New Orleans' Cast-Iron Tombs!

Okay, so don’t let the heat dissuade you from visiting New Orleans’ wonderful cemeteries in the summer. If the opportunity presents itself, jump on it. Remember, great art comes from great pain. They say there’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing choices. That said, long pants and dress shoes may not have been the best choices for walking through New Orleans’ cemeteries in 92 degree weather. Now 92 degrees didn’t sound THAT hot, but here’s what Weather Atlas had to say about New Orleans’ tropical climate for June, 2025 when I was there:

“The average heat index in June is estimated at a very hot 102.2°F (39°C). Undertake extra safety actions, heat cramps and heat exhaustion are expected. Heatstroke may result from lengthy activity. Be advised, the heat index considers values for conditions in shade and with a light breeze. Direct sunlight might cause an increase of up to 15 Fahrenheit (8 Celsius) degrees in the heat index.”

Perhaps the weather would have been more tolerable had I been on a riverboat out on the Mississippi, but I wasn’t. I have to say, I’ve never appreciated large mausoleums more than when I was in NOLA, for the merciful shade they offer! I was there for a work conference in June, 2025, so I planned to take in a few cemeteries at the time. Scheduling was inopportune, as the annual conference for the Association for Gravestone Studies was happening at the same time, in York, PA, which is only about an hour’s drive from where I live in Philadelphia. Really would have liked to attend that, even virtually, but the gestalt was not now. Or then. So, given I would be in Nawlins for three days, I needed to hit some of those marvelous cemeteries. 

A few months prior, I got in touch with Nancy Jaynes who posts a lot about New Orleans cemeteries on Instagram (as @new_orleans_cemeteries) to help plan my trip. I had been to New Orleans twice, but decades ago, pre-Katrina. I was grateful for Nancy’s guidance as to which cemeteries to visit, on what days, hours of operation, etc. I had told her that one place I really wanted to see was the chapel inside St. Roch Cemetery, the one with all the antique prosthetics hanging on the walls! Unfortunately, when I checked St. Roch’s website, it said the chapel is only open the first Friday of each month from 11:00 am to Noon! That is one tight window. Again, my schedule would not permit visiting.

St. Roch Chapel, photo by Nancy Jaynes (@new_orleans_cemeteries)

But since you’re lathering with anticipation at that, here’s a photo Nancy made a few weeks after my visit. After I returned home, I got in touch with Nancy who graciously agreed to write a blog on St. Roch’s for the Cemetery Traveler, with her wonderful photos, so look for that coming soon!

But back to my June visit. Nancy and I planned to meet at St. Patrick’s Cemetery No. 2 on my second day. Therefore, I figured I’d hit St. Roch’s and another one on my first day. Even though I knew I could not get into the chapel, the St. Roch’s website makes the cemetery looks incredibly interesting. 

I thought it would make sense to visit two cemeteries each morning, before it got really hot. So I mapped out a few places I wanted to visit and made a plan. I would Uber/Lyft early in the mornings to arrive at the usual 8 a.m. opening time (most cemeteries here are gated and locked), do some photography for a couple hours, then rideshare to the convention center. A good thing is that all of these cemeteries are within twenty minutes of the convention center. New Orleans has about forty cemeteries to choose from! Many are large and would take hours to walk through. A few are open for guided tours only, but most are open to the public, from about 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

On the first day, Thursday, I called a Lyft driver to take me to St. Roch’s. I stopped in a convenience store in the Quarter and picked up a couple bottles of cold water and snacks, shoved them in my camera backpack and took to the streets to get my ride.

After driving awhile, my driver pulls over. We’re in front of Cypress Grove Cemetery, Canal Street, nowhere near St. Roch’s. Ah well, I figured I’d spend the morning here and put off St. Roch’s for my third day. Across City Park Avenue from Cypress Grove is the very large Greenwood Cemetery, with the massive Metairie two blocks away. I had intended to see all these anyway.

What I hadn’t expected was that it would be unbearably hot at 8 a.m. … each day. I’m talking sweat pouring down my face, stinging my eyes. Then it would rain every afternoon, so the humidity was omnipresent. After an hour, I felt like pouring the two bottles of cold water on my head instead of drinking them. But I didn’t want to die, so I drank in the shade of Cypress Grove's impressive entranceway. I could see down the rows that its old tombs were not all that interesting. All above ground, which is the New Orleans way. As Mary LaCoste says in her book, Death Embraced - New Orleans Tombs and Burial Customs, this is as much a European tradition as it is a physical necessity due to New Orleans being at sea level (can’t dig due to the high water table). I only spent a half hour in here, because the much more opulent Greenwood was beckoning to me from across the street, with its towering monuments. 

