffers for parking, and ten feet of open space between rows of graves. Harlan Brown redesigned the cemetery in 1942 to accommodate more graves. Continued demand for burial plots led the cemetery to expand east in 1944, with a second ten-acre parcel designed by George Rittenhouse that emulated McWilliams’ initial concept. A third 20-acre section was platted in 1953 and still serves for new burials. The cemetery is one of the region’s most historic extant designed landscapes and reflects important associations with Las Vegas' early period of settlement. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.