Laurel Hill West
The Bala Cynwyd half of Laurel Hill, a historic cemetery and certified arboretum spanning 265 acres across its two locations, open to the public free, 365 days a year. Grounds hours run 7 am to 7 pm in summer, 7 to 5 in winter.
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Coming up here
Sacred Spaces & Storied Places
Ninety minutes walking the mausoleums and monuments of the West grounds, with the stories of the people inside them. The ground rolls, so wear shoes you can walk hills in.
Autumn Abundance in Nature's Sanctuary, a Horticulture Tour
A ninety minute walk through Nature's Sanctuary, the natural burial section, as the fall color starts. Staff talk through what is blooming, seeding, and going dormant.
Pints & Plots: Brew Masters
Three hours tracing the brewing families buried at Laurel Hill, the lager barons who built the city's beer trade. The tour covers both grounds and starts on the Bala Cynwyd side.
Fall Equinox and Meditation Walk
An arboretum walk timed to the equinox, led by the arboretum manager and an energy guide, with short meditations along the way. Starts and ends at the Conservatory, where the parking is.
Nature in a Victorian Cemetery
Two hours on why Victorians built burial grounds to work as public parks, and what grows there now. Trees, birds, and the landscape thinking behind the monuments.
Fateful Departures: When Death Comes in Twos
A two-hour walk built around people who died together, from shipwreck victims to families and friends buried side by side. Tours leave from the Conservatory, not the first building past the Belmont Avenue gate.
Sacred Spaces & Storied Places
The introductory walk at Laurel Hill West, ninety minutes on architecture, the tree collection and the Philadelphians buried here. Guides rotate and no two versions match. Meet at the Conservatory, free parking outside.
Darkly Departed
Murder, mystery and bad ends across two hours of the grounds: beheaded train passengers, a witch who promised to come back, and sisters nicknamed Vampire and Viper. Sarah Hamill guides.
Sacred Spaces & Storied Places
Ninety minutes covering the mausoleums, the sugar maple allee and the residents whose lives track Philadelphia history. Good starting point if you have never walked the grounds. Departs from the Conservatory.
A Spirited Affair
Laurel Hill's annual fundraiser, held in the Conservatory on the West grounds in Bala Cynwyd. Proceeds go to the Friends of Laurel Hill and the upkeep of both cemeteries. No start time posted yet.
Famous Army, Navy & Marine Corps Veterans of Laurel Hill West
Veterans Day weekend tour of the notable service members buried here, led by Russ Dodge. Two hours on foot, leaving from the Conservatory. Tickets run $20 general, less for members and students.
Fall Foliage of Laurel Hill West
Arboretum manager Aaron Greenberg walks the peak color: the sugar maple allee, sweet gum and hickory. Two hours, real walking shoes, plus how the trees get ready for winter.
Sacred Spaces & Storied Places
The same ninety-minute overview, this time on a Friday morning: architecture, horticulture and the stories under the stones. Departs from the Conservatory with free parking outside.
Envisioning Your Perfect Deathbed
Death doula Kyra Overmier leads a slow walk through the cemetery, then an indoor session shaping air dry clay into a pocket memento mori and writing down deathbed preferences. Hot herbal tea and light refreshments included.
Medical Meanderings
Retired emergency physician Joe Lex walks you to the graves of a surgeon nicknamed The Great Slasher, the couple who consulted on the Radium Girls, and three doctors called to Washington for a dying president.
Sacred Spaces & Storied Places
Thanksgiving weekend version of the standard walk, ninety minutes through the mausoleums and the tree collection. Guides differ week to week, so repeat visits rarely cover the same ground twice.
More like this
Garden of Reflection
Pennsylvania's official 9/11 memorial, a 2.5-acre garden inside Lower Makefield's 62-acre Memorial Park, designed by Yardley architect Liuba Lashchyk and dedicated on the fifth anniversary of the attacks. The walking memorial honors all 2,973 victims, 18 of them from Bucks County, and moves deliberately from grief toward light.
Ambler Arboretum of Temple University
Fourteen gardens on Temple's Ambler campus, from a formal perennial garden to a winter garden and a wetland garden. The horticultural history here runs back to 1911, when this was the Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women; visitors can walk it self-guided or book a tour.
Memorial Park
Ten acres on East Main Street with a memorial to Lansdale's deceased war veterans, a lighted baseball field backed by a concrete grandstand, and lighted tennis and pickleball courts. A footpath and gazebo cover the slower afternoons.
