The Chapel of Peace Gardens were designed by Landscape Architects Stacey Hayes-Nash and Karen Steenhoudt in collaboration with Laurel Hill’s professional horticulture staff. This project was designed to renovate and improve gardens around the historic Chapel of Peace and Mausoleum of Peace using a multi-phase approach. Phase I was completed in 2021 and features a formal English-garden aesthetic with modern plant selections that provide beautiful foliage and floral displays throughout the season. Phase II was completed in 2022 and features a winding path through a massed perennial border planting joining the chapel to the Mausoleum of Peace. Phase III was completed in 2025 and includes new niches and crypts, a renovated courtyard and fountain, a wooded shade garden path, new seating, and landscape lighting.

Nature’s Sanctuary is Laurel Hill West’s first green burial area, which functions both as a natural burial site and as a managed successional native plant meadow. Carefully selected native perennials, shrubs, and trees provide seasonal interest to visitors and countless benefits to native pollinators and other wildlife. Nature’s Sanctuary is a SITES GOLD Landscape, the only cemetery landscape in the world to be awarded this honor.

The first thing you see when entering through the main gates of Laurel Hill East is the historic Old Mortality statue assemblage. This rock garden was created on the steep hillside beside the statues, featuring rare and interesting specimens of bulbs, ephemerals, and perennials that thrive on rocky slopes. The garden utilizes native Wissahickon schist as well as reclaimed architectural elements from the cemetery.