River View Cemetery (Portland, Oregon)


River View Cemetery, located in the southwest section of Portland, Oregon in the United States, is a non-profit cemetery founded in 1882. It is the final resting place of many prominent and notable citizens of Oregon, including many governors and U.S. Senators. Other notable burials include Henry Weinhard's family, Lyle Alzado, a football player as well as an actor, and Carl Mays a baseball player, remembered for killing an opposing player with a pitch in a Major League game, and famous western lawman Virgil Earp.

History

River View Cemetery was founded as a non-profit cemetery by William S. Ladd, James Terwilliger, Henry Failing, Henry W. Corbett, Henry Pittock, Simon Benson, and others in 1882. All those who joined co-owned the cemetery. In 1902 a Roll Call statue was added to honor the 165 Oregonians who died in the Spanish–American War. The first adult burial was Dr. William Henry Watkins. In the 1940s a 135-person chapel was added, designed by Pietro Belluschi.

Facilities

Overlooking the Willamette River, the cemetery has a variety of mausoleums including the Hilltop Garden Mausoleum and Main Mausoleum. There are also private mausoleums and crypts. River View is an endowment care cemetery as defined by the state of Oregon.

Property and surplus land

River View Cemetery occupies approximately on the west slope of the Willamette River, south of Downtown Portland, but approximately half of the property is not a developed cemetery. Initially, this excess land was held for future expansion of the cemetery, but demographic trends away from burial have reduced the need for future expansion. For example, in 1973 eight percent of Oregonians chose cremation, versus 68 percent in 2010.
In 2006, the River View Cemetery Association sought to develop of their surplus land into residential properties, and filed a $24 million compensation claim under Oregon Ballot Measures 37 and 49. In 2007, the River View Cemetery Association submitted an application to change the zoning of the surplus land from open space to single-family residential for 182 housing units. On May 2, 2011, the City of Portland announced that it had agreed to purchase of this undeveloped surplus land for $11.25 million, which will be managed by Portland Parks & Recreation with the initial goals of habitat stabilization, removal of invasive species, and trail and access planning.

Notable burials