Collection: Riverside Cemetery - Appleton

Riverside has been described in multiple ways since its conception including “Appleton’s most beautiful Cemetery” and “Appleton’s silent city”. In its early years it was also referred to as “Appleton’s Popular resort” since it was considered a place for the living and the dead. Commonly one could see hundreds of people picnicking on Sundays amongst the stones on the high bluff overlooking the Fox, where a view up and down the river presented itself. The road beneath the cemetery proper, running along the river, was vernacularly known as “Lover’s Lane”.

In 1910 the stone entrance to Riverside was erected. This impressive “door” to the cemetery includes a chapel, office space and winter storage for bodies, used at a time when winter burials were not possible. It has been a long-standing tradition that on Memorial Day, parade bands and spectators march down Pacific Street through the Riverside archway to the GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) plot to participate in a ceremony honorin