# The long-term fate of cemeteries? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 11, 2021, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-long-term-fate-of-cemeteries/941829 "2021-05-11T09:49:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-long-term-fate-of-cemeteries/941829/61 "2021-06-01T12:54:37Z")
Mrs. L and I find cemeteries intriguing and often visit them when traveling. Here are a few items that may be of interest. > **[Burial Ground in Strip Mall Parking Lot, Sand Springs, Oklahoma](https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/13697)** > > 19th century Tullahassee Creek Indian Cemetery survives among retail, fenced off from the minivans. > **[Unearthing of Freed-Slave Cemetery May Put Dallas Road Project on Hold...](https://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/13/us/unearthing-of-freed-slave-cemetery-may-put-dallas-road-project-on-hold.html)** > The Freedman’s Cemetery, burial place of as many as 2,000 freed slaves and their descendants, has sat just off the North Central Expressway ever since the road was built over some of the graves 50 years ago. > New York City cemeteries have had to become as inventive as possible in creating additional interment space, narrowing pathways and creating a smaller family or joint plots. The Division of Cemeteries that govern cemeteries allows them to reclaim plots that have remained unused for 75 years if they have had no contact from the family who purchased the plot. Cemeteries can even buy back sold plots that families no longer want. Maybe not surprising then that the Division has been approached by families wanting to disinter their parents to sell the plots. When a plot at Woodlawn can be valued at anything between $6,995 and $1.6 million, this is becoming the lucrative real estate of the 21st century for many cash-poor New Yorkers. > **[buying & selling cemetery plot NYC Archives](https://dfsmemorials.com/cremation-blog/tag/buying-selling-cemetery-plot-nyc/)** I wonder how the upkeep works in this situation. > **[Okemah, OK - Expired Parking Meter Tombstone](https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/17633)** > > Visit reports, news, maps, directions and info on Expired Parking Meter Tombstone in Okemah, Oklahoma. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-long-term-fate-of-cemeteries/941829/62 "2021-06-01T14:16:54Z")
[Wikimapia - Let’s describe the whole world!](http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=39.834476&lon=-84.029789&z=15&m=w&show=/3572255/Osborn-Cemetery&search=wright-patterson%20afb) [Wright Patterson Cultural Resources (daytondailynews.com)](https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/wright-patt-honors-own-history-with-national-park-service-help/iDIGglWTZ9t9pV3OXHRP5M/) ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-long-term-fate-of-cemeteries/941829/63 "2021-06-01T17:47:34Z")
I’m disappoint. I expected a sofa shaped edifice. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-long-term-fate-of-cemeteries/941829/64 "2021-06-01T19:46:52Z")
Two more interesting places… > **[This Staircase Let a Grieving Mother Comfort Her Dead Daughter During Storms](https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-grave-of-florence-irene-ford)** > > When the thunder rolled, Ellen Ford would descend to her daughter's casket to sit with her remains. This one is in a traffic circle: > **[Johnson City, TN - Grave of First Dead White Man in Tennessee](https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/30342)** > > Visit reports, news, maps, directions and info on Grave of First Dead White Man in Tennessee in Johnson City, Tennessee. And now some are adding high tech to graves. > **[QR Codes For Headstones Keep Dearly Departed Close](https://www.npr.org/2012/09/29/162011967/qr-codes-for-headstones-keep-dearly-departed-close)** > > A couple in Philadelphia is reinventing gravesite memorials. Using the popular QR code technology, they've developed a business in which mourners can digitally connect to their loved ones with a scan of a smartphone. Meanwhile, in one Paris cemetery… > The rarity of remaining plots has sent prices soaring. Between 2008 and last year, the cost of an in-perpetuity grave rose 40% from €11,086 to €15,528. > **[In the dilapidated cemeteries of Paris, a grave is only for the rich](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/07/paris-cemetery-dilapidated-grave-only-for-rich)** > > Shortage of space in city cemeteries means most Parisians are shipped to suburbs after death ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-long-term-fate-of-cemeteries/941829/65 "2021-06-01T19:53:34Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > My mother has always said that funerary rites and graves are for the comfort of the _living_ not the dead. Once the erstwhile living loved ones have joined the deceased in the afterlife, really what use is there anymore to waste a perfectly good plot of land? > Always thought the Parsis have the best idea, put em up in a tower and feed them to the birds. Even if it was rather distressing to witness as a teenager. I’ve heard that the traditional Zoroastrian/Parsi funerary rite you mention is a lot less effective these days due to the carrion birds involved having their numbers reduced dramatically due to various ecological problems. Reportedly back in the past the birds would swarm the corpses and could have them picked down almost to the bones quite quickly, but now that is less common. ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2021, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-long-term-fate-of-cemeteries/941829/66 "2021-06-02T12:22:49Z")
In Montreal, this [street](https://www.google.com/maps/@45.4992398,-73.5690611,125a,35y,218.65h,45t/data=!3m1!1e3) is being dug up for sewer pipe replacement. The neighboring green space was a cemetery until the 1850’s, when thousands of graves were moved to the “Protestant” Mount Royal cemetery not far away. (around the same time, other graves from other cemeteries were moved to an adjoining “Catholic” cemetery). Bones and other artifacts have been found during the sewer construction. It’s now been about two years of specialists being on site and searching/digging for more relics. Today, the two [cemeteries](https://www.google.com/maps/@45.5147081,-73.5851329,1574a,35y,218.65h,44.47t/data=!3m1!1e3) occupy an area of over 400 acres (200 ha). Separated by a high fence, the only gap is where a (non-denominational) military cemetery overlaps the border. Religion is no longer a factor for burial, but the tradition seems to continue. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2021, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-long-term-fate-of-cemeteries/941829/67 "2021-06-02T13:09:41Z")
This is fantastic–thank you! This just proves I wasn’t imagining things. Tripler I hear prolonged exposure to Ohio makes some hallucinate. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2021, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-long-term-fate-of-cemeteries/941829/68 "2021-06-02T16:12:43Z")
Every now and then, my Google-Fu is exceptionally strong, and I hit the right keywords. [This one is probably the strangest one I’ve seen](https://goo.gl/maps/vaZ4qbQDjJCHbc9PA); I saw it 30-something years ago when I was going to a track meet (the high school is visible to the left of the red 18-wheeler cab), and was pretty shocked back then- I remember driving by and thinking “Wait… were those gravestones?” [Here’s another of those double-take cemeteries](https://goo.gl/maps/A4DjKFoaDStN64MQ9) in Houston. I had heard of this one before I first saw it, so I wasn’t as surprised as when I saw the one in Spring. Both are essentially small 19th century family cemeteries that in the case of the Spring one, the highway department just built around, and in the case of the other, the descendants still own the land and maintain it. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2021, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-long-term-fate-of-cemeteries/941829/69 "2021-06-02T16:23:07Z")
I wonder if they’ve solved this problem yet. > **[Grave-Robbing Badgers Dig Up British Cemetery](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/grave-robbing-badgers-dig-up-british-cemetery_n_1308190)** > > Grave-Robbing Badgers Dig Up British Cemetery [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-long-term-fate-of-cemeteries/941829.md?page=3)