42°19′ N   83°02′ WINDEPENDENT CITY GUIDE · HU / ENDETROIT + MICHIGAN
QUARTER
DETROIT
← See all places

Famous people's places / Detroit – East Side

Mount Elliott Cemetery

Detroit's oldest Catholic cemetery, opened in 1841, and the burial place of former mayor Jerome Cavanagh.

01 / The story of this place

Make time for these

Mount Elliott Cemetery opened in 1841, making it the oldest Catholic burial ground in Detroit, predating most of the neighborhoods that now surround it near the river on the near east side. Generations of the city's early Catholic families, clergy and civic leaders were laid to rest here as Detroit grew from a small river town into an industrial metropolis. Jerome Cavanagh, who served as Detroit's mayor from 1962 to 1970 and led the city through the promise of urban renewal and the trauma of the 1967 uprising, was buried here after his death in 1979 at just fifty-one. The cemetery remains an active, consecrated burial ground today, its older sections filled with weathered nineteenth-century monuments.

  1. Opened 1841, Detroit's oldest Catholic cemetery
  2. Burial place of Mayor Jerome Cavanagh, died 1979
  3. Cavanagh led Detroit through the 1967 uprising
  4. Still an active cemetery

Famous Detroiters

Famous people tied to this place 1

Lexicon entries for the people who lived, worked, performed or liked to spend time here.

Famous Detroiters ↗

Is this your venue? Update this page for free ↗

Sources & fact check · Checked: 2026-09-25

An independently written bilingual guide. This collection is not an attendance-based ranking.

03 / Events

Events at this place

Published events automatically linked from our event guide. Times are local to the venue.

All events ↗

We have no published upcoming events linked to this place yet. That does not mean the venue has no events; check its official calendar too.

Official website & visitor information ↗