Conservator of Dayton history and the culture of its people
In the 1840s when Dayton outgrew its original graveyards at Third and Main Street and at Fifth Street, civic pioneer John Van Cleve chose a new forty-acre site, largely for its splendid hilltop views and remarkable variety of trees. Woodland’s place in history reaches far beyond Dayton, as its remarkable structures with unique interior f
eatures are of national significance. As one of a few 19th-century rural garden cemeteries in America, the site offers a distinctive historical, educational, and recreational resource for the southwestern Ohio region and the nation. Each year, thousands tour the grounds of Woodland to visit the grave-sites of Wilbur and Orville Wright, poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, Governor James M. Cox, writer Erma Bombeck, Jeraldyne Blunden, founder of the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, inventor Charles F. Kettering and his daughter-in-law, philanthropist Virginia Kettering, and entrepreneurs John H. Huffman (Huffy Bicycles), George Mead (Mead Paper Co.) Berry Co.), and Preserved Smith (Barney & Smith Mfg. Woodland is the conservator of Dayton history and the culture of its people. We are proud to be the final resting place of over 111,000 souls resting peacefully among our beautiful and timeless grounds.
