Please enter through the main gate off Washington Avenue.

Glenwood Cemetery Historic Preservation Foundation

The mission of the Glenwood Cemetery Historic Preservation Foundation (GCHPF) is to preserve, steward and enhance the beauty and historic integrity of Glenwood Cemetery through projects that are outside of the scope of day-to-day operations. The GCHPF is a 501(c)(3) organization created in 1999.

Foundation Activities

Monument Restoration

For many of the historic gravesites at Glenwood, there are no living descendants to take responsibility for maintenance and repair. Over time, Houston’s soil causes monuments, statuary and copings to sink, and those displaced by tree roots must be repaired and stabilized. In order to preserve the beauty and historic integrity of Glenwood, the Foundation provides funds for the restoration of these beautiful reminders of our history.

Foundation Activities

Tree & Landscape Maintenance

Glenwood is passionate about our extensive horticultural collection and greenspaces. To keep Glenwood’s trees healthy, they require year-round care and maintenance. Our goal is to help safeguard and support the trees’ survival from future storms and droughts. The GCHPF works continuously to raise funds for the maintenance and perpetuation of the trees, landscaping, and preservation of land. Tree maintenance is also important for the preservation of Glenwood’s priceless collection of Victorian-era monuments and statuary. If dead and diseased trees and limbs are not promptly removed, they can fall and damage these irreplaceable works of art or could injure one of Glenwood’s many visitors.

Foundation Activities

Erosion Control

Over time land can become unstable due to erosion, this can endanger conservation efforts and land development. To ensure that future generations will continue to enjoy the natural beauty of Glenwood, we make erosion control a priority by endlessly working to preserve land in the cemetery and along the Buffalo Bayou. We actively work to carefully protect and nurture the cemetery by removing the threat posed by erosion to ensure no valuable land will be lost and historic gravesites are protected.

Publication Of Glenwood’s History

To appropriately preserve Glenwood’s history, a book, Houston’s Silent Garden, has been published by Texas A&M University Press that tells the story of Glenwood from its formation in 1871 to the present. Glenwood was established as a private cemetery during the difficult years of Reconstruction following the Civil War. A critical need for additional burial space in Houston had been identified as early as 1860. Glenwood responded to that need and, in addition, to the growing desire of city dwellers to have more contact with landscapes of natural beauty. Like other romantic cemetery parks of the 19th century, Glenwood provided such a setting.

Board of Trustees

THE FOUNDATION IS GUIDED BY A VOLUNTEER BOARD OF TRUSTEES
  • Ellanor Allday Beard
  • Thad Grundy, Jr.
  • Ben A. Guill
  • Melissa Kean
  • Ransom C. Lummis
  • William N. Mathis
  • Edward K. Neuhaus
  • Joan Neuhaus
  • Beth Robertson
  • Anne Peden Tucker
  • Francita Stuart Ulmer
  • W. Temple Webber, III
  • Nina P. Wickman
  • Joanne Seale Wilson
  • Lora Jean Kilroy Wilson
  • Wallace S. Wilson