Founded in 1841, Woodland Cemetery is one of the nation’s five oldest rural garden cemeteries and a unique cultural, botanical and educational resource in the heart of Dayton, Ohio.

Over 3,000 trees and 165 specimens of native Midwestern woody plants grace the Arboretum’s 200 verdant acres of rolling hills. Many of the trees are more than a century old and 9 have been designated “Ohio Champions” by the Ohio Forestry Association.

The Romanesque gateway, chapel, and office, completed in 1889 are on the National Register of Historic Places with the chapel featuring one of the finest original Tiffany windows in the country. The Woodland Mausoleum adds a modern touch to this historic site while featuring 12 beautiful stained glass windows depicting woodland themes from literature and a magnificent rendition of “The Messiah.”

Thousands tour the grounds each year to visit the gravesites of Wilbur and Orville Wright, poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, Matilda, and Levi Stanley, Queen and King of the Gypsies; Governor James Cox, writer Erma Bombeck, Jeraldyne Blunden, founder of the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company; inventor Charles F. Kettering and entrepreneurs John H. Patterson (NCR), George P. Huffman (Huffy Bicycles), George Mead (Mead Paper), and Preserved Smith (Barney & Smith Mfg. Co.).