The Columbia Gardens Cemetery is located at the southern boundary of the Ashton Heights Historic District and is one of its most prominent features.
The cemetery was created by the Alexandria Park Association, incorporated in 1914 in Huntington, West Virginia. The president of the association was Colonel Robert Dye, former superintendent of the Arlington National Cemetery, and its principal founder was Julius Broh. Another founder was Harry Randolph Thomas, great-grandfather of the current president, Daun Thomas Frankland. The Thomas family has been responsible for the cemetery since it opened in 1917.
In the proposal to the Arlington County Board, the Association indicated the intent to "make a place that will be attractive as a park and a credit to the county."[3]
Having won approval from the county, in November 1917, the Association's board of directors employed a landscape architect from Cleveland, Ohio, a Mr. Jenney, to prepare the design, specifications, and methods of procedure for operating a cemetery.
The Columbia Gardens Cemetery is an example of merging landscape design and city planning based on the principles set down in the late 19th century by designers such as Frederick Law Olmsted and subsequently developed by the City Beautiful movement. However, as opposed to the linear plans advocated by City Beautiful for urban design, Jenney preferred a more rural cemetery design, with winding roads and natural landscape features.
The "park" initially encompassed nearly thirty-eight adjoining acres, with an option to purchase an additional thirty acres.[1]
The Columbia Gardens Cemetery has been family operated for four generations. At present it is one of the few cemeteries in the Northern Virginia area offering available burial sites with the option of an upright monument. Other options range from columbarium niches to family mausoleums.
Upon entering the main gates on Arlington Boulevard, a main driveway passes a rose garden beyond which lie the winding alleys of the cemetery, providing a natural setting of dignity and grace for reflection on loved ones who have gone before.[4]
Columbia Gardens Cemetery now has a very active presence on Facebook[6] and Instagram.[7] While the cemetery had kept a seemingly low profile in social networking in the past, management is moving to update technology and how it interacts with the changing demographic of the Metro DC community. Many people have passed its long red brick wall for years without ever realizing the expansive property inside its borders, others have the idea the cemetery is full. Still possessing several undeveloped acres and a newly opened cremation garden, management has also found much property previously believed to be unavailable.
A few items that set this idyllic environment apart from other privately owned, State regulated cemeteries in the Northern Virginia area is that this is the only one that allows headstones. Another is that it hasn't clear cut its trees to make room for burial space. Many cemeteries are just fields, Columbia Gardens is working towards status as an Arboretum. Finally is the diversity of families and cultures who have made Columbia Gardens the final resting place for their loved ones.
D. Jamison Cain (1926–2010), United States Postal Service employee known for coining the phrase ZIP code[9]
Douglas Evans Coe (1928–2017) was associate director of the Christian organization, The Fellowship, (also known as a family of friends in Christ, the prayer breakfast groups).
Robert Beacham Dillaway (1924–2015) His work on the Atlas program and applied advanced aerospace technology led to the Apollo space missions.[12][13][14]
Warren Fales Draper (1883–1970) was Assistant Surgeon General and later Deputy Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service.
Hung-Chang Lin (Jimmy Lin) (Chinese: 凌宏璋; pinyin: Líng Hóngzhāng) (1919–2009) was a Chinese-American inventor and a professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Maryland and inventor of the lateral transistor, wireless microphone and holder of over 60 patents.
^"Columbia Gardens Cemetery". Retrieved October 24, 2021. 1983 - Oren Lewis, federal judge, interred. Lewis authored an opinion used as the basis of the 1954 Supreme Court ruling Brown v. Board of Education.