Union Dale has always been a family cemetery notable for the successive generations who are buried in family plots centered around obelisks and other handsome monuments. At rest in Union Dale Cemetery are hardworking people who carved a pleasant, livable city out of a wilderness . . . and made a history worth remembering.

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Incorporated in 1846, Union Dale Cemetery is a silent and enduring panorama of Pittsburgh. In the cemetery's ninety-six hilltop acres along Brighton Road are buried some of the most prominent residents of Allegheny City as well as generations of families, war veterans, and individuals whose lives have shaped the texture of our past. Today the cemetery offers attractive lots for traditional burial as well as cremated remains.

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Union Dale was founded during a time of historic change in American cemeteries. As progressive cities like Allegheny and Pittsburgh doubled in size, their churchyard burial grounds were becoming unpleasantly crowded - and increasingly valuable for development.

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To solve this dilemma a new ideal emerged: the dead would be laid to rest not in the city but in beautiful and permanent "gardens of graves" . . . far removed from the hustle and bustle of urban commerce and the smoke of factories. This rural cemetery movement swept the country during the 1830s and 1840s.

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The 19th century cemetery was transformed into a picturesque landscape, an island of natural beauty and repose. Flowering trees and ornamental shrubs welcomed the living while impressive monuments honored the dead. Communities began to take pride in the history their cemeteries represented.

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Families grew secure in the knowledge that the remains of their loved ones would rest in a safe and permanent burial place. People of all ages enjoyed Sunday and holiday outings to the cemetery where they could contemplate the virtues of nature, remember their relatives, and look forward to eternal life. Rural cemeteries became one of America's first tourist attractions.