As early as 1865, the citizens of Waynesboro, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, sought to raise at least $5,000 for the purchase of land in or near the borough for the burial of “all the soldiers from the neighborhood who have died or been killed in the Union armies during the Civil War, so far as they can be procured.” The proposal included erecting “a handsome monument” on which would be inscribed the names and records of the fallen soldiers. This project never materialized.
It was not until 1869 that serious action was taken for the establishment of a community burying ground at or near Waynesboro. In April of that year, a public meeting was called to consider forming a stock company to purchase land for a cemetery. The organizers specifically requested that the several churches of the town send representatives to the meeting.
The original cemetery grounds (Shank’s woods) comprised approximately twenty-nine acres situated at the intersection of the Waynesboro and Maryland State Line Turnpike (South Potomac Avenue) and Ringgold (Cemetery Avenue) roads. Despite financial difficulties in the early years, the Green Hill board of managers sought to enlarge the grounds. In 1892 they negotiated with Jacob S. Lesher for the acquisition of five acres of land more or less, adjoining the cemetery on its southern border. In November of that year, they disposed of part of this annex to adjoining property owner William B. Dock in order to straighten the cemetery boundary.
On July 21, 1911, the association purchased from Harvey J. Lowman and Alice K. Lowman, his wife, a tract of land adjoining the original ground on its eastern boundary containing nine acres and sixty-four perches. On March 10, 1923, Daniel G. H. Lesher (son of Jacob S.) and Ora D. Lesher, his wife, conveyed to the cemetery association a tract of approximately six acres adjoining the cemetery on its southern boundary.
Then by their deed dated December 29, 1942, the burgess and town council of the borough of Waynesboro conveyed unto the cemetery association a parcel of land adjoining the cemetery to the southeast and containing eighteen and three-quarters acres.
Three land transfers during 1959 created the present cemetery boundaries. On the twenty-seventh of July, Daniel G. H. Lesher and Ora D. Lesher, his wife, sold a strip of land containing almost three acres to the cemetery; it constitutes the southernmost part of the necropolis. Finally, on the twenty-eighth of October, the Borough of Waynesboro paid the cemetery association the sum of five hundred dollars and conveyed approximately half an acre in exchange for a parcel of roughly one and three-quarters acres. This made the cemetery boundaries straighter and more uniform.
Today Green Hill embraces approximately sixty-five acres of land, of which two-thirds are developed as a burying ground traversed by around seven miles of paved driveways.
Through several generations, Green Hill Cemetery has maintained the basic elements of a garden cemetery. Very few of its features are perpendicular or symmetrical; instead, the drives and paths are winding, the grounds are undulating, and the flora are clustered. The original grounds retain some of the magnificent trees which one gave opponents of Green Hill pause, and they shade some equally magnificent monuments.
The newer sections of Green Hill have kept pace with changing social attitudes. Whereas the older parts of the cemetery still showcase the ostentatious displays of wealth by nouveau riche industrialists and capitalist from the Nineteenth and early Twentieth centuries, the newer ones reflect the restraint and modesty of the “Greatest Generation,” who suffered through the Great Depression and fought the Second World War, – and of their parents, who fought the First World War, survived the Spanish Influenza pandemic, and likewise suffered through the Great Depression.
While many of his elaborate horticultural triumphs have disappeared, the talent of longtime superintendent Ferdinand S. Gilbert can still be seen in Waynesboro’s necropolis. Most notable of these vestiges is the topiary sign proclaiming “Green Hill” to passersby on the road leading to Hagerstown, Maryland. He also mastered the artistic placement of trees, many clusters of which survive. But gone are the whimsical archways of vines between trees, as are the sharply fashioned privet hedges and rock-bordered flower beds containing profusions of color.
As part of the rural, or garden, cemetery movement, Green Hill is a place for the sanitary, respectful, and perpetual disposition of human remains. It is a place for quiet contemplation of both life and death; it is not a place for endless grief but of reassurance and invigoration.
Just as a more thoughtful people had created the garden cemetery to replace the stark, eerie graveyard of old, today a practical generation has forsaken traditional modes of burial in favor of cremation. In response to this change in practice, Green Hill Cemetery has provided a columbarium and scattering garden for the disposal of cremated remains while still providing complete burial services.