200-acre rural-garden cemetery laid out in 1850 by Wisconsin naturalist Increase A. Lapham; resting place of Pabst, Schlitz, Davidson, and Sholes, hosting after-dark Spirits of the Silent City theatrical tours each October.
2405 W Forest Home Ave, Milwaukee, WI 53215
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Cemetery is free to visit during daylight hours. Spirits of the Silent City theatrical tours are ticketed seasonally (October).
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved interior roads suitable for vehicles and mobility devices; section paths are turf and occasionally uneven.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1850 · National Register of Historic Places (1973) · Designed by naturalist Increase A. Lapham · Milwaukee Brewing Dynasty Interments (Pabst, Schlitz, Best) · Harley-Davidson Founder Interments · Sholes (Typewriter) and Davidson family burials
St. Paul's Episcopal Church established Forest Home Cemetery in 1850 to serve the rapidly growing City of Milwaukee. The trustees engaged Increase Allen Lapham, Wisconsin's leading naturalist and a self-trained landscape designer, to lay out the grounds on the rural-garden cemetery model pioneered at Mount Auburn in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Lapham designed curving carriage roads, naturalistic plantings, and a scattering of family monuments that broke from the Puritan grid of older Milwaukee burying grounds.
The cemetery grew to roughly 200 acres on the city's south side and became the principal burial place of Milwaukee's brewing, industrial, and political establishment in the late 19th century. Interments include Captain Frederick Pabst (Pabst Brewing Company), Joseph Schlitz (Schlitz Brewing), Phillip Best, William Harley and Arthur Davidson (Harley-Davidson Motor Company), Christopher Latham Sholes (typewriter inventor), and Wisconsin Civil War-era Governor Lucius Fairchild. The Landmark Chapel, designed by Edward Townsend Mix and dedicated in 1890, anchors the cemetery's central core and serves as the staging point for current programming.
Forest Home Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 as a contributing landscape of the rural-garden cemetery movement. The Forest Home Historic Preservation Association, established in the 2010s, partners with Caper Company on the seasonal Spirits of the Silent City theatrical tour. WUWM and the Morning Blend on TMJ4 have covered the program's third season in 2024 and 2025.
Sources
Witness accounts at Forest Home Cemetery are typically tied to specific sections of the 200-acre grounds. HuffPost coverage and OnMilwaukee's reporting identify Sections 62 and 64 as the areas where visitors most often describe sudden cold spots, the sensation of an unseen hand resting on a shoulder, and acute fearfulness even in daylight. These accounts are commonly framed against the cemetery's role as a rural-garden landscape designed for contemplation rather than fright, and witnesses generally describe the experiences as melancholic rather than terrifying.
The cemetery is not principally programmed as a paranormal venue. The Spirits of the Silent City candlelight tour, now in its third year as of 2024, is a theatrical history walk: professional actors portray notable Milwaukeeans interred at Forest Home, guided by a spirit guide who escorts visitors to meet figures including Ardie Clark Halyard, Arthur Davidson, Peg Bradley, Increase Lapham, and Mabel Watson Raimey. WUWM and TMJ4's Morning Blend have covered the program directly with the Forest Home Historic Preservation Association.
Because the witness pool for cold-spot and touch experiences is small and predominantly self-reported by tour visitors, accounts are best read as the kind of low-arousal melancholy a rural-garden cemetery is designed to evoke. The Forest Home Cemetery website and its Spirits of the Silent City programming treat the lore as a way to access the cemetery's documented historical narrative rather than as freestanding paranormal claims.
Media Appearances
Self-guided daytime walk through the 200-acre rural-garden cemetery laid out by Increase A. Lapham. Notable interments include Frederick Pabst, the Schlitz, Best, Davidson, and Sholes families, and Wisconsin Governor Lucius Fairchild.
After-dark candlelight theatrical walking tour in partnership with Forest Home Historic Preservation Association and Caper Company. Professional actors portray notable Milwaukeeans interred on the grounds.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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