Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum — Attraction in St. Louis

My husband and I spent a perfectly LOVELY afternoon in Bellefontaine Cemetery recently; in all our visits to St Louis, we'd never been there. I'm so glad we finally made the time to see it!

The cemetery is impeccably cared for. Brian is one of the groundskeepers, and was immensely helpful to us during our visit. He guided us to a few sites that weren't specifically listed on the map, and was very friendly and welcoming. Many thanks to Brian for his guidance, his hospitality, and for opening the waiting room so that we could use the facilities there.

It's really a beautiful cemetery. The map does a nice job of leading you through the grounds, pointing out all the most interesting gravesites (e.g., The Girl in the Shadow Box, the Lemp family tomb, William Clark's grave). One of the loveliest areas is the Wildwood Valley, with two lakes joined by a stream lined with gorgeous wildflowers. At the top of the farthest lake is a lovely outdoor chapel with a lion sculpture. Simply gorgeous view!

The cemetery has multiple paths, so a map is absolutely necessary. But it's easy to drive, and you can pause along the way at multiple points to admire the lovely funereal sculptures of a time gone by.

If you have a couple of hours to spare while you're in St Louis, Bellefontaine Cemetery is definitely worth your time. Enjoy your visit!

P.S.-- My girlfriends and I returned for a visit last month, and it was still the beautiful, idyllic place I remembered. Such a wonderful way to spend a...

I found the roads to be a bit confusing but after driving for a few minutes I managed to find my way around. This cemetery is peacefully beautiful and everything you would expect from a cemetery and while I had fun with some of the older markers that you couldn't read I could see how people would be more interested in those markers that are marked due to what they did in life, and while some of those interested me again I kept pulling over for the older less visited stones rather than the ones well-kept or newer. I never felt unsafe or unsure of what I was doing in the cemetery most of the roads are marked with either a solid white line which will lead you back to the office or a broken white line which will lead you around to most of the marked graves and stones. You pick which you want I did a mix of both. Stop in at the office on your way in ring the bell and have the nice people working get you a map the map is free and somewhat helpful should you happen to get lost of need-to-know which marker you are looking for. They also from what I understand know have an app for this. The paper map to me is just...

This place is super cool. If you like history and architecture you'll love it. I've seen a lot of it but not all and even in areas I've been I find something new. Many notables from St. Louis' long history are here. Busch, Lemp, Wainwright, Cupples, Lambert, Eads and even William Clark to name a few. The grounds are beautiful and well maintained and many of the graves appear to have not aged at all. It rivals the Missouri Botanical Garden and if I'm not mistaken they share a lot of the same staff. The cemetery provides an app that's been awesome in finding and learning things but I haven't been able to get it to work the last couple of times. The roads are mapped on Google Maps and driving to a certain destination is very easy. But be careful you'll find yourself wandering away from your car just looking around. I would love to catch a guided tour but haven't been able to make one. But, if it works, the app has the same information. There is a public restroom near the gate house and they have a small souvenir shop...