Trinity Cathedral Burial Ground - The Oldest Graves Downtown

Photo: PerryPlanet, public domain (cropped)

A stop on Spooky Pittsburgh Walk, a free self-guided tour.

Between the office towers on Sixth Avenue lies a churchyard older than the city around it. Long before Trinity Cathedral was finished in 1872, this ground was used for burials by Native Americans, by French soldiers from Fort Duquesne and by the British at Fort Pitt. The first recorded burial here was in 1754. Over the years some 4,000 people were buried on or near the site; only about 128 graves remain.

Among them are Red Pole, a principal chief of the Shawnee, who died in Pittsburgh in 1797, and Dr. Nathaniel Bedford, the town's first physician. These are among the oldest marked graves west of the Atlantic seaboard.

No one needs to invent a ghost story for this place; it carries its own weight. If the gate is closed, the iron fence along Sixth Avenue gives a clear view. Read the worn names in the dusk and notice how quiet one small yard can be in the middle of a city.

Getting here: Walk one block north past Mellon Square to Sixth Avenue and turn left; the cathedral and its burial ground are about 2 minutes along Sixth.

Did you know?: Trinity's first church, built in the 1780s a couple of blocks away, was an eight-sided brick building nicknamed the Round Church.

Photo op: From the sidewalk, frame the cathedral's Gothic spire above the old headstones, with modern towers looming behind.

More on Wikipedia: Trinity Cathedral · Fort Duquesne · Red Pole

Trinity Cathedral Burial Ground - The Oldest Graves Downtown

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