Lancaster Crematorium: The Country’s First Public Crematorium

America’s First Public Crematorium Was in Lancaster!

Tucked away behind a line of trees in Greenwood Cemetery stands a crumbling red-brick building that changed the course of American funerary practice. Built in 1884, the Lancaster Crematorium was the first public crematorium in the United States—a bold and controversial innovation at a time when cremation was seen as sacrilegious and scandalous.

Spearheaded by the Lancaster Cremation and Funeral Reform Society—made up of doctors, scientists, and civic leaders like J.P. McCaskey and A.J. Steinman—the facility was designed to combat overcrowded cemeteries and the spread of disease. Its Gothic architecture still stands, with boarded-up cathedral-style windows and a marble slab labeled simply “crematorium.” Look closely, and you’ll see the year 1884 carved above the central arch.

The first person cremated here was Christiana Beseler, a woman whose family waited months for the facility to open so her final wishes could be honored. The furnace, designed by Dr. Miles Davis, used a smokeless flue system so clean that clergy described the process as “quiet” and “gently melting away.”

Despite fierce public opposition—including sermons warning of pagan practices—the crematorium operated for two decades, ushering in a new era of funerary reform. After its closure in 1904, the building sat silent and forgotten for decades—its windows broken, its history buried in archives and half-truths. It wasn’t until the 1980s that preservation efforts secured its place on the National Register of Historic Places.

Today, it stands boarded and unmarked, a haunting yet powerful reminder of Lancaster’s trailblazing role in reshaping how Americans say goodbye. Click here to read more.