How can a place steeped in stories of the dead appeal to a new generation of the living?

In collaboration with Laurel Hill Cemetery and their wonderful community, we produced a mobile walking tour app for Android and iOS devices. The app was designed to target their emerging audiences - young friends of Laurel Hill Cemetery, casual park visitors and history enthusiasts. To do so, we took a more whimsical and accessible approach to storytelling.

While always maintaining a strong foundation in the National Historic Landmark’s rich history, we created tours such as Lore & Legend, Pop Culture & Contemporary Stories and Art & Architecture. A few tour stops focus on their stable of Civil War notables and captains of industry, particularly when there was an interesting angle. But first and foremost there are stories of the first selfie, pioneering women artists, headless bodies and sports legends of fact and fiction.

By leveraging a third-party app platform that provided a rich feature set and an affordable maintenance plan, we were able to allocate our resources to compelling storytelling. We collaborated with musicians, dramatists, caretakers and even family members of the residents to share their unique stories.

We crafted rich soundscapes to evoke an ambiance and atmosphere of these exciting narratives. The app includes 38 GPS-based, location-triggered audio stories, packaged into 3 tours, along with dozens of archival photographs and documents, a map, event listings and more.