Some Relationships Last for Years. Ours Last Forever.
Bellefontaine Cemetery has provided the finest cemetery and burial services in St. Louis since 1849. As one of the pre-eminent rural cemeteries in the nation, Bellefontaine’s founders sought to create an important civic and historic institution. The cemetery’s open embrace to all races and religions helped to establish it as St. Louis’s family cemetery.
To that end, our rich history is told in stories set in stone including such notables as explorer William Clark, poet Sara Teasdale, aviator James McDonnell, brewer Adolphus Busch, writer William Burroughs, and the thousands of citizens who built, worked and lived in our great city.
Planning a funeral, memorial or burial can be a complex and emotional process. Bellefontaine provides a comprehensive range of choices including traditional burials or cremations that include placement of cremains into niches within one of our beautiful columbaria or cremation gardens.
And for those whose wishes include a more natural return to the earth, we do not require vaults or traditional caskets. A simple coffin of pine or wicker, even a shroud, is acceptable at Bellefontaine. The cemetery staff is also happy to help you plan memorial services, whether graveside or in the beautiful and historic Hotchkiss Chapel.
Dignity, Beauty and Personalized Service
Bellefontaine Cemetery has the good fortune to have in excess of one hundred acres of available property, much of it around serene lakes and beautiful valleys. The grounds are home to an enormous variety of carefully tended trees and shrubs from over one hundred and fifty different species. Our 314 landscaped acres offer exceptional beauty in every season.
Our newly developed Master Plan includes respect for the land as well as awareness of the public’s changing tastes in memorials and monuments. We are designing networks of walking trails, re-establishing prairie and planting the next generation of gardens and specimen trees.
With our culture’s increasing preference for cremation, Bellefontaine has developed columbaria and is developing landscaped cremation gardens. We can also erect cenotaphs for those who wish to memorialize loved ones who may be buried elsewhere, whose bodies were donated to science, or whose ashes may have been scattered in a favorite place.
And with plentiful land, there are thousands of beautiful traditional gravesites. It is possible to lay your family members to rest near a well-known St. Louisan such as William Clark, on a hilltop, or in a quiet secluded valley.
Memorializing Our Loved Ones for Future Generations
How we memorialize is changing daily, expanding from traditional tombstones to include shared memorials or benches with elegant engravings of family names. Grief experts inform us of the importance of permanent memorials in helping families deal with the loss of their loved ones. Whereas monuments and memorials were once for the noble few, memorialization is now viewed as fundamental and healing to all.
Today, no one is left behind. All those who have passed are commemorated with a grave marker and honored. This tradition is in keeping with two basic human desires: to remember, and to be remembered. Cemeteries and memorials are, by nature, places concerned with the future as well as the past. By placing our name on an obelisk, a bench, a memorial garden, or in an archive, we trust that future generations will remember us. By honoring our dead we are affirming our faith in the future.
Decisions Thoughtfully Made
You’ll want to be certain the cemetery you select will be there for you and your loved ones for the long term. We recommend you take time to fully understand what you are buying when shopping for your family’s burial site. Having answers to fundamental questions will put your mind at ease.
- Who owns and operates the cemetery?
- Does it have an endowment to support it into the future?
- What exactly are you buying when you select a lot, gravesite or niche?
- What is the cemetery’s obligation for maintenance?
- What records does the cemetery keep for future generations?
We’re pleased to provide answers to these and any other questions you may have. Visit our Questions To Ask page to learn more. With a large cemetery endowment, and a mission of service and excellence, you can rest assured that the investments and memories of you and your family will be secure for generations.
Explore the Lives and Times of our Rich History
Be sure you spend some time viewing our virtual timeline and interactive map. Locate and explore the lives of some of the “Giants” that rest here. In addition, Bellefontaine Cemetery also has a sixty-page booklet devoted to the Notables buried here as well as a booklet that focuses on our Civil War notables. Both are available in the Bellefontaine Cemetery office along with a free map of the notable gravesites.
We invite you to visit some of our famous residents. You can learn more about the lives and deaths of some of the cemetery’s inhabitants by purchasing a copy of Carol Ferring Shepley’s book, “Tales from Bellefontaine Cemetery: Movers and Shakers, Scalawags and Suffragettes” It is also available at the office.
For additional information on what’s happening in and around the cemetery, we invite you to sign up for our free monthly newsletter. In it you’ll find timely information about events being held at the cemetery and more.
Bellefontaine Cemetery: A Tranquil and Dignified Setting To Commemorate Loved Ones
Bellefontaine Cemetery continues to provide extraordinary burial services and support to those St. Louisans and others making important decisions about interment and memorialization for themselves and their loved ones.
Meticulously maintained, Bellefontaine brings a long and rich history of extraordinary stewardship of its natural and cultural resources as well as its financial assets. It is a place to mourn those we have loved, a place to find inspiration and a place to honor life. We are committed to becoming your family cemetery, now and forever.
“A cemetery is a great picture gallery of the loved and honored dead.”
Dedication of Bellefontaine Cemetery, Professor Post May 15, 1850