Buried: Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia
Fifth President - 1817-1825
Born: April 28, 1758, in Westmoreland County, Virginia
Died: 3:15 p.m. on July 4, 1831, in New York, New York
Age at death: 73
Cause of death: Heart failure
Final words: Unknown
Admission to Hollywood Cemetery: Free
James Monroe’s legacy is the doctrine which bears his name. Our fifth president warned Europe against intrusion in our hemisphere, a policy invoked by future administrations. Monroe, known for his genial demeanor, presided over the brief time called the “era of good feelings” for its lack of partisan divisions.
Monroe lived just six years after he left the presidency. He and his wife Elizabeth departed the White House in 1825 for Oak Hill, their newly built Virginia home. Their architect was Thomas Jefferson. Like some other presidents before him, he retired owing money; there were no pensions for presidents until the second half of the twentieth century. Monroe worked diligently to obtain back pay from the federal government, with little success. He also maintained some involvement with public affairs, serving as president of the Virginia Constitutional Convention and as a regent at the University of Virginia. Stunned by Elizabeth’s death in 1830, he was no longer able to live at Oak Hill without her. Monroe moved to New York City to live with his daughter, Maria Hester Gouverneur.
Bronze plaque marking Monroe’s marble tomb
Monroe remained mentally alert into his seventies and began work on his memoirs, but his heart was weak. He developed what may have been tuberculosis during the final months of his life and died of heart failure at his daughter’s home in New York City on July 4, 1831. He was the third president, following Adams and Jefferson, to die on the Fourth of July.
On July 7, city businesses closed while a public eulogy was held for Monroe at New York City Hall. Funeral services followed at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. Thousands clogged the streets as they joined a funeral procession to Marble Cemetery while a seventy-three-gun salute marked each year of Monroe’s life. As mourners looked on, James Monroe’s body was placed in his son-in-law’s family vault.
On July 5, 1858, President Monroe’s remains were moved from New York City to Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. The Virginia General Assembly ordered the transfer, believing that its native son should be buried on home territory. His grave now sits atop a hill in that cemetery, surrounded by a black iron cage-like monument. A bronze plaque notes that he is buried there “as an evidence of the affection of Virginia For Her Good and Honored Son.” Other notable political figures are buried nearby, including President John Tyler; Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy; Confederate Generals Jeb Stuart and George Pickett; and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell.
Touring James Monroe’s Tomb at Hollywood Cemetery
Hollywood Cemetery is located in Richmond, Virginia. It is open daily from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. There is no admission fee. A tour map is sold in the office for $1.00.
From Interstate 95 southbound or Interstate 64 eastbound: Take exit 76 to Belvidere Street. Follow Belvidere south through downtown over the Downtown Expressway to Spring Street. Make a right onto Spring Street. Continue on Spring until you reach Cherry Street, and take a right onto Cherry. The entrance to the cemetery is located at the corner of Cherry and Albemarle Streets.
From Interstate 95 northbound or Interstate 64 westbound: Take exit 76/Chamberlayne Avenue and turn left off the ramp onto Chamberlayne Parkway. Follow the parkway to Leigh Street. Turn left around the Bojangles monument onto Leigh Street and follow Leigh to Belvidere Street. Turn left onto Belvidere. Follow Belvidere south through downtown over the Downtown Expressway to Spring Street. Make a right onto Spring Street. Continue on Spring until you reach Cherry Street and take a right onto Cherry. The entrance to the cemetery is located at the corner of Cherry and Albemarle Streets.
President Monroe’s grave is located in President Circle. From the cemetery entrance, bear right on Hollywood Avenue. Turn left at Westvale Avenue and proceed to Hillside Avenue which leads to President Circle. Monroe is buried in the center of the circle; President John Tyler is buried on the circle’s perimeter.
For additional information
Hollywood Cemetery
412 South Cherry Street
Richmond, VA 23220
Phone: (804) 648-8501
www.hollywoodcemeter y.org
“As his health declined, Monroe became a near recluse. . . .”
—Richard Norton Smith
Monroe’s final years had been demeaning. Shadowed by debt, grief-stricken over the loss of his wife, Elizabeth, the last of the Virginia Dynasty was compelled to sell his Loudoun County estate and take up residence with his daughter and son-in-law in New York City. As his health declined, Monroe became a near recluse, dosing himself with syrup of horehound for a tubercular condition. On the afternoon of July 4, 1831, he became the third American president to succumb on the nation’s birthday. (Madison fell just short, dying on June 28, 1836.) Thousands turned out to watch a hearse bear his remains slowly up Broadway to a “temporary” vault, where they remained until the Virginia legislature in 1858 decided to observe the centenary of Monroe’s birth with an elaborate homecoming and burial in the most bizarre of presidential tombs—a black iron birdcage-like affair that only Charles Addams could love.
—RNS
Elizabeth Monroe’s grave lies next to her husband’s birdcage-liketomb in Hollywood Cemetery