My wife made the paper: Once-rural cemetery now mostly enveloped by metro area

[Omaha Steve]

Marta has 1000's of hours on her cemetary site: http://www.steveandmarta.com/graveyards/grave1.htm

The local story: http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1219&u_sid=2380679

Published Wednesday | May 9, 2007
Once-rural cemetery now mostly enveloped by metro area
BY RICK RUGGLES
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

snip The story of rural cemeteries enveloped by cities is far from rare.

Marta Dawes, an Omaha history buff who has a Web site on local graveyards, said Mount Auburn is in a somewhat similar position to Voss-Mohr at 132nd and Harrison Streets, Pleasant Hill near 132nd Street and West Dodge Road, Portal near 108th and Harrison Streets, and Flower Hill near 144th and Fort Streets.

When Dawes visited Mount Auburn Cemetery about 10 years ago, the city had not yet wrapped around it. "You could look as far west as you wanted," she said. "There was nothing."

Many cemeteries through the years have been created on what was the city's edge at the time, only to be surrounded and eventually centrally located as the city grew.


Loren Plambeck and his wife already have their headstone in place at Mount Auburn Cemetery, just west of 185th and Q Streets. Plambeck is president of the cemetery association board.

FULL story at link.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

1. We have an extreme example of that. In the corner of a parking lot.

On the SE corner of a four lane thoroughfare in West Houston, Long Point, and a two lane cross street, Pech, there is an old family cemetery of the Hillendahl family that used to have a farm that was several blocks square and is now several 1950s era subdivisions. There are a lot of German street names in West Houston and I think there may have been dairy farms there. Further out there were rice paddies, also now subdivisions for miles.

The cemetery is quite small, about 15 or 20 spots in it, has a chain link fence around it, and the rest of the corner is an asphalt parking lot, with a Firestone auto repair place and a Jack in the Box nearby!!! The north and west sides have sidewalks and curbs just outside the fence.

That's Houston for you. They'll tear anything down if they CAN. No zoning and a preservation ordinance with no teeth.

[mrcheerful]

3. The small town I grew up in decided to widen the main road and the towns

grave yard is on that road. It was amusing when they dug past the brick road, under layers of pavement, under the brick road they dug up 5 coffins, seems that some time in the towns past someone got the bright ideal of moving head stones and not the people that were layed to rest there. what was amusing was the town trying to find out who did what and when they did it and who could be brought up on charges for doing it.

[Adelante]

2. I used to be involved in a friends of abandoned cemeteries group

Before I moved. It really is rewarding work. Good for your wife!

[TwilightGardener]

4. Congrats for your wife getting recognized for her work!

[wicket]

5. Awesome!

:hi: :D