In life, Connecticut Senator Uriah Tracy was known as a witty
and compelling speaker, a forceful leader of the Federalist
Party. In death, he acquired the dubious distinction of becoming
the first senator to be buried in Congressional Cemetery. The
thirty-acre graveyard, overlooking the banks of the Anacostia
River, dates from the early 1800s when Washington's Christ
Church set aside plots within its cemetery for members of
Congress who died in office. Some members were permanently
interred there, starting with the fifty-five-year-old Tracy
following his death on July 19, 1807. For others, it served only
as a temporary resting place until the seasons changed and the
dirt roads home became passable again. The distinguished Capitol
architect Benjamin Latrobe designed massive square memorials —
or cenotaphs — in memory of each deceased incumbent member. By
1877, more than 150 of these stout monuments dotted the burial
ground, although only eighty bodies actually rested beneath
them. Latrobe had wanted them built