Leeds Tomb, Cypress Grove Cemetery

But Cypress Grove will always have a special place in my heart – it was here that I saw my first cast iron tomb, the Leeds Tomb! This is one of NOLA’s oldest cemeteries, established in 1838 by the Fireman’s Fund, to honor New Orleans’ volunteer firemen and their families. When that cemetery became full, the Firemen’s Charitable & Benevolent Association opened the much larger cemetery in 1842 across the street, called Greenwood. The cast iron tomb is essentially a mausoleum, made of brick, and plated with cast iron panels. Sometimes the iron is rusted like the tomb you see here, and sometimes they are well-maintained and painted! 

Mer-lion downspout!

I owe my knowledge of these unique architectural marvels to Nancy Jaynes, who has posted on Instagram many photos of them with wonderful historic information. This one with the fish (or mer-lion, if you look closely!) downspouts is simply spectacular. In all of NOLA’s forty cemeteries, there are only 16 cast iron tombs. I feel honored that during my short, whirlwind visit, I think I saw five of them! You can read more about them at this link.

There are of course many small details throughout these cemeteries which add very personal touches to the grave sites – small angels, plaques, sparkly beaded necklaces. The six-foot tall tomb buildings themselves are usually very similar, with only the names and dates varying from one to the next, and the next, and the next, as you peer down rows and rows of these above-ground burial buildings. Whitewashing seems to be popular. Which of course makes them blinding to the eyes in the torrential Louisiana sunshine. This photo above just seems to be of a bright white tomb. I really cannot fully express the pain these things cause when you are trying to squint at and photograph them! And no, it did not occur to me to bring sunglasses.

Burned-out van with Greenwood Cemetery in background

As I walked out to City Park Avenue, I noticed a burned out van right in front of Greenwood Cemetery. Odd. Fried chicken parts on the back seat springs. I crossed over and entered Greenwood. I was taken by its beautifully ornate – and dry – fountain. I climbed inside to do a little shooting – inside the fountain, that is. Workers driving by didn’t seem to care. As it was getting hotter by the second, I realized I needed to plan my time better so I climbed out of the fountain and began roaming around the grounds. I got some ok photos of the fountain, but it was a pyrrhic victory. 

Miltenberger cast-iron clad tomb, Greenwood Cemetery

Greenwood has a few cast iron tombs as well – the most amazing of which is this recently-painted silver one! The figures on the door are actually cast iron as well. I tugged a bit on the angel, but the door did not open (yes, I know, my sins are a stench in the nostrils of God, as Billy Graham would say). On Greenwood’s webpage, you can see a photo of this Family Tomb in its prior state. Emily Ford, in her blog post () tells us that Greenwood Cemetery has six cast-iron tombs, five of which were produced by Wood & Miltenberger & Co., a branch of Wood & Perot Ironworks. At six iron-clad tombs, Greenwood has the most of any cemetery in New Orleans. And one of them is for the Miltenberger iron works family.

But Greenwood has many wonders besides its cast iron architecture, such as the tall and stately fireman memorial and various Civil War monuments. All along the fencing facing the roadway are banners extolling the fact that it is “Still Affordable!” Affordable is key, as Greenwood is situated right next to Metairie Cemetery, where a plot will cost you double the amount of money! $5,000 versus $10,000 for a basic plot. In fact, the market for trading cemetery property seems to be a hot one in New Orleans, as you can see from these sites:

https://www.buriallink.com/cemeteries/greenwood-cemetery-and-mausoleum-la

https://thecemeteryexchange.com/tce-metairie-la.htm

https://thecemeteryexchange.com/25-0423-4-featuredlisting-la.htm

I really wanted to get to the Metairie, so after only about half an hour in Greenwood, I exited and began walking down City Park Avenue, away from the tempting chicory coffee and powdered-sugar-covered beignets at the Morning Call Coffee Stand and toward Metairie. More about my adventures in that fabulous place coming soon!

"Dark Shadow's" Crypt at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery

I never thought I’d associate my Mom with vampires, but stranger things have happened. My Mom, who passed away in 2023, was an avid fan of the daytime American Gothic soap opera Dark Shadows, which aired on ABC-TV from 1966 to 1971. It was one of the things we bonded over. I was probably nine or ten years old. I would come home from school and watch it with her every weekday at 4 pm. Those characters – Barnabas Collins (the main vampire), Angelique (a witch), Quentin (a werewolf) – were all super scary. I remember naming our cat, “Quentin.”

To my surprise, during a fall midnight lantern tour of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery (in Sleepy Hollow, New York), the tour guide, John, showed us one of the scene locations of Dark Shadows! As we stood in front of a mausoleum – in the dark, lit by a dozen lanterns – John told us that the show’s producers wanted to use a particular mausoleum as the “Collins” mausoleum that Barnabas called home. Really? Wow! THAT was unexpected! (You see, I never do any research ahead of exploring a cemetery - I like surprises). But the family that owned that mausoleum would not give permission to use the structure. My hopes dashed.

