Leavenworth National Cemetery is associated with the Western Branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers; one of 11 facilities which served as precursors for Veterans Administration Medical Centers. Today the cemetery encompasses 128.8 acres at the southeast portion of the facility.
Prior to the construction of the healthcare facility, the land had been part of a Delaware Indian reservation, and later the Stockbridge (Indian) Baptist Mission. The cemetery was designed concurrent to construction of the first buildings of the National Home; 17 structures were completed by 1886, the same year Thomas Brennan was interred. The design of the cemetery landscape is attributed to H. W. S. Cleveland, with roads that wind up the hill overlooking the Missouri River valley.
The “Old Soldier’s Home,” as it was known colloquially, became an integral component of the community. The first local trolley line connected Ft. Leavenworth and the soldier’s home by way of the town of Leavenworth.
The medical facility was transferred to the Veterans Administration (VA) when it was formed in 1930. The cemetery was elevated to national cemetery status and transferred to the new National Cemetery System within VA in 1973. Among the noteworthy burials are the remains of 12 Native Americans that were discovered during the excavation for a new medical building and were re-interred in the National Cemetery. Seven Medal of Honor recipients are buried here.
Historic structures in the cemetery include the rest house, a small rustic limestone structure erected in 1921; a 1928 tool house, and a Classical Revival limestone rostrum or “speakers stand,” built in 1936. The cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a component of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Medical Center Historic District, the former Western Branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, in 1999.
Monuments and Memorials
A limestone obelisk monument erected in memory of “Soldiers Who Died For Their Country” was dedicated in 1919. Situated atop the crest of a hill, the monument overlooks the Missouri River valley from the highest ridge of the cemetery. The monument was transported by the Santa Fe Railroad and moved to its present location in 1919 by prisoners and a team of oxen from the state prison in Lansing. Among the graves in this section are early governors (managers) of the soldier’s home and their families.
4101 South 4th Street, Leavenworth, KS, USA
Distance: 0.56 mi (straight line)
Museums and Interpretive Centers
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Lansing Historical Society and Museum, East Kansas Street, Lansing, KS, USA
Distance: 1.75 mi (straight line)
Museums and Interpretive Centers
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1128 5th Avenue, Leavenworth, KS 66048, USA
Distance: 2.58 mi (straight line)
Museums and Interpretive Centers
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Hampton Inn Leavenworth, Choctaw Street, Leavenworth, KS, USA
Distance: 3.06 mi (straight line)
C. W. Parker Carousel Museum, South Esplanade Street, Leavenworth, KS, USA
Distance: 3.06 mi (straight line)
Home2 Suites by Hilton Leavenworth Downtown, Delaware Street, Leavenworth, KS, USA
Distance: 3.20 mi (straight line)
The Escape Game Leavenworth (formerly Locked In Kansas), Delaware Street, Leavenworth, KS, USA
Distance: 3.22 mi (straight line)
Richard Allen Cultural Center & Museum, Kiowa Street, Leavenworth, KS, USA
Distance: 3.70 mi (straight line)
Guided Tours Museums and Interpretive Centers
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Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott Leavenworth, North 4th Street, Leavenworth, KS, USA
Distance: 3.88 mi (straight line)
Fort Leavenworth Visitor Control Center, Sherman Avenue, Fort Leavenworth, KS, USA
Distance: 4.07 mi (straight line)
Museums and Interpretive Centers Forts
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Buffalo Soldier Monument, Stimson Avenue, Fort Leavenworth, KS, USA
Distance: 5.10 mi (straight line)
Frontier Army Museum, Reynolds Avenue, Leavenworth, KS, USA
Distance: 5.31 mi (straight line)
Guided Tours Museums and Interpretive Centers Forts
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Weston Bend State Park, Missouri 45, Weston, MO, USA
Distance: 8.25 mi (straight line)
Holladay Distillery, Mc Cormick Lane, Weston, MO, USA
Distance: 8.56 mi (straight line)
Food and Drinks Breweries and Distilleries
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Fort de Cavagnial, Daniel Road, Leavenworth, KS, USA
Distance: 9.32 mi (straight line)
Pirtle Winery, Spring Street, Weston, MO, USA
Distance: 9.45 mi (straight line)
Cline's Opry, Missouri 45, Weston, MO, USA
Distance: 9.82 mi (straight line)
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