ASPIN HILL MEMORIAL PARK
Aspin Hill Memorial Park (AHMP) is owned by MCHS and has provided a peaceful resting place for pets since 1920.
Welcome to Aspin Hill
This eight-acre oasis in the middle of Montgomery County that celebrates the bond with people and their pets. The six-acre cemetery is open to the public year-round. There are more than 50,000 pets buried on the grounds, along with approximately 55 humans buried with their pets. Unfortunately, no additional burial plots are available at this time.
In the future, Montgomery County Humane Society aims to use its passion for animal welfare, its mission to advance humane education, and its broad support from the animal-loving community to transform this poignant property into a unique community resource.
Montgomery County Humane Society is currently planning to transform this poignant County landmark into a campus dedicated to animal welfare, including the MCHS headquarters, animal adoption, humane education, and more.
What's up with the spelling?
We are asked every day why Aspin Hill Memorial Park is spelled that way. The Park was named after a dog kennel in England called Aspin Hill. Thus, the different spelling from the area where the property is located, which is spelled Aspen Hill.
History of Aspin Hill Memorial Park
The Aspin Hill Memorial Park was established in 1920, when the owners of a private dog kennel began interring their pets and those of the public on the western side of their 8-acre property, located at Georgia Avenue and Aspen Hill Road in Aspen Hill, Maryland.
AHMP is one of the oldest pet cemeteries in the nation, and is the final resting place for various animal celebrities, including stars of movies and television, pets of a U.S. president and heroes of foreign wars, as well as more than 50,000 beloved pets of families in Montgomery County and beyond.
AHMP’s historic buildings include a large, Tudor-style house, which dates from the early 20th-century and was home to the family that founded the cemetery, and a kennel, which housed their prized dogs. The entire property is listed on the Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties and is considered eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. The property, which has had several intervening owners including the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and the Chesapeake Wildlife Sanctuary, was transferred to the Montgomery County Humane Society in 2007.
The Aspin Hill Memorial Park, 13630 Georgia Avenue, is located at the center of Montgomery County in Aspen Hill, Maryland.
MCHS received the property as a gift from Mrs. Dorothy Shapiro in 2007. Mrs. Shapiro had envisioned the property as a unique center focused on the promotion of animal welfare and humane education to help reduce animal homelessness in the community. MCHS seeks to carry out Mrs. Shapiro’s vision at the Aspin Hill Memorial Park by conducting a complete rehabilitation of the buildings and grounds. As portions are completed, it will begin offering a range of animal welfare programming and activities to help Montgomery County residents learn more about their pets and about the mutual benefits of the human-animal bond.
Cemetery Historian: Julianne Mangin
