As I said in my last post I am trying to narrow down if
moving cemeteries seems to be happening in one region of the United States more
than other areas. Well, I decided to start locally and find out what cemeteries,
if any, have been moved in the St. Louis area where I currently reside. I found
out that Theodore Roosevelt High School was built on top of graves…literally.
Most of the remains were moved but not all of them made the transfer (ahhhh). I
will have more on that story later. But what really saddened me was that my
house is located where the city cemetery, Potter’s Field, used to be. My own back
yard used to be the final resting place for the less fortunate soles and now it
is my home. Oh the horror! I am trying to get a better understanding of why
graves are moved and I am guilty of living on top of a graveyard. I found a zoning map from 1950 that shows where the city cemetery used
to be. This is now an apartment complex, a few subdivisions, some single family
homes and oddly enough a crematorium too. This is the link to the zoning map.
http://stlouis-mo.gov/government/departments/planning/documents/upload//HistoricalMapOfStL1950Zone.pdf
living in Saint Louis, I was not aware of that about Theodore Roosevelt High School. You have sparked my interest in learning more about the cemeteries here in Saint Louis.
ReplyDeleteHave you read about the slave cemetery in Wildwood MO ? I ran across this article a while ago: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/columns/bill-mcclellan/mcclellan-walking-among-the-ghosts-of-forgotten-slaves/article_4b3b0786-b506-55f4-bbb6-9a31653b4e18.html
Christina, I was not aware of the slave cemetery in Wildwood. I will add that to my list when I go to the library this week. Thanks! I will let you know if I am able to find out a little bit more about it. I have been told that the newly renovated Central Library has a really good section regarding St. Louis history.
DeleteChristina,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your ideas and reporting. I hope you might be interested in this.
Its one thing to verbalize or read of moving cemeteries. Its another thing to experience it. We all seem to assume that current graves are located for infinity. Of course our assigned reading brings out that if this is the idea today, it has certainly been for only the last couple of hundred years. I realize that the cemetery around Trinity Church at the end of Wall Street in Manhattan, where Alexander Hamilton, among others, is buried is a very expensive spot of real estate. Luckily, it is a church yard and not taxable.
As a jogger in many strange places, I found early that cemeteries are a prime jogging track. There is little if any traffic. They are basically quiet, Have good air (lack of traffic fumes, etc. You always see creative markers, and signs that somebody cares. There is usually close parking. And, well, if cemeteries don't drive home the value of taking care of your health, then what does?
I discovered an almost abandoned cemetery in northern Louisiana (Tallulah)(looking at a Google map, it was around Grant street, northwest from Hwy 68). Weeds were overhead high except for a certain area (which had been mowed) where I got the feeling that all these graves were from the same church. Each marker was the same, basically, except the name and each stone had carved on it, "Gone Home".
A year or so later, I was back in town (both times just passing through). This time the whole cemetery had been mowed, or at least de-weeded and many of the graves, including the ones marked "Gone Home" were just not there. Apparently the whole thing, hopefully the whole thing, was in the process of being moved. It had obviously been a segregated cemetery, as many of the tombstone readings indicated this, though I can't quote one.
One tombstone indicated that that particular man had served as a preacher for six churches at once. His grave was neglected, and obviously not yet moved (if it got moved).
The trouble with being an out of town jogger is you don't know who to ask about something, and you're usually on your way somewhere else and on the verge of being behind schedule. I did stop somebody from around there who was also jogging. He was obviously a black athlete and I thought he'd know about the cemetery (by then 1/2 mile away). All he seemed to know was is if he/we kept jogging, he would be a lot healthier. Cemeteries obviously were not his predominant thought.
Of course today we have cell phones and the internet so if I encountered that today, I'm sure I could follow up and find out the story.
Maybe you can use this. Anyway thanks again for your insights.
Bob Hill