“I don’t wanna be buried in a pet sematary!”

But then …John says, we WILL see another site on the property that WAS used for scenes in Dark Shadows. Damn! My lucky day! He said nothing for the next half hour as our group of twenty people trod from site to site in the dark. As we trudged forth into the darkness, we heard screams off in the distance – which I assume came from the tour group ahead of us as those people were being eaten. We saw the original graveyard of the Old Dutch Church, the graves of historical figures like Andrew Carnegie and the Rockefellers, and heard various stories involving local history and folklore. The photo you see above was made on the location where the Ramones shot the video for their song, “Pet Sematary!”

Receiving Vault

Finally, up a small incline above Washington Irving’s grave, we came to the receiving vault. After explaining that this structure, built into the hillside, was used to temporarily store bodies in winter while waiting for the ground to thaw (prior to the Industrial Revolution, graves had to be dug by hand), our guide told us that this structure had been mocked up and used as the Collins’ family crypt for the Dark Shadows television serial!

Barnabas and friend, inside a crypt

After John explained what the receiving vault was used for, he asked if anyone wanted to go inside. Of course everyone yelled, “Yes!” Nothing about the tour was really spooky, but this made up for it! He unlocked the door (with a skeleton key, I believe) and we filed inside. I certainly did not expect to see an open crypt with Barnabas Collins’ framed portrait inside! Jonathan Frid is the actor who played this role. There were three or four other large glossy photos on the opposite wall showing scenes from Dark Shadows, portraying the various regulars from the show.

Collins Family Mausoleum

Above is a photo hung inside the receiving vault showing the outside with the mocked up “COLLINS” name above the door, and some Gothic-looking statues flanking it. In the television show, Barnabas’ coffin was actually hidden behind a wall in the Collins mausoleum. You would pull the lionhead chain above one of the crypts to open the wall. Barnabas would rise out of his coffin and bite you. If you check out some of the Dark Shadows episodes on YouTube you might be surprised at how well they were done. Sixties’ horror movies are famously cheesy, but Dark Shadows can be genuinely tense and frightening. Happy Halloween!

Book Release: "Abandoned and Forgotten Cemeteries of Philadelphia and its Environs"

My new book has just been released! Thank you to everyone who pre-ordered Abandoned and Forgotten Cemeteries of Philadelphia and its Environs – you should all have your copies in hand at this point. As always, I welcome feedback on the book. 

I did an in-person book launch presentation on July 24, 2025 at the Athenaeum of Philadelphia, a week after the book was released. Head House Books was in attendance selling copies that I signed. It was great speaking with people about so many aspects of abandoned cemeteries – thank you all for coming! I do have five additional events scheduled throughout the fall in the Philadelphia area, so if you are interested in attending a lecture presentation or would like to chat or get a book signed, I’ve listed these at the end.

Now for a little bit about the book itself – here are the topics I cover:

• Why and how are cemeteries abandoned?

• City versus rural cemeteries and the demise of Lafayette Cemetery

• The Watery Remains of Monument Cemetery

• Genealogical challenges

• The Surprise Below - 

        First Baptist Church and Weccacoe Playground/Burial Ground

• Mount Moriah Cemetery – A Resurrection

• The Cemetery business model, old and new

• Mount Vernon and Har Hasetim Cemeteries - 

        Teetering on the edge of oblivion

• Volunteerism and respect for the past

..............................

Were I to do it all over, I might subtitle my book, The Collapse of Eloquence. It’s a phrase from Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Bluebeard. The actual title of my new book is Abandoned and Forgotten Cemeteries of Philadelphia and its Environs, and it was released into the wild in July, 2025 (America Through Time). The Collapse of Eloquence aptly describes the not uncommon result of people’s efforts to memorialize themselves, their story, only to find that their monuments to immortality did not stand the test of time. Maybe their descendants discovered this, if they even cared. Sometimes our best efforts to preserve a memory ends with the monument disintegrating. Sometimes nature washes it away (as happened in the central Texas flood in July, 2025), and sometimes even our progeny make those memories disappear.

Abandoned community mausoleum, Plains, PA.

Cemetery History

Philadelphia is no different from any other major American city. Its residents die, so we bury them in a churchyard. (Everyone dies, even Ozzy.) The city grows and the churchyard becomes full. The land becomes too valuable for graves as the city expands so the graves are either relocated or built upon. Large rural cemeteries are created. A hundred years later, they are no longer rural – these same cemeteries find themselves now in the middle of the larger city, just as the small church graveyards once found themselves in the way of “progress.” Some cemeteries survive this evolution, others do not. When the cemetery disappears, sometimes the burial records disappear too. Then memories collapse.

