Category:

cemeteries

ladies of lake view cemetery

by Kaylah Stroup March 21, 2016

I’ve spent a few days over these last few weeks hanging out at Lake View Cemetery. Lake View Cemetery is what I would consider Cleveland’s best known cemetery, occasionally referred to as “Cleveland’s outdoor museum.” It occupies 285 acres and more than 107,000 people have been laid to rest there, including President Garfield.

In 2013, before living in Cleveland was ever even a spark of an idea in my mind, I drove up to photograph the cemetery. I was enamored! I wished so badly it was closer to home. Now I’m a mere fifteen minutes away… and never really spend anytime there. Then I saw that there were more than a handful of geocaches located in the cemetery. That was just the motivation I needed to get out and do some more exploring!

After two days of wandering around the grounds I still haven’t gotten all of the caches and definitely haven’t seen all of the cemetery. I’ve been parking my car in a random section then just walking from cache to cache (gotta get them steps on my Fitbit!) which is fairly exhausting. Lake View is very hilly, and the caches aren’t exactly close to each other. All that walking has given me lots of time to check out headstones. There are tons of incredibly interesting things to see here but I just kept noticing the statues of women. Some angels, some represent deceased, and others are mourning lovers. The detail is just mind blowing. I can’t even imagine how much work it took to carve these or how much money it cost.

crying angel, headstone, lake view cemetery, angel of death victorious

Although the post is titled “Ladies of Lake View Cemetery” I had to add these two. Above is the Haserot angel, or sometimes also called “The Angel of Death Victorious.” He holds an upside-down torch to symbolize a life extinguished. Due to weathering he has tear stains running down his cheeks. It’s one of the cemeteries most notable monuments. Not far from the Haserot angel I found the dude below who, in my opinion, is just as creepy! He also looks like he’s crying and I swear those eyes followed me everywhere I moved. The Haserot angel seems like he’s slightly less than life size… or maybe he’s just smaller than me but the guy below was life sized and it felt like he could just walk over to me when I wasn’t expecting it. I’m not one to be frightened by cemeteries, headstones, or anything like that but I was definitely happy to get my shot and get outta view of him.

I’m sure I’ll be back at Lake View again sometime soon to find the rest of the caches and take more photos. It was fun to choose a theme to photograph since it’s easy to be overwhelmed with what to shoot in there because of the size. Until next time, Lake View…
xoxo

Mound View Cemetery

by Kaylah Stroup March 3, 2016

I love cemeteries, y’all know that. They’re peaceful and no matter where they’re located they’re almost always devoid of all people. Last week after visiting the Knox County Poorhouse I headed to Mound View Cemetery. It didn’t seem like it would be that big of a cemetery. My main reason for going was to search for a headstone I had seen a photo of online that read “Little Men”. I really really love headstones that say things that are a little bit out of the ordinary. Upon a little bit further research I found that these “little men” were actually the Wild Men of Borneo. I didn’t really know too much about them but I felt like I had heard that name before so I was definitely interested in finding the headstone.

Hiram and Barney were two mentally disabled brothers from Knox County. They were apparently sold to Doctor Warner in 1852 by their desperate mother after the passing of their father. Hiram and Barney were given new names, Waino and Plutanor, and a sensational back story about being from the island of Borneo, where they had been captured after an intense struggle. They were each around 40 inches tall and weighed about 45 pounds but could perform feats of great strength such as lifting heavy weights, and wrestling with audience members on stage. It is said that they could each lift around 300lbs on their own. They eventually became involved with P.T. Barnum and his traveling show. During their 25 years with him the pair made over $200,000 which in that time was an incredible sum of money.

I’m very interested in sideshow history and any headstone I can find information on is pretty cool my book, so this was definitely an awesome find. I’m actually surprised it took me this long to hear about it. I’m curious who chose to put “little men” on their headstone though. “Wild Men of Borneo” seems like a better fit if that’s what they went by…

The Wildmen of Borneo, Waino and Plutanor, Mound View Cemetery

Anyway, before even being able to find their headstone I was already more than impressed with this cemetery. It was easily in my top ten, mostly because it was absolutely teeming with symbolism! Lots and lots of older headstones have symbols on them. It’s nothing new for me. Over time I’ve become familiar with many of them. Some are so common I don’t think anything of them when I see them but everywhere I looked in Mound View there were symbols! It ended up being the majority of what I photographed.

I’m going to list a few of my favorites, see if you can find them in the photos…
anchor – hope or eternal life
arch – the passage to heaven
dove – peace, messenger of God
hand pointing up – hope for heaven
lamb – innocence, often found on the gravestones of children
upside down torch – the end of life, or a life extinguished
willow tree – perpetual sadness or mourning
wreath – victory in death

We have some really incredible cemeteries in Ohio, like this one. The one thing we don’t have going for us is that we aren’t very old, at least not compared to some other parts of the US that are a little further east. Symbols on graves aren’t all that popular anymore and haven’t been for a while so there are tons of them I’ve never actually seen in person. That’s not to say they aren’t in my state, I may have just not found them yet. I even have a list of symbols I’d love to find. Ranking high near the top is a skull and crossbones, just because it seems so stereotypical and like something that would a Halloween decoration instead of a real headstone, I guess. Thinking about finally finding one gets me all excited. Heading east this year is a must!
xoxo

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Mount Moriah Cemetery

by Kaylah Stroup February 23, 2016

After deciding to take a spur of the moment trip to Philadelphia for Valentine’s Day, we hit the internet for ideas of what to do. I guess unlike most like people we weren’t looking for museums, or delicious restaurants, although we obviously love both of those things. We were looking for abandoned buildings, accessible rooftops, and any other little interesting, yet often overlooked, nooks and crannies. I knew from my last, visit a few years back, that Philadelphia has some really great cemeteries. I was thinking we could swing by Laurel Hill Cemetery again. It was beautiful, my photography has definitely improved since then and I’d love to re-shoot it. Then we found it… Mount Moriah Cemetery, the cemetery of my dreams.

Mount Moriah Cemetery was established in 1855. It’s the final resting places for over 80,000 people. It spans 380 acres. You can read the full history of the cemetery here. The short version is that the cemetery was privately owned but in 2004 the last known member of the association passed away. Basically it was a big legal mess and the cemetery was essentially abandoned. It suffered from years and year of neglect. Large sections became completely overgrown with weeds. I even saw a tree growing straight out of an obelisk! By golly, this place is a sight to see!

I didn’t do too much research on the cemetery before visiting. I guess I didn’t want to get too excited in case we weren’t able to make it there. So my first though upon parking outside the cemetery was “Okay, this has to be trespassing…”* Jeff and I slipped in through the broken fence and made our way to the gatehouse, which was what initially caught our attention in the photos online. It was in A LOT worse shape than we had seen. I actually didn’t even mange get a decent shot of it, the sun was at a funny spot in the sky, and I was completely overwhelmed with everything else that surrounded me.

I don’t even know how to describe this cemetery to you right now, except that it was all of my cemetery dreams come true. I know, I’m sorry, thats awful to say. I don’t think it’s awesome that someone royally screwed up and let this happen to a cemetery but I would be lying to say that “abandoned cemetery” didn’t rank SUPER high on my list of things I’d like to photograph.

In 2011, Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery was formed, a group of clearly amazing volunteers dedicated to the preservation of the cemetery. Although the cemetery was definitely overgrown, and in the worst shape I have I ever seen a cemetery in, it was obvious that lots of hard work had been going into it recently. Trees growing up beside headstones and been cut down, and there were piles of brush waiting to be hauled away.

Right now FOMMCI has a gofundme running to raise the money needed to save the gatehouse. It will cost $35,000 to stabilize the structure. They currently have $24,500 from a grant and previous donations. They need another $10,500 to keep it from becoming a pile of rubble. Any donations over their goal (which they reached in two days!) will be used for additional Mount Moriah Cemetery capital improvements. You can read more and donate, if you feel so inclined, here!

We barely saw a fraction of the cemetery. It’s the largest in the state of Pennsylvania! Part of me is sad that it’ll no longer exist in this condition. I’ll never be able to experience it like I did on this day but I guess that’s why I feel photography is so important… The other part of me knows that’s obviously a really good thing that it’s now on the up and up. I’m sure returning this cemetery to it’s former glory will take a very, very long time but it’s definitely on it’s way. FOMMCI, you guys rule!
xoxo

*Just wanted to note that everything I’ve read says the cemetery is open and visitors are welcome.

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Monroe Street Cemetery

by Kaylah Stroup November 25, 2014

I love cemeteries but there is just something about cemeteries in the fall that makes them a thousand times more beautiful, and more peaceful. This cemetery is close to a few other places I frequent but somehow I’d never spent much time poking around in there. I finally got around to doing it last week and I couldn’t be more pleased with my photos. I actually spilled tea on my laptop just a few hours after I got done editing these and my first thought was “Nooooo! The cemetery photos!!!” After a few days in a bag of ride my laptop made a full recovery! Hooray! Although I am still finding pieces of rice everywhere…

It was a gorgeous day for checking out the cemetery, albeit pretty cold. The leaves were all different colors, and the sky was overcast which is my favorite to shoot it but for some reason all my shots looked uninspired. I just wasn’t able to capture what I was seeing in person. Right as I was about to leave a headstone off in the distance caught my eye. When I walked over to photograph it I realized there were all kind of tiny little headstones along the fence that had, for the most part, been neglected and forgotten. Ivy had begun to cover most and I even found a few that had been completely buried underneath growth. My fingers were so cold I felt like they might freeze but I had to keep looking for other little hidden treasures.

Monroe Street Cemetery is a historic cemetery on the West side of Cleveland, until the late 1890’s it was actually the only public cemetery on the West side. It is said that burials began in 1818 but the earliest headstone that can be found is 1827. There are currently over 31k people buried on the 13.63 acres, over 500 of which were soldiers. During the civil war, soldiers who died at Army camps near Cleveland were often buried here. There are also two mayors, as well as many notable folks who helped build Cleveland and Ohio City buried here.
xoxo

Bonus fun Monroe Street Cemetery fact : It was fenced during the 19th century to keep out wandering hogs.

Freed Cemetery // on film

by Kaylah Stroup December 3, 2013

I’m a month late sharing these but better late than never, right? So, back to that trip to West Virginia with my mom and grandparents! One of the main things the trip was about was visiting the family cemetery. I’d never been there and of course, it absolutely appealed to me for a variety of reasons. My grandfather hadn’t been in a few years and may never get to visit again due to declining health since getting to the cemetery is a bit of a trip.The cemetery is on the top of a large hill that’s home to a herd of cattle. But before conquering the hill you have to cross a stream. It’s not really a long hike from the car to the cemetery (maybe fifteen or twenty minutes) but I can definitely see how it would be a tough one for the bad knees that seem to run on this side of the family.

It was gorgeous up there. Not to mention the cemetery was immaculate, I can’t believe someone takes such great care of it considering the location. It’s a fairly small cemetery but packed full of relatives. I got to see where my grandpa’s parents and siblings were buried among many other relatives (and some people who we didn’t quite know who they were.)

The cemetery alone was well worth the trip to West Virginia. It was an amazing experience, to say the least.
xoxo

All of the photos above were taken with a Canon T2 and Fuji 35mm Superia X-TRA 400.

Girl in Blue

by Kaylah Stroup July 12, 2012

For as long as I can remember I’ve been interested in cemeteries, ghosts and all things macabre. In middle school I remember pouring over Haunted Ohio books, and day dreaming about visiting all the spooky places Ohio has. Many years later I’m still interested in these types things except with a little (okay, a lot) less emphasis on the haunted, I’m a big fraidy cat. But I still love cemeteries. I love looking at all the old headstones, figuring out how old people were and pondering what they were like.

I found Ace’s blog Mortuary Report a little while ago when she commented on a photo of my mine on instagram. I was instantly smitten with her blog and read through a lot of it. While browsing I found a post about the girl in blue.

“For sixty years, the young lady who had been hit by a train near aboarding house in Willoughby was simply known as “The Girl in Blue.” No one knew who she was, where she was going or who to contact about her death on Christmas Eve 1933. She carried no identification, only 90cents and a ticket to Corry, Pennsylvania. She wore a blue dress andblue shoes.

McMahon Funeral Home adopted this young lady’s funeral arrangements. Local donations paid for a headstone and flowers. More than 3,000 local residents went to McMahon Funeral Home to bid farewell to a girl they never knew.

Her identity remained amystery of national interest until a local newspaper story commemorating the sixtieth anniversary of her death sparked a reader to contact a title agency that researched records from the sale of properties in Warren County, Pennsylvania. State authorities determined that Josephine Klimczak was The Girl in Blue. Lake County records, however, have not changed the death certificate; she is still listed as The Girl in Blue” -from findagrave.com

When I read where this headstone was – I had to visit! Willoughby, Ohio is only a short jaunt away from my house! I set out that week to find the girl in blue. It was so stinken hot that day! I had read on some review site (yep, people review cemeteries!) that the headstone was in one of the far corners of the cemetery. I hunted and hunted for it until finally realizing I couldn’t spend all day out in that heat looking. I got on my phone and found a photo of the headstone and picked some identifying features around it so I could try and spot those. After a few minutes I found a tree with three trunks and sure enough right under it – there she was!

Judging by the pennies, and mint I’d say she’s well visited! I see in other pictures of her headstone that there used to be flowers but when I visited there were none. I’d like to go plant some soon!

I wonder how I went so long without knowing how close I was to something so neat! I went to the book store afterwards and grabbed a big stack of books about strange things in Ohio to plot some trips to make in the future. I’m so excited to visit all the other awesome things I didn’t even know that my state housed.
xoxo

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