Oakwood Cemeteries

Welcome to Oakwood Cemeteries of Rochester, Minnesota and thank you for considering Oakwood Cemeteries as a final resting place for yourself or your loved one.

Oakwood Cemeteries are a place of tradition and history, yet provide for contemporary needs of today’s Rochester-area community.

Oakwood Cemetery began as a lot owner governed setting for the interment of the young town’s residents in 1863, and burial lots remain available in this gated, attractive central-city location. Oakwood Cemeteries also offer columbarium niches for permanent, public placement of cinerary urns at both locations.

Oakwood East Cemetery, located one mile east of East Circle Drive on County Road 2 (Viola Road), offers a more rural, open setting.

Both locations are overseen by a lot-owners board of trustees pledged to carry a tradition of excellence forward into perpetual care.

In 1863, the Rochester Cemetery Association was formed as a non-denominational, nonprofit, lot-owner operated corporation to establish a final resting place as desired by the people of Rochester and surrounding areas. Colonel George Healy was elected president of the volunteer Board of Trustees and the name Oakwood Cemetery was selected.

After 137 years, the need for more burial space was recognized. Continuing the philosophy of having a non-sectarian, nonprofit cemetery for the future, Oakwood East Cemetery was opened in 1999. This new cemetery will ensure that the tradition of excellence and perpetual care that has been established will carry on through the 21st Century.

Oakwood Cemeteries is a member of the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce and the Minnesota Association of Cemeteries.

Oakwood Cemeteries remain lot-owner operated concerns with a volunteer board of trustees serving three-year terms.