ChesLen Preserve Potters Field, Chester County, PA

As I wrote the book, there were many ideas I wanted to get across, topics I wanted to cover, e.g. the history of cemeteries in Philadelphia, why some have disappeared, why cemeteries are abandoned. I was interviewed by Linda Gould of the Cemetery Chronicles podcast in July and she asked me an interesting question – were there any themes or topics that arose while I wrote the book, that I hadn’t planned. And yes, there were. Volunteerism was one, i.e. how historic preservation is so greatly dependent on volunteers! Another was one she put into words quite eloquently - the fragility and relative impermanence of cemeteries. We think of cemeteries as rather staid entities, not very dynamic. We may assume that the most dramatic thing that happens is a few graves get dug each week.

Cemeteries, however, are quite dynamic! It is very possible that the cemetery you drive past each day may be on the verge of bankruptcy. High grass is a sign, for sure, of potential problems, e.g. with Har Jehuda Cemetery in Upper Darby, PA. Or, in the case of Mount Vernon Cemetery at Ridge and Lehigh Avenues in north Philly, the absence of tall weeds and grass may be an indication of quite the opposite. THAT cemetery was purchased in the spring of 2025, by an individual who is in the process of restoring it and turning it into an active “green burial” ground! It had been locked up with its trees and other foliage growing wild for decades.

Gardel Monument, Mount Vernon Cemetery, 2021

In the introduction to the book I wrote that I’d been working on it for twenty years, although I didn’t realize it all that time. I’d been documenting my cemetery travels (which began at the turn of the century - the twenty-first) since 2010 in my blog, The Cemetery Traveler. After photographing, exploring, volunteering in, researching and writing about hundreds of cemeteries across the United States, it occurred to me that the “abandoned” cemetery captivated my interest more than any other “type” of cemetery. When I would lecture about such places, people would invariably ask, how does a cemetery become ABANDONED? For many, this is incomprehensible. Hence, there is a chapter in the book exploring that phenomenon. Examples are given, e.g. Har Hasetim (est. 1890), the formerly abandoned Jewish cemetery in the woods of Gladwyne, PA (a Philadelphia suburb) and Mount Moriah Cemetery (est. 1855), a massive 200-acre property which was easily the nation’s largest abandoned cemetery when it was deserted in 2010. These also happen to be success stories, believe it or not – cemeteries that were saved from oblivion. Many Philadelphia cemeteries were not.

Mount Moriah Cemetery, Philadelphia, circa 2010

In Abandoned and Forgotten Cemeteries of Philadelphia and its Environs, I look at many cemeteries that have disappeared, or in some cases, just seem to have disappeared. Some have just been built over. Some, the bodies have been moved, others they have not. Monument Cemetery, the city’s second Victorian garden cemetery (est. 1837, after Laurel Hill, est. 1836) was destroyed in 1956 when Temple University acquired it to expand student parking. You can read about this travesty in my book, and see color photos of all the gravemarkers that were removed from the cemetery and dumped into the Delaware River under what is now the Betsy Ross Bridge. (The book is photograph-intensive, by the way, with 140 full-color images). Some large cemeteries like Monument and Lafayette Cemetery (which used to occupy the space that is now Capitolo Playground, near the cheese steak emporiums in south Philly) have barely left a trace. And where are the bodies? 47,000 from Lafayette and 28,000 from Monument? These are not pretty stories, but I cover them in the book.

Under the Betsy Ross Bridge

Many large cemeteries disappeared (sounds like someone just waved a magic wand, doesn’t it?), but scores of small ones did too. “Disappearing” could simply mean the graveyard was built over, like the Odd Fellows Cemetery under the playground of the William K. Dick Elementary School. It is fascinating to note that the Philadelphia Archeological Forum (PAF) has mapped out over 200 unmarked burial grounds throughout the city, with the intent that building developers take heed and do the right thing. Really, you cannot dig anywhere in Philadelphia without hitting a coffin, it seems. Temple found this out in March of 2025 when it tried to dig a foundation for a new building on the site of the old Monument Cemetery. Oops, they really DIDN’T move all the graves! And forget that “six feet under” idea. Burials were found eighteen inches under the blacktopped surface at Weccacoe Playground in Queen Village in 2014.

