Located on the corner of Fayette and Greene Streets on the west side of downtown Baltimore, “The Hall” is probably most famous as the burial site for Edgar Allan Poe.

In 1852, the City of Baltimore passed a city ordinance prohibiting cemeteries which were not adjacent to a religious structure. At that time the graveyard was called the old Western Burying Grounds, but as there was no church in connection with the historic cemetery, the Westminster Presbyterian Church was built directly over the graveyard. The early Gothic Revival church was constructed of brick with brownstone trim and very little ornament. Its greatest significance is the protection is provides for the burial vaults and tombs that are preserved underneath it

Becides Poe, a number of famous Marylanders are interred here, including many Revolutionary patriots and veterans of the War of 1812. Within the cemetery are numerous examples of funerary art and the graves of such notables as Colonel James McHenry (signer of the U.S. Constitution and Secretary of War under Washington and Adams), David Stodder (U.S.S. Constellation), and Robert Smith (Secretary of the Navy and Attorney General in Jefferson's Cabinet). A monument in the cemetery to Edgar Allen Poe was donated by the school children of Baltimore.

Parts courtesy of the National Park Service

Persons of Note Interned

• James Calhoun (1743–1816), former mayor of Baltimore
• James Morrison Harris (1817–1898), former U.S. Representative
• Edward Johnson (1767–1829), former mayor of Baltimore
• Philip Barton Key (1818–1859), son of Francis Scott Key, Shot and killed by Daniel E. Sickles, his lover's husband, at Lafayette Park, Washington, D.C., 27 February 1859.
• James McHenry (1753–1816), signer of the U.S. Constitution and Secretary of War
• Edgar Allen Poe (1809–1849), short story writer, editor and critic
• Robert Smith (1757–1842), former Secretary of the Navy, Secretary Of State, and Attorney General
• Samuel Smith (1752-1839), U.S. Congressman, U.S. Senator, and former mayor of Baltimore.
• Samuel Sterett (1758–1833), former U.S. Representative
• John Stricker (1758-1825), War of 1812 Militia Brigadier General.