As an adult I have found peace in spending afternoons in graveyards whether I am taking a leisurely drive, taking a nice long stroll ruminating about past lives, or taking the time to sit and meditate and truly soak in the beauty that surrounds me. I am always drawn to the older sections of graveyards and love to find the oldest graves and will sit wondering about the hardships of lives lived 100, 200 or more years ago. Join me in exploring my favorite cemeteries.
Lake View Cemetery is a public cemetery located on the east side in Cleveland, Ohio. It was founded in 1869 and is compromised of 285 acres. This cemetery is the resting place of James A. Garfield, 20th President of the United States, John D. Rockefeller, billionaire oil tycoon, and Elliot Ness, famous detective and member of The Untouchables. The horticulture to the gardens is lovely especially in the spring. For many years there has been a concerted effort by families of Cleveland to plant daffodil bulbs that started on the centennial celebration of the cemetery in 1969. Now there are many thousands of daffodils that bloom every spring in a concentrated area that encompasses a lovely hill in one of the older areas of the cemetery grounds -- it is a lovely sight to behold every spring.
I have spent many hours in this cemetery romping around, having picnics and exploring the various artistic periods in graves and mausoleums. One beloved mausoleum of mine is the Schofield family mausoleum. It has a decidedly Roman neo-classic look with marble columns that flank the door to the family crypt space. The rich colors of the pink marble and tarnished bronze doors along with the thick ivy vines that crawl the ground give a peaceful and beatiful resting place. It is simply a lovely place to sit and enjoy the peace and quiet while reflecting upon the beauty that surrounds.
Another amazing spot to visit that also falls in the neo-classic style is the Wade Family Chapel. This chapel was built by the Wade family, founders of Western Union Telegraph. What is practicularly exciting about this chapel is that the four-ton bronze doors open onto an interior that was created by Louis Comfort Tiffany, America's most proflic designer of mosaic and stained glass, most commonly known for his Tiffany lamps. The interior of the chapel is called "The Voyage of Life" and has symbolism that ties in The Old Testament as well as the Prophets of the New Testament and the birth of Christianity. The floors, walls and ceilings are entirely crafted in mosaic but the crowning gem of the chapel is the stained glass window that is behind the altar. The window won a gold medal during the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris and is a highly prized ecclesiastical work.
Taphopile: A taphophile is someone who takes an interest in cemeteries, tombstones, ... The word 'taphophile', taken from the Greek, means to love graves. |
In my late 20's I moved to North Carolina and found myself discovering a new set of cities along with new graveyards. North Carolina is one of the original 13 colonies and graveyards are unique as well as have some very old sections. One fascinating thing that can be found in the realm of graveyards in this state are family plots. Family plots are small graveyards that can be found scattered through the country on old farms and plantations owned long ago or passed down through many generations to families today. These unique little spaces have tiny fenced off graveyards often tended to by the families still - or by neighbors that care about the history of this unique point in history. As much as I loved to drive the back country roads and find a surprise family plot around a random corner I eventually found the one I loved and would spend many afternoons hanging out and having picnics in.
The graveyard of my heart in North Carolina is the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery, which is now a part of the National Historic Register. It is located on the grounds of the University of North Carolina (UNC) in the town of Chapel Hill and always served as a special place to sit and study while I was in school. The land was originally set aside in 1776 and the first grave was set in 1798. There are fascinating historical points about the graveyard that I always found unique to Chapel Hill and the south. One of those is that the graveyard was originally used for students that had died during their time attending The University of North Carolina. Another was that the rock wall that surrounds the cemetery, built in 1835, was built by black servants of the university as well as slaves owned by local land owners and benefactors of the university. Finally, there were no black church cemeteries in Chapel Hill in the 18th and early 19th centuries; consequently, the slaves of the village were buried in a segregated section of the Cemetery (Sections A and B), separated from the other sections (I, II, III and IV) by a low rock wall which still stands. There is a large sandstone obelisk in Section B that was dedicated to the black servants of the University. Many of the graves in these two sections are simply marked by fieldstones, leaving the names of these people lost to history, unlike other portions of the cemetery that have headstones and monuments giving names to families of the past.
