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Elmwood Cemetery (Detroit)

cemetery in Detroit, Michigan, United States

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 4, 2026
Entity authorityQ5366958 ↗
Source-derived summary

Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit is one of Michigan's most important historic cemeteries. Located at 1200 Elmwood Street in Detroit's Eastside Historic Cemetery District, Elmwood is the oldest continuously operating, non-denominational cemetery in Michigan.

History

The cemetery was dedicated October 8, 1846, as a rural cemetery and incorporated as a non-profit corporation by Special Act 62 of the Michigan Legislature on March 5, 1849. The first burial occurred three weeks prior to the dedication on September 10, 1846. Founded by some of early Detroit's leading residents, Elmwood originally covered 42 acres (170,000 m2). Over time, it expanded to encompass 86 acres (350,000 m2) and is the final resting-place of many notable Detroiters as well as ordinary citizens. In 1850, however, the cemetery became slightly smaller when Temple Beth El purchased one-half acre to establish what is now Michigan's oldest Jewish cemetery. The State of Michigan designated it as a State Historic Site in 1975.

Elmwood was the first fully racially integrated cemetery in the Midwest. A short distance from downtown Detroit, Elmwood continues to serve residents of all ethnic backgrounds and religious beliefs.

Editorial summary

“Elmwood Cemetery (Detroit)” enters the record as cemetery in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Elmwood, Cemetery and Detroit can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1200, 1846, 1849, 1850—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Elmwood, Cemetery and Detroit.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Elmwood Cemetery (Detroit)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Elmwood, Cemetery and Detroit provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5366958. Authority coordinates are 42.347, -83.019. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1200, 1846, 1849 and 1850.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Elmwood Cemetery (Detroit)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.