# What happens to cemetaries when they are full? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 23, 2015, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-cemetaries-when-they-are-full/723256 "2015-06-23T16:40:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mr.Bill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mr.Bill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Bill)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2015, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-cemetaries-when-they-are-full/723256/1 "2015-06-23T16:40:49Z")
I recently took a walk through a local graveyard. This particular cemetery seems pretty close to full - very few plots without headstones, no unused land. It got me to wondering what happens to cemeteries when they become economically non-viable. When there are no more plots to sell, and no more funerals to provide services for, there doesn’t seem to be any source of revenue and by extension to way to pay for upkeep. So, what happens? Does the person or organization running the cemetery just abandon it to entropy? Are they tax exempt? Or does the government eventually claim it for non-payment of taxes? If so, then what happens? Are the graves relocated and the land re-purposed? ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2015, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-cemetaries-when-they-are-full/723256/2 "2015-06-23T16:46:14Z")
Depends on the cemetery. Municipal cemeteries, like municipal swimming pools, are not set up to be profit-makers. The city will probably still maintain it. As for private cemeteries, what happens around here is that some group (church group, historical society, boy scouts, etc.) will take over the maintenance as a public service project. [Here’s](http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=97408&CScntry=4&CSst=44&CScnty=2396&CSsr=21&) one such cemetery. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2015, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-cemetaries-when-they-are-full/723256/3 "2015-06-23T16:55:10Z")
And some, obviously, are just abandoned. Also, if it is on private land, sometimes the landowner will take care of it. ---
**Author:** ![Ornery\_Bob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/da6949/32.png) [@Ornery\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ornery_Bob)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2015, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-cemetaries-when-they-are-full/723256/4 "2015-06-23T17:29:25Z")
Pretty much anything is possible and it’s all on a case by case basis. Short answer - If the cemetery simply goes broke, they go into bankruptcy like anyone else and the court has to decide what happens to the land and the bodies buried there. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2015, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-cemetaries-when-they-are-full/723256/5 "2015-06-23T17:32:31Z")
Some cemeteries add in costs [that are put in a trust for perpetual care.](http://www.iccfa.com/reading/1920-1939/perpetual-care-its-establishment-and-regulation-state) I don’t know how long that’s enforceable, though. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2015, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-cemetaries-when-they-are-full/723256/6 "2015-06-23T17:59:13Z")
They build housing developments on top of them. At least that’s what they have done with Native American burial grounds. ---
**Author:** ![chiquitita](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@chiquitita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiquitita)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2015, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-cemetaries-when-they-are-full/723256/7 "2015-06-23T20:59:37Z")
An Old World example: [Holy Innocents' Cemetery - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Innocents%27_Cemetery) This churchyard was literally overflowing with corpses after centuries of mass burials. It was repossessed by royal edict, emptied into the Catacombes, turned into a market, and nowadays a huge shopping mall stands on the site. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2015, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-cemetaries-when-they-are-full/723256/8 "2015-06-24T03:04:58Z")
The cemeteries all get relocated to Colma. Excerpts from Wikipedia for [Colma, California](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colma,_California): > [@](#): > > Colma is a small incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, near the northern end of the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 1,792 at the 2010 census. The town was founded as a necropolis in 1924.[5] > > With most of Colma’s land dedicated to cemeteries, the population of the dead outnumber the living by over a thousand to one. This has led to it being called, “the City of the Silent,” and also has given rise to a humorous motto, now recorded on the city’s Web site: “It’s great to be alive in Colma.” > > \< . . . \> > > Colma became the location of a large number of cemeteries when San Francisco, the town’s powerful neighbor to the north, passed an ordinance in 1900 outlawing the construction of any more cemeteries in the city (mainly because of increased property values making the cost of using land for cemeteries prohibitive), and then passed another ordinance in 1912 evicting all existing cemeteries from city limits. > > \< . . . \> > > Informally, as of December 2006, Colma had “1,500 aboveground residents … and 1.5 million underground”. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2015, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-cemetaries-when-they-are-full/723256/9 "2015-06-24T03:49:58Z")
A while back (_ten years it turns out!_ :eek:) [**I asked a similar question.**](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=329702) Responses I got stated that most cemeteries in fact recycle grave plots after a certain amount of time (40-100 years). Makes sense, as I don’t know too many people who have any idea where anyone beyond their grandparents are buried… ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2015, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-cemetaries-when-they-are-full/723256/10 "2015-06-24T08:06:29Z")
Pamplona’s New Cementery is a bit over 100 years old, it was opened at the end of the 19th century. It’s owned by the township. - A large amount of plots and mausoleums (which tend to be just a partially-raised grave, rather than a building) are owned on perpetuity; it’s not just José Arilla Sanz who is buried there, but José Arilla Sanz plus his wife, their direct descendants and any spouses thereof who chose to avail themselves of that plot. Some mausoleums list more than 40 names. - Individual graves are almost non-existent. There is an area of graves of Unknown Soldiers from the 1936-9 Spanish Civil War and a couple more (such as the grave/monument of a famous musician), but that’s about it. - Niches are rented, they can’t be bought for perpetuity. They may be individual or shared. - Both niches and graves get emptied when the contract or the space run out. The bones are transferred to an ossuarium (a very, very large collective grave) within the cementery itself. When it was approaching its 100 years anniversary, the major mistakenly thought the “to perpetuity” plots were about to become available again (in her own hometown of Burgos, plots can’t be bought, the longest term is 100 years). A lot of indignant families started bringing to City Hall copies of the original contract, plus every document showing the inheritance trail. The cementery manager pointed out that since the cementery keeps records of sales, rentals and burials, it was probably easier to determine which graves still had living owners and which not, by cross-checking the cementery’s own records with those from the civil registry. This proposal was adopted: any “to perpetuity” plot can revert to the city a number of years after its last living owner has ceased ownership (I think it’s 25 years but don’t take my word for it) . ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2015, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-cemetaries-when-they-are-full/723256/11 "2015-06-24T08:21:30Z")
Most public graveyards are eventually sold, with the remains moved. Typically (and this varies) its about 70 years from when the last grave was filled… enough time that most people will no longer have living relatives who knew them around. Private ones can last a heck of a long time as they can be more…exclusive. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2015, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-cemetaries-when-they-are-full/723256/12 "2015-06-24T08:40:53Z")
Some become very atmospheric. Highgate Cemetery is where Karl Marx is buried. Also Douglas Adams and George Eliot. [![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Flickr_-_Duncan~_-_Highgate_Cemetery_(1).jpg) ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Flickr_-_Duncan~_-_Highgate_Cemetery_(1).jpg) ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2015, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-cemetaries-when-they-are-full/723256/13 "2015-06-24T12:19:14Z")
Years ago I performed a wedding in a “historic cemetery”, with permission of the caretaker. It was full, and maintained by a group for its historic significance. Of course it was sunset on Halloween, and the wedding party and guests were all in costume, with the bride and groom arriving in a hearse. I was Dracula. Good times. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2015, