Crown Hill Heritage Foundation
  • Best of Indy Tours
  • Nature in the City
  • Save Me
  • In Memory Of

On Crown Hill, looking towards Indy Best of Indy Tours

Join the thousands who visit Crown Hill each year and experience the incredible beauty, history, and heritage of the nation's third largest cemetery on a guided walking or driving tour. Twice voted "Best of Indy Walking Tour" by Indianapolis Monthly magazine, our Public and Private guided group tours offer an interesting and detailed look into the lives of many of the famous and infamous, fascinating, and sometimes ordinary people buried and entombed here.
MORE TOUR INFORMATION

 
Welcome SUPER BOWL Fans!
We INVITE YOU to join us on one of our three guided
"HERITAGE" SUNSET WALKING TOURS 
of Historic Crown Hill Cemetery!
Super Bowl Fans, if you're looking for a true Hoosier Experience, please join us at 5:00 pm on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday for a guided "Heritage" sunset walking tour of historic Crown Hill Cemetery! It's our most popular tour and you'll get to see the sunset from the highest hill in the county! 

Read about us in the Indianapolis Star's article, "Super Bowl 2012 fans can get to know the host City."
 
Crown Hill's guided walking tours have been voted the "Best of Indy Tours" by Indianapolis Monthly magazine, and a "Best City Tour" by Mid-West Living magazine in their "Terrific Tours" article!

Crown Hill is the nation's third largest cemetery with 550 acres of rolling hills and beautiful meadows, and has the highest hill in the county - "Crown Hill" - which affords a stunning 360-degree view of the entire Indianapolis skyline, a must see for Super Bowl visitors! Over 200,000 people have found their final resting place here, including the famous, not-so-famous, and the infamous! (Please see our "Who's Here" page for more info.) We have a gorgeous Gothic Chapel, built in 1875, which is included on the tour. There are 25-miles of roads that wind through the cemetery, allowing visitors to see the history of Indianapolis and Indiana unfold as they drive or walk by the graves of our first pioneers through those buried today. And if you're lucky you'll see our herd of White-tailed deer!

Some of our more well-known residents are President Benjamin Harrison; three Vice Presidents (Hendricks, Fairbanks, and Marshall); Robert Irsay, the NFL team owner who brought the INDIANAPOLIS COLTS to town; the Eli Lilly Pharmaceutical family; the infamous bank robber John Dillinger; the famous Hoosier Poet James Whitcomb Riley; members of author Kurt Vonnegut's family; the four founders of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway; Dr. Richard Gatling, inventor of the Gatling Gun, and many, many more. Crown Hill is home to two National Cemeteries (one Confederate, one Union), and is listed as a U.S. Historic Place. 

For the Super Bowl we're offering three guided "HERITAGE" SUNSET WALKING TOURS of beautiful Crown Hill Cemetery on Thursday, Feb. 2; Friday, Feb. 3; and Saturday, Feb. 4, each from 5:00-6:30 pm. Our walking tours will last about 90 minutes and cover about one mile at a comfortable pace (for most people) and will include a walk up the Crown and a drive to John Dillinger's grave site, which is located away from the walking tour route. (Please wear comfy walking shoes.) The cost is just $5 for adults and $3 for school-age youth. NO reservations are required! Just arrive at our large stone Gothic gate at 34th Street and Boulevard Place about ten minutes or so before the tour begins and pay your tour guide, Tom Davis. (The address is 3400 Boulevard Place. If coming from downtown, take Meridian or Illinois Street north and turn left [west] on 34th St., which dead ends at our gate. Please note that the tour guide will meet the group at the 34th Street and Boulevard Place entrance, NOT at our north entrance off of 38th Street.) If you have further questions, please send an email to tours@crownhill.org. And be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
photo contestNEW PHOTO CONTEST in 2012!
Our 2012 Photo Contest is underway! Even though the deadline for entries isn't until Friday, July 13, 2012, you can start photographing the countless wonders and beauty of Crown Hill NOW! Take Color or Black & White photos ... it's your choice! Or you can shoot both! Ideas to photograph are natural landscapes highlighting the seasons; Crown Hill's beautiful statues (we have many angels); wildlife, including our herd of White-tailed deer; events; stained glass windows; etc. (Restrictions include not photographing funerals, burials, or families visiting graves of loved ones.) Photographers can submit up to three entries beginning on Saturday, July 7, 2012. Please check back for more details! 
 
Terrific Tours ~ Midwest Living

"TERRIFIC TOURS!" ~ we're so proud to be featured as a "Best City Tour" in the MIDWEST LIVING magazine's July/August 2011 issue! Click here to read the article on Midwest Living's website. Again in 2012 we'll offer our extremely popular PUBIC WALKING TOURS throughout the summer and fall. The schedule is almost done so please be sure to check back for more info. You can count on sunset tours on the second, third, and fourth Saturday evenings of the month from June through October, with a few exceptions. Most will be walking tours and a few will be driving tours. Nikki Schofield, our Civil War expert tour guide will also lead a couple of Civil War tours on Saturday mornings. The fees are just $5 for adults, $4 for seniors, and $3 for school age youth. Reservations are not required! And if you can't make it on one of our weekend Public Tours, or would just like to have a tour for your group, we also offer PRIVATE WALKING TOURS which can be scheduled at any time (as long as a tour guide is available). The same per person rates apply with a minimum fee of $50 per tour. You can click on the links at the top for a lot more info. 

2011 Newsletter   Corliss - Monument Restoration 









Our Current Newsletter                        
                    
 
 For additional tour information please check us out on the
 Indianapolis Convention and Visitor's Association's (ICVA) website!

"As a cemetery it is unique in Indiana, for its size and the historical context it provides to the families it serves and to Indianapolis. As an outdoor museum and park it is a place of reflection and education for thousands of visitors who come to it each year. There is no other property, in this city or state that, offers the pastoral tranquility and texture it does. Dignity, reverence, and peace are among many other words that define Crown Hill."