Bellefontaine Cemetery has been part of St Louis’ history since 1849. Meticulously maintained for more than 160 years, Bellefontaine Cemetery today offers a wider range of cemetery and burial services than ever before.

“We die with the dying: See, they depart, and we go with them. We are born with the dead: See, they return and bring us with them.”
T.S. Eliot, Four Quarters
(His grandfather, William Greenleaf Eliot, is buried at Bellefontaine.)

Bellefontaine was founded with the vision of burying and commemorating the dead in a landscape of exceptional beauty and tranquility that would provide comfort and inspiration to the bereaved. Today we remain committed to that vision. Bellefontaine is a place to mourn those we have loved, a place to seek inspiration and solace, and a place to honor life.

The Trustees of Bellefontaine Cemetery are committed to providing cemetery and burial services to meet current and future needs, while preserving the cemetery’s historic and beautiful landscape. This mission compels us to understand and anticipate the needs of our ever-changing community and its attitudes toward death, burial and monument design.

Bellefontaine offers elegant and innovative interment space, including traditional burial, cremation burial or inurnment, green burial and memorials for those whose ashes have been scattered or bodies donated to science called cenotaphs. We offer a range of prices and styles for each need and budget.

If you have made a decision as to burial preferences, we will use that information to show you the most appropriate areas of Bellefontaine. If you have not yet made a decision, we can help by focusing on your goals and explaining all of your choices.

Our goal is to make a difficult time and complicated process easier to navigate. We also offer other services to assist you, including monument design and sales, so when it is time to consider a headstone or grave marker; we can help you make the right choice.

Our beautiful Hotchkiss Chapel and Lakeside Columbarium are available for memorial and funeral services, and we can arrange floral orders and grave plantings.

The Bellefontaine staff takes special care to ensure that all receive the best burial service, assistance, and consideration available. Listening to each need, answering every question and understanding your desires allow us to fulfill your wishes and surpass your expectations.

A significant part of St. Louis history, Bellefontaine Cemetery is here for the long term. With a strong endowment and commitment to our mission of exceptional cemetery and burial service, we will be here for you and your loved ones, providing a beautiful and comforting place to visit in the days, years, and centuries ahead.

“Who builds stronger than a mason, a shipwright, or a carpenter?…a gravemaker. The houses he makes lasts till doomsday.”
William Shakespeare
Hamlet, Act. V. i