Alton
National Cemetery
600
Pearl Street
Alton, IL 62003
Phone: (314) 260-8691 or (800) 535-1117
FAX: (314) 260-8723 |
Office Hours:
Monday thru Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Closed on Christmas and New Year's Day.
Visitation Hours:
Open
daily from dawn until dusk. |
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Burial
Space: This
cemetery has space available for cremated remains. We may be able
to accommodate casketed remains in the same gravesite of previously
interred family members.
Acreage: 0.5
Number of
Interments Thru Fiscal Year 2005: 522
General Information Kiosk on Site? No
Floral/Ground Regulations: This
Cemetery's Regulations |
Directions
from nearest airport:
From
St. Louis Airport, E. Alton, Ill., take State Highway. 111 (in front
of airport) Alton to Broadway Street. Turn right on Broadway Street
to Pearl Street. Turn right on Pearl Street and proceed three blocks
to the cemetery. |
GENERAL INFORMATION
The Jefferson Barracks
National Cemetery maintains this cemetery. Please contact Jefferson Barracks
at the telephone number listed above.
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HISTORICAL
INFORMATION
Alton National Cemetery was
originally a soldiers lot in the Alton City Cemetery, in Madison County,
Ill. Despite the existence of the lot as early as 1870, the government
did not own the half-acre tract until July 1, 1940, when the Alton Cemetery
Association donated the land. An estimated 163 Union soldiers and 12 unknowns
were initially buried here, according to an inspection report of 1870.
The men died at the Alton hospital and onboard steamboats passing up the
Mississippi River.
The government paid the cemetery
administrators $30 a year to care for the plot. After the war, there were
plans to move the 163 Alton soldiers to Springfield National Cemetery,
but the community protested and exerted sufficient influence to prevent
the removal.
In 1938, the Alton Cemetery
Association made an initial offer to donate land for a national cemetery
with a proviso that the government build a rostrum or permanent speaker’s
stand for use on Memorial Day. Once the offer was accepted, Works Progress
Administration laborers constructed a permanent rostrum. Between 1941
and 1942, the remains of 49 Union soldiers were removed from a nearby,
but separate, section of Alton City Cemetery, and were reinterred on the
federal land.
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NOTABLE
BURIALS
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FLORAL/GROUNDS
REGULATIONS
Cemetery cannot be used as
a picnic grounds.
Visitors should not litter
the grounds, cut, break or injure trees, shrubs or plants or otherwise
conduct themselves in a manner not in keeping with the dignity and the
sacredness of the cemetery.
All graves will be decorated
on the workday immediately preceding Memorial Day with small United States
flags, which will be removed on the first workday after Memorial Day.
Flags are not permitted on graves at any other time.
Cut flowers may be placed on
graves at any time. Metal temporary flower containers are permitted. Floral
items will be removed from graves as soon as they become faded and unsightly.
Artificial flowers may be placed
on graves only during the period of Oct. 10 through April 15. Plantings,
statues, vigil lights, glass objects of any nature and any other type
of commemorative items are not permitted on graves at any time. Potted
plants will be permitted on graves 10 days before through 10 days after
Easter Sunday and Memorial Day.
During the Christmas
season, Christmas wreaths, grave floral blankets and potted plants will
be permitted commencing Dec. 1 and are allowed to remain on the grave
through Jan. 20. Grave floral blankets may not exceed two by three feet
in size.
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