Weccacoe Playground, aka the Mother Bethel Burial Ground

Laws and Statutes

First Baptist Church plot at Mount Moriah Cemetery

Unfortunately, the laws that govern what happens when a backhoe accidentally crushes through buried wooden coffins are not well understood. They exist, but may not even be known to the parties involved. This is what happened at 218 Arch Street in 2017 when the foundation was being dug for a new condo complex. Legally, these thousands of full casket burials from the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia were on private property, so the developer had a certain responsibility. In Philadelphia, if human remains are found on private property, the landowner does not own any of the remains interred in that land. Under Pennsylvania law, such remains are under the control of next of kin/descendants and the courts. In this case, one would expect that the developer would have needed a court order to disturb these burials. He did allow about 500 burials to be excavated (and reburied at Mount Moriah Cemetery) but eventually the building went up - leaving an estimated 2,500 burials under the street. Apparently, this developer never saw the movie, Poltergeist.

Arch Street, where First Baptist remains were found to be not relocated to Mount Moriah

The PAF map was published in 2018, just after the Arch Street excavation, so this resource was not available for the developer to check for unmarked cemeteries before digging. The hope now is that developers WILL check the map first, then do the respectful thing. Or the legal thing. Hopefully both. Legally, in Philadelphia, if you do not “disturb” the human remains, you can build on, around, or over them. If you DO disturb the remains, then the Philadelphia Orphans Court has to get involved (along with the city coroner, police, archeologists, and so on) – but that’s only if the developer lets anyone know that human remains were discovered. 

(PAF) Philadelphia Historical Unmarked Burial Places Map

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

In Abandoned and Forgotten Cemeteries of Philadelphia and its Environs, I have tried to balance some good with the bad. Cemeteries that were saved, versus cemeteries that were destroyed, or just paved over like Bishops’ Burial Ground under Washington Avenue at 8th Street in South Philly. Or the previously unmarked Mother Bethel Burial Ground under the Weccacoe Playground in Queen Village, which is home to about 5,000 very quiet neighbors. After the accidental excavation of graves at Weccacoe in 2015, the Philadelphia Archaeological Forum (PAF) created its map of unmarked burial grounds. This fascinated me. I quickly looked at the area of the proposed Seventy-Sixers basketball arena in Chinatown to see if any unmarked graveyards would be disturbed … and yes there were two! The plan was abandoned though, so the arena is not being built. The burial grounds continue to rest quietly under the streets.

Southwark Community Garden, Queen Village (photo by Paul Wismar)

Back at the beginning of this piece, I said I’d been working on the book for the past twenty years. I didn’t realize it until last year when a publisher contacted me. When I was almost ready to upload the final edited manuscript in the fall of 2024, it occurred to me to look at the places I’d lived in Philadelphia to see if there were cemeteries in those areas. Eureka! The apartment building I used to live in on Queen Street was built over the Sixth Presbyterian Church Burial Ground! (Which could explain why one of the closets rained from time to time.) In addition, the community garden directly behind my apartment complex (shown in the photo above) was ALSO built over a different cemetery, the Ebenezer Church Burial Ground!! No wonder my neighbors’ vegetables are so plump and tasty, the flowers so vibrant. I find it amusing that they refer to their individual garden sections as plots.

That’s just one example of how new information bubbles to the surface and allows me to update the presentations I give from time to time. Here’s a link to that PAF map, if you’d like to see if you’re living on top of an old cemetery (or better yet, find out if a neighbor you dislike is living on top of one!): 

https://www.phillyarchaeology.net/wp-content/gismaps_maps/BurialMapV4/index.html#12/40.0102/-75.1089

I plan to do more speaking engagements this year, with book signings and so on. But these won’t be canned presentations. They will always be updated with current developments. People think cemeteries are fixed entities, unchanging pieces of property that simply get the grass cut every couple weeks. This is, oddly, not the case. Every time I lecture, there is new information, even if I’m discussing the same topic, the same cemetery. Consider the recent development where Temple University rediscovered graves under a parking lot excavation on April 12, 2025.

Temple's April 2025 excavation ends when they hit coffins six feet under.

Monument Cemetery, Gleason's Pictorial 1852

They were digging a foundation for a new building on the old Monument Cemetery site, whose graves were supposedly all moved in 1956. You can read about this “surprise” in the May 28, 2025 Philadelphia Inquirer article, “The discovery of human remains at Temple is a reminder of Philly’s history of careless cemetery removals.” Forget a collapse of eloquence, this is a collapse of respect. The article states, “We’ve long known about the careless, politically corrupt removal of cemeteries across the city from the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries, including Monument Cemetery at the site of the university.” Maybe you didn’t know this. It is my belief that you should, which is one of the major points of my book. Owning up to our mistakes of the past and striving to do better in the future will make us better people. 

