Despite being the first public crematorium in the United States, there is an undeniable air of mystery surrounding the Lancaster Crematorium. Besides a short Wikipedia page containing the most basic of information and a bite-size article from Atlas Obscura, the trail to understanding Lancaster Crematorium’s enigmatic history is found in paper and ink from bygone centuries: newspaper archives.
An 1887 illustration of the Lancaster Crematorium, taken from the Sanitary Engineer and Construction Record as published by the Lancaster New Era.
On May 27, 1884, a committee of fifty-nine members met at the office of local Lancaster newspaper The Intelligencer to put into motion the building of the first public crematorium in the United States. The group would become known as the Lancaster Cremation and Funeral Reform Society. Doctors, scientists, businesspeople and reverends joined, all with a common goal: in a time where yellow fever ran rampant in the northeastern United States, cremation promised not only a means to keep the public safe, but according to the committee, a way in which to do it with the utmost cleanliness and respect.
Together, the group purchased two acres of land overlooking the Conestoga River and set to work. The building, constructed by Philip Dinkelburg in the late Gothic revival style, featured modest red bricks and an iron roof. The auditorium would be adorned with pictures and urns, chairs and lounges to ensure both comfort and functionality. Dr. Miles L. Davis would see to the furnace construction, a design which shockingly lacked a smokestack. Instead, an ingenious combination of flues would dissipate the heat and gasses over a distance of one hundred feet, ensuring sanitation and making it impossible for anything to escape without being completely oxidized.
Cremation applications began to pour in even before the Lancaster Crematorium was open thanks to referrals from LeMoyne Crematory, the first private crematorium in the United States. With the facility limiting its services to Washington county, Lancaster Crematorium was poised to fulfill the important role of the country’s first public crematorium.
An illustrative figure of the Lancaster Crematorium retorts, taken from the Sanitary Engineer and Construction Record and published by the Lancaster New Era also from 1887.