Calvary Catholic Cemetery
5041 35th Ave. NE
Seattle, King County, Washington 98105
206-522-0996
In 1884, Father Emmanuel Demanez, chaplain of Providence Hospital, purchased the 40 acres from homesteader John J. Jordan who had homesteaded the property in 1872. The property was bought at the same time as the lot on Capitol Hill that became Holy Cross Cemetery. Holy Cross was the first Catholic cemetery in Seattle.
Calvary Cemetery was blessed December 1, 1889, making it ready to accept burials. Father Louis Schram, Vicar General for the Bishop of Nisqually in the Territory of Washington, dedicated it to serve the Seattle area. In 1904 the land was officially platted as a cemetery. Before streets were graded, caskets and mourners traveled by train to Ravenna Station on the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway to reach the burial ground.
The oldest burial at Calvary is that of William Boyd who died in 1859. Boyd's resting place, like that of many other Seattle pioneers, did not stay put. He was originally buried in the old Seattle Cemetery (now Denny Park at the foot of Queen Anne Hill). His body was then removed to the Holy Cross Cemetery on Capitol Hill (now the site of Seattle Prep High School). All Holy Cross burials, including that of Boyd, were removed to Calvary beginning in 1905.
Soldiers, Priests, Loggers
Burials at Calvary include persons active locally and worldwide as well as veterans of both sides of the Civil War, along with veterans of the Spanish-American War, World War I, and the Boxer Rebellion. Many pioneer loggers belonging to the Woodsmen of the World fraternal organization are buried here, with their motto dum tacit, clamat (While he is silent, he shouts) inscribed on their monuments.
