Tipped by this comment from a little while back: in the center of the block bound by Leigh, M, 29th, and 30th Streets, there is a city-owned property described as “M STREET CEMETERY”. The comment (from a reputable source) says that “In my research I have never found a record of bodies being moved.”
19 comments
Wow.
Dana Bagby liked this on Facebook.
Interesting! Looks like its treated like an alley now. Guess folks living there are unaware.
RT @chpn: The M Street Cemetery? http://t.co/IIDpVHfXu8
Great. I’ll rename the shop “Urban Set Body Count.”
Is this near the abandoned duplex with the purple stucco and/or The Water Tank/Water Tower? Think I remember hearing something about this when that house was for sale – that there was an unmarked/forgotten cemetery somewhere nearby. Nothing terribly specific though.
Yes Lee I believe the house you’re talking about is on the corner of 30th and M St.
I have some friends who live on that block and always thought that the property lines were kind of peculiar. Interesting to know that there’s a story behind it.
And with that, a couple dozen houses just hit the market…
I don’t know how I missed this in all the years I have been looking at parcels and using the assessor’s site. I wonder how many other hidden cemeteries there are in the city? Now I want to know the history behind it. There is a small parcel on the Leigh street side belonging to S I EDWARDS MEMORIAL SABBATH APOSTOLIC CHURCH TRS. I wonder if the church is related to it?
I am uncertain of another possible cemetery at 2700 Fairfield Avenue. It is owned by CITY OF RICHMOND PUBLIC WORKS and shows up on a 1909 plat as being a graveyard.
Just an empty space on the 1905 Sanborn map… maybe it was the family burial plot for whoever lived in 617 N 29TH ST back in the 1800s?
Cameron Holmes liked this on Facebook.
I used to live there! Had no idea
My back yard – literally. Could this have anything to do with why all the construction on the 29th street side of the alley stopped a few weeks ago?
Damica Alston liked this on Facebook.
Ground penetrating radar might clear the possibility right up…
True @11. May end up looking like the Jewish Cemetery in the bottom surrounded by mid-rises, but at least it is recognized and respected.
Christian Briggs liked this on Facebook.
This must have been a private cemetery and a deed search (some have drawn maps) is in order. The 1877 map shows a large chunk of the block owned by the E.J. Clopton estate and the upper part more towards M was part of the Eliza O. Kelley paroprty. No cemetery shown. This area on the 1905 map is void of any cemetery indication as well other than a number 2 over it and nothing to say what that means in the map keys.
Many years ago there was two family cemeteries side-by-side located at 23rd and Marshall Streets – one for the family of Thomas Adams and a smaller one called the Picketts cemetery. Both had the bodies moved to Hollywood into basically a mass grave,
Dallas @11… this doesn’t always produce because, depending on the age of the graves, how the body was or wasn’t prepared, and the type of coffins, there may be nothing left but discolored dirt. A friend of ours who once worked at a funeral home, had been on call to exhume a body to bury elsewhere. Only a stain was found so they took and reburied a clump of dirt. Sometimes you may find a nail or a handle but that is about it. If the soil was in a dry area then bones or more may be found.