Oakwood Cemetery

It began in 1852, when Lavinia Porter, the daughter of Judge Augustus Porter, donated the land. The Judge was one of the acknowledged founders of Niagara Falls.

In 1913, Oakwood built a magnificent marble mausoleum, designed by the Buffalo architectural firm Green and Wicks, with crypts for over 350 interred individuals.
There are two stained glass windows (one by Louis Comfort Tiffany).

Among the many influential people whose names are associated with the growth and development of Niagara Falls, Oakwood is also the final resting place for the first person to travel over the falls in a barrel, Annie Edson Taylor. The cemetery also includes a memorial to “Comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic,” , veterans of the Civil War.

Oakwood today contains many outstanding examples of funerary art including obelisks, sarcophogi, and beautiful statuary. Additionally, the landscape is lush with mature plantings and trees, many dating from the earliest time of the cemetery.