On a positive note, Laurel Hill Cemetery recently completed (in May, 2025) a massive year-long restoration project of its 1836 John Notman-designed gatehouse. For all its beauty and elegance, few people realize that Laurel Hill narrowly averted disaster in the 1970s. At that point, it was nearly full, its condition steadily declining since WWII. Its grandiose monuments were covered with graffiti; all the Tiffany stained-glass windows had been stolen from its mausoleums. The savior of the cemetery arrived in 1978 when the Friends of Laurel Hill volunteer organization was formed. Laurel Hill now thrives, its collapse of eloquence halted, its story continuing in grand tradition. Many memory gardens were not so lucky. Some, like Mount Vernon Cemetery (est. 1856) across Ridge Avenue from Laurel Hill, have been hanging on by a thread, locked up and neglected for decades. Since my book went to press, there has been an interesting development with that cemetery, as I mentioned earlier. After famously being advertised for sale on Zillow for a million dollars in 2024, it has been purchased with plans to care for the grounds and make it not only a walkable green space for the neighborhood, but to also make it a green burial site!

Mount Vernon Cemetery, 2013

Impermanence vs. Perpetual Care 

Rest in peace. Perpetual care. What do those phrases even mean in light of all this tumultuous activity? One thing it means is that some people are now demanding legal clauses in their burial contracts that say their remains will NEVER be disturbed. But who’s to say what will happen in a hundred years’ time? As we ponder all this and move toward a better, more respectful future, consider what Ben Franklin said: “Show me your cemeteries and I will tell you what kind of people you have.“ 

So my book, again, captures the fragility, the impermanence of these entities we assumed would last forever. Our cemeteries are part of our history, and whenever we lose one, we lose a chapter in our city's history. Historic sites depend greatly on the efforts of volunteers, so if you are so inclined, please consider volunteering your time to help out at your local cemetery. 

References and Calendar of Events:

Abandoned and Forgotten Cemeteries of Philadelphia and its Environs is available at the online retailers:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/abandoned-and-forgotten-cemeteries-of-philadelphia-and-its-environs-ed-snyder/1146630922

https://www.amazon.com/Abandoned-Forgotten-Cemeteries-Philadelphia-Environs/dp/1634995236

https://www.booksamillion.com/p/Abandoned-Forgotten-Cemeteries-Philadelphia-Its/Ed-Snyder/9781634995238

*********************

I will have books at several events in the fall, if you would like me to sign one. The first two are public lectures and the last three are events where I will also be selling my books and fine art cemetery photography:

(Lecture presentations below require online registration)

Ludington Library (Lower Merion Library System), 5 South Bryn Mawr Avenue, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010

October 9th, 2025 (7 pm)

https://lmls.libcal.com/event/14489528

Wissahickon Valley Public Library - Ambler Branch

209 Race Street, Ambler PA  19002 Sept. 17, 2025, 6:30 pm.

https://www.wvpl.org/abandoned-and-forgotten-cemeteries-phila-and-its-environs

Market of the Macabre at Laurel Hill Cemetery – Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025

https://laurelhillphl.com/events/annual-events/market-of-the-macabre/

Darksome Art Market at Mount Moriah Cemetery – Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025

https://www.darksomecraftmarket.com/mountmoriah

Chestnut Hill Arts Festival – Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025

https://chestnuthillpa.com/events/fallforthearts-2025/

More Stolen Mausoleum Doors

A friend of mine recently posted on social media that a huge tree fell in the Mount Holly Cemetery (Mount Holly, New Jersey), where her Mom is buried. It hit a mausoleum, and her guess was that the impact knocked the doors off. They were gone. I assume that they were stolen either before or after the tree hit the structure. 

Over the years I’ve written about stolen bronze mausoleum doors (my first post was in 2013, “Stealing from the Dead”). Why does this happen? When the U.S. economy is in a downturn, scrap metal prices generally decrease - but if the cost of living goes up concurrently, people will do whatever they can to put food on the table. So now that the economy is in a Kamikaze nosedive, it is not surprising that these doors are being stolen. 

While each door has an estimated replacement value of $10,000, current scrap value is about $500 for each 200-pound bronze door. According to www.scrapmetalmonster.com, current price (April 14, 2025) for bronze is about $2.35 per pound. I had said in the past that $500 would buy a lot of drugs. Now, with the economy tanking, prices and inflation going through the roof, that same $500 will buy a lot of groceries.

And the Hits Just Keep on Coming...

Now, obviously, it is not easy to steal mausoleum doors. At 200 pounds per door, this is at least a two-person job, with power tools and a truck. You also need a victim cemetery, privacy, and a salvage yard willing to accept such objects (and not call the police). Those are just the things I can think of. Regardless, during the month of February, 2025, there was a rash of mausoleum door thefts in eight Delaware County (borders Philadelphia to the west) cemeteries. Maybe a new theft ring is targeting these items, now that catalytic converters are too hot for thieves and salvage yards to deal with? 

Thieves steal mausoleum doors from cemeteries across Philadelphia, Delaware, Bucks and Montgomery counties - 6abc Philadelphia

Thieves hit seven cemeteries in Philadelphia and surrounding suburbs:

• Saints Peter & Paul Cemetery in Marple Township
• Montefiore Cemetery in Jenkintown
• Forest Hills Cemetery in Huntingdon Valley
• North Cedar Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia
• Mt. Sharon Cemetery in Springfield
• Roosevelt Memorial Park in Trevose
• Oakland Cemetery in Philadelphia

Over the years, I’ve warned cemetery managers about this and suggested they install video cameras aimed at mausoleums that are not in clear view of the public roads. Locked gates and fencing does not deter these thieves. Doors have been stolen from mausoleums in Philadelphia’s Mount Vernon Cemetery and Laurel Hill Cemetery. Both have locked gates and intact fencing. The doors had to be removed, carried across the cemetery grounds, lifted over the fence, and loaded onto a truck.

What some cemeteries have done is cover mausoleum doors with plywood or wall up the opening with cinder blocks. This takes away from the aesthetic, of course, and obstructs your view of the stained glass windows, which can usually be seen through a door with decorative openings. But maybe that’s a good thing. Thieves steal the windows too - there is a black market for those, especially Tiffany windows. 

In the case of thieves involved in the 2014 thefts from Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon, PA (suburb of Philadelphia) noted below, they were caught selling the bronze bars that protect the stained glass windows, in addition to the mausoleum doors.

In that particular situation reported by the Delco Times, police obtained video surveillance recordings from a scrap yard showing the thieves with the bronze doors and bars. Scrap dealers can also get into trouble with the law for buying such objects. The thieves in this case were actually employees of Holy Cross Cemetery! They had stolen doors from three of its mausoleums - an inside job.

After thefts, some cemeteries board up the mausoleum entrance and windows, but some even do this to PROTECT the doors and windows to PREVENT theft. It looks like Atlantic City Cemetery installed new replacement doors on many of its mausoleums (I don’t understand the red Mylar or Plexiglas cover, which has been installed on many mausoleums in the cemetery). And who pays for this - either the preventive work or the repair/replacement? Probably the family owning the mausoleum. I cannot imagine the cemetery itself would foot the bill – unless they have some sort of insurance. Plus, how do you replace antique doors and windows? Guess what? You can’t. When doors are cut up for scrap, that’s the end of that. Toast can’t ever be bread again.

If you’re a descendant of a wealthy family that owns a mausoleum, can you buy mausoleum owner’s insurance, like homeowners’ insurance? Turns out you CAN, as you see here from Trusted Choice Insurance company. But my guess is that if people living in a flood plain rarely buy flood insurance, then not many people own mausoleum insurance.

Though the U.S. economy is currently in a wild downturn, metal theft in cemeteries is not a recent phenomenon. About ten years ago, workers at Laurel Hill Cemetery had to do some restoration work on a mausoleum whose doorway was cemented closed with cinder blocks. Once the workers broke through the cinder block wall, they were surprised to find that the bronze doors were INSIDE, leaning against a wall! My guess is that someone did this decades ago for safekeeping. These mausolea may have stood the test of time, but now they seem vulnerable to crime. They've existed, impervious, like small castles for a hundred years, but now we find ourselves on the wrong side of their history. 

Older Victorian-era cemeteries barely have enough money to cut the grass, let alone hire a 24/7 security force. I wish there were a silver lining here, a simple solution, or an upbeat way to end this piece. It will have to stand as a cautionary tale, unfortunately. If the situation pisses you off, I second that emotion. Hopefully, someone will develop the successful long game.

References:

https://thecemeterytraveler.blogspot.com/2013/12/stealing-from-dead.html

https://scrapmetalmonster.com/scrap-metal-prices#:~:text=In%20the%20United%20States%2C%20ferrous%20scrap%20prices%20vary,heavy%20melting%20scrap%20is%20approximately%20%24350%20per%20ton.

https://6abc.com/post/thieves-steal-mausoleum-doors-cemeteries-philadelphia-delaware-bucks-montgomery-counties/15977616/

https://www.delcotimes.com/2014/06/11/second-guilty-plea-in-cemetery-thefts/

https://www.trustedchoice.com/homeowners-insurance/home-coverage-types/grave-memorial-coverage/

More Graves Unearthed on Temple's Campus

On April 11, 2025, the news announced that coffins and human remains were found during excavation for a new building on the Temple University campus in Philadelphia. Temple supposedly expected this. And they should have, since this former parking lot at Broad and Berks Streets had been home to 28,000 graves. Its kind of odd how NBC reports that the bodies were relocated in the 1950s to Lawnview Cemetery in Rockledge, a northeast Philly suburb. Well, obviously not all the bodies. The gravestones were not relocated there – they were dumped into the Delaware River.

