Named for the many holly trees on its grounds, Hollywood Cemetery is the city's largest and best-known cemetery. Also one of the most famous cemeteries in the United States, it was opened to the public in 1849. It was designed by Philadelphia architect John Notman as a parklike, rural cemetery in which people would feel comfortable visiting. That is one thing which makes Hollywood Cemetery unique.
Resting on the banks of the James River, Hollywood Cemtery is home to the graves of former United States presidents James Monroe and John Tyler. It is also home to the grave of Confederate States of America president Jefferson Davis. Besides Arlington National Cemetery, Hollywood is the only cemetery to have two United States presidents buried there.
Buried are also many famed Confederate generals such as George Pickett, JEB(James Ewell Brown) Stuart, and Joseph Anderson; the cemetery holds 25 Confederate generals, more than any other U.S. state.
Other famed or otherwise "important" people buried in Hollywood are Richmond writers James Branch Cabell, Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Ellen Glasgow, and Pulitzer Prize winning historian Douglas Southall Freeman, Confederate Civil War commodore Matthew Fountaine Maury, Richmond sculptor Edward Valentine, and United States Ambassador Alex Weddell.