Morris Hill Cemetery is located at 317 N. Latah, Boise, Idaho. The cemetery is open from sunrise to sunset.
The cemetery main office is located at the Boise Parks and Recreation Administration Office, 1104 Royal Blvd, Boise, Idaho 83706. The office is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (closed on holidays).
Explore some of the Boise's history on this walking tour of Morris Hill Cemetery.
See MoreMorris Hill Cemetery is one of the oldest and most well-known cemeteries in the Treasure Valley. The cemetery began in January of 1882, when Mayor James Pinney spent $2,000 of city funds to purchase the eighty acres on the bench from William H. Ridenbaugh and Mrs. Lavinia I. Morris (a widow). Although he was heavily criticized for purchasing the land, the City of Boise took over operation on March 1, 1882.
Some of the causes of death inthe city's first burial records, beginning in 1882, included a snow slide, gunshot, murder, dropsy, consumption, poison, falling tree, falling rock, rickets gathering in the head, Bright's disease, La Grippe and steel car accident.
Since the original maps were platted in 1882, creating thousands of available lots, more sections have been added over the years, establishing thousands more. The cemetery currently consists of 60 developed (platted) acres with 53 sections and a mausoleum.
Even though the cemetery has been in operation since 1882, there are still many lots available. When fully occupied, the cemetery will always be full of life, from the green grasses to stately trees, with all sorts of wildlife including families of squirrels and birds to the occasional deer, turkey or fox.
The majority of lots at Morris Hill Cemetery lie from east to west (feet to the east, head to the west). It is customary to place the markers so that they can be read (facing east) while not standing on the grave of the person's marker you are reading. Traditionally, couples are "buried as they are married" - husband on the right, wife on the left (facing east).
Because Morris Hill Cemetery is old but still in use, there are many older stones among the newer ones. The oldest sections of the cemetery are in the northwest corner of the cemetery. When Emerald Street was widened, many of the graves in Section 2 were moved to Section T, which is on the south east side of the cemetery.
There are some wonderful monuments exhibiting ceramic pictures of the deceased. By Col. Green's mausoleum in Section E, there is a picture of a bearded gentlemen and his wife who were buried in the early 1900s. In Silent Camp, there is a monument to a Civil War veteran, Richard Congdon Ball, his remains were placed there in May of 1922, brought to Boise from Illinois by his grandson.