Maple Grove Cemetery Information

Founded in 1888 by A.A. Hyde and other leading citizens, Maple Grove was designed to be the "finest cemetery between the Mississippi River and the Rockies. The garden plan by renowned landscape architect Albert Ellis called for wide and winding avenues complementing the land's rolling contours and waterways. Various lots and walkways were to be platted in asymmetrical fashion for more naturalistic vistas. Through the great effort of workers who hauled water by hand from the cemetery's creek, trees were planted on the once grassy sheep pasture. Special lots were donated by the cemetery to groups such as the Masonic Home, The Children's Home and the Grand Army of the Republic. Many area churches claimed their own areas. This was the Victorian era when sentimentality was considered a virtue and a modern cemetery like Maple Grove an important ornament to any community. A variety of landscapes now exist on the sixty acres that make up this sacred site from wooded hilltops where many fine old Victorian Monuments stand to open pastoral areas where more modern and unobtrusive lawn level memorials are common. Of these sixty acres roughly two-thirds are developed, leaving ample land resources to provide for future generations during the next century and beyond. The grounds of Maple Grove are considered by many to be the most beautiful outdoor sanctuary in Wichita.