Allegheny Cemetery is the oldest institution of its kind west of the Allegheny Mountains and the fourth incorporated cemetery in the United States. It was originally planned to be a country cemetery away from what was then the city of Pittsburgh. In the ensuing years, however, the city began surrounding the cemetery and additional acres and many improvements were added. Today Allegheny Cemetery is centrally located and is one of the oldest and largest cemeteries in the country with 300 acres and 15 miles of paved roadways. Over 124,000 members of Pittsburgh's families are now resting in Allegheny Cemetery. Sixteen Pittsburgh mayors are interred within Allegheny. Some are more prominent than others such as Ebenezer DENNY, the first mayor of Pittsburgh. Most of the Lot and Crypt owners reside in Allegheny County and surrounding suburbs, however, many come from all over the United States. Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is among the oldest rural cemeteries in the United States. Forty of the most prominent citizens of the city — merchants, manufacturers, professionals and politicians — chartered the non-profit cemetery on April 24, 1844. The group purchased the first 100 acres for the cemetery for $50,000. Today the cemetery is composed of approximately 300 acres, in which about 120,000 persons are interred. The soldiers' lot is located in Section 33, lot 66, and consists of 303 individual interments. While most of the burials are Union Civil War soldiers, the lot also includes 15 Confederates and a small number of Spanish-American War veterans. Soldiers were originally interred in two places within Allegheny Cemetery: the plot donated to the federal government by the cemetery association, and the “stranger's field," also known as the “potter's field," an area for the poor. It is likely that all the remains were consolidated into the soldiers' lot in the 1870's. Allegheny Cemetery, including the National Cemetery Administration's soldiers' lot, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in December 1980.