A nearly 350-year-old cemetery in South Philly with an estimated 5,000 people buried on its grounds has launched an app for self-guided tours.
While Gloria Dei Episcopal Church – known locally as Old Swede's – doesn't have names or markers for everyone entombed at its site, the app helps visitors find approximately 1,000 of the deceased who are on record. The gravesites at the oldest church in Pennsylvania go back as far as 1677, predating Philadelphia itself.
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"One of our goals, since we very specifically get people who are coming here looking for their ancestors, is to be able to provide as much information as possible so that they can hopefully find what they're looking for," said Amy Grant, chair of the Historic Gloria DeiPreservation Corp.
The app, which launched Friday, was funded by the Queen Village Neighbors Association and a grant from the Philadelphia Cultural Fund. It is available for free on iOS and Android. The church is located beside Columbus Boulevard at 916 S. Swanson St.
The program has a map with each gravesite location and the listing includes photos, the inscription on the marker, and the stone's size, materials and condition. Grant said she compared three different datasets to make sure the information was accurate.
The app features four different themed tours: General, New Sweden History, American Revolution and Mariners. Tour listings include a short bio on the history of the deceased and, in some cases, a drawing of them. There are also specialized tours that will be available for a limited time, including one in November for National Author's Day and one in December for the Mummers Parade.
Michaela Althouse/PhillyVoice
The grave of U.S. Navy veteran Jacob Jackson Sr., center, is featured on the Mariners tour at Gloria Dei Church. To the left, is the grave of former Glora Dei Rev. Snyder Simes and his wife Eleanor.
Grant said she and other volunteers are planning to eventually insert audio, hoping to complete the American Revolution tour by the 2026 Semiquincentennial celebration, and will continuously add to the collection.
"This graveyard has so many interesting people that are not necessarily famous but were major contributors to Philadelphia society," she said.
Grant said the app was created because of the huge volume of visitors who stop by the church looking for information on their ancestors. In some cases, descendants have even offered to help pay for repairs to gravestones. But, since the historic preservation is all volunteer, they haven't been able to keep up with demand, and she hopes the app can help fill some of the gaps.
"There's a wide variety of stories because there are people buried here from 1677 to today," Grant said. "I'm hoping that these stories are inspirational, that's what I hope to get out of it. That somebody reads this and says, 'Wow, that's really great, I want to do that.'"