Gravemarkers along the Delaware River, under Betsy Ross Bridge

Like so many other sites in Philadelphia formerly occupied by burial grounds, buildings that require deep foundations are seldom constructed. Guess why. Typically, a playground, ball park, or a parking lot is built on the land. Temple shelved plans for building a new football stadium where their Geasey Field is, most likely, because they were afraid to unearth graves. That complicates things. The current excavation has stopped. Temple was prepared, says the news, and immediately brought in the police, Philadelphia Coroner’s Office, a medical examiner, and an archeologist. 

Slogging around in the mud at the site I really had a sense that I had trodden on sacred ground. When we bury our people, we are bequeathing their remains to the earth. Handing it down, so to speak, in a reverent manner. This is not like throwing out the trash. When a cemetery is vacated, repurposed, not everything can be removed. It is just not possible. Remnants, no matter how small, remain. Bone fragments, coffins. 

When I reached into the mud to pick up a few pieces of the stone that had been broken away from the old cemetery wall, there was mud all over my hands. I got a jarring feeling as it covered my fingers – this is the same soil that held 28,000 bodies in 1956. 

Its like what Mark Twain said when he visited the Holy Land in 1867: you don’t need to be a Christian to realize and respect that something significant happened here. 

Current construction showing cemetery wall that borders North Broad Street

Why has Philadelphia abandoned and moved so many cemeteries throughout its history? We put forth great effort to memorialize ourselves, only to find that our monuments to immortality have not stood the test of time. As the city grew, cemeteries were unceremoniously destroyed. People actually now make stipulations in their burial contracts that their remains shall never be disturbed. There are, however, some recent and ongoing success stories in and around Philadelphia, where faltering cemeteries have been stabilized and restored by volunteers. Is it because we now care more than we used to?

Barnes and Noble link to preorder 

I cover many of these topics in my new book, Abandoned and Forgotten Cemeteries of Philadelphia and its Environs (Fonthill, 2025). In fact, what happened to Monument Cemetery is covered in great detail, with many photos of the gravestones under the Betsy Ross Bridge. One of them graces the cover of the book. (You can preorder the book from Amazon here - publication June 30, 2025.) In addition to the removal of cemeteries, the book – and upcoming public presentations –  will focus on recent discoveries, the frequent accidental unearthing of human remains, genealogical challenges, and the 200 unmarked burial grounds that silently sleep under Philadelphia’s streets, parking lots, and playgrounds. Ben Franklin said, “Show me your cemeteries and I will tell you what kind of people you have.”  

It will be interesting to see how this situation at Temple plays out. The coffins and bones were found about six feet below the surface of the original parking lot. As we all know, burials can be stacked. There could be layers of coffins deeper down. I am curious about Temple’s “protocol,” as they call it, for when human remains are found. I am curious about Temple’s “protocol,” as they call it, for when human remains are found. In Philadelphia, if the remains are found on private property, the landowner (in this case Temple University) does not own any human remains interred in that land. Under Pennsylvania law, such remains are under the control of next of kin/descendants and the courts. In this case, one would expect that Temple would have needed a court order to disturb these burials.

Original cemetery gatehouse on Broad Street

The plot of land where the discovery was made is to be the future home of Temple’s Klein College of Media and Communication, with planned completion in 2027. I wonder if the cemetery wall will remain, which still borders Broad Street? (You can see the wall in the gatehouse lithograph at left.) Current Temple students being interviewed find this all rather spooky. One student states that it's a weird history for a building where students will have to take classes. They will know that the building was constructed over a cemetery, and they did not remove all the bodies. Obviously the developer never saw the movie, Poltergeist.

As Temple’s online newsletter states, “This is a developing story, check back for updates.” (Click here for CBS News video.)

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Please visit my previous posts on The Cemetery Traveler to read the history of Monument Cemetery, including its destruction and aftermath:

The Watery Remains of Monument Cemetery (April 30, 2011)

https://thecemeterytraveler.blogspot.com/2011/04/watery-remains-of-monument-cemetery.html

How Monument Cemetery was Destroyed (May 6, 2011)

https://thecemeterytraveler.blogspot.com/2011/05/how-monument-cemetery-was-destroyed.html

Beachcombing in Hell – The Gravestones of Monument Cemetery (March 16, 2012)

https://thecemeterytraveler.blogspot.com/2012/03/beachcombing-in-hell-gravestones-of.html 

References for the current blog post: 

https://temple-news.com/bone-fragments-caskets-discovered-at-klein-cpca-construction-site/

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/bone-fragments-caskets-found-at-temple-university-construction-site-students-quick-to-react-its-creepy/ar-AA1COfI6?ocid=BingNewsSerp 

https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/temple-university-construction-philadelphia-remains-monument-cemetery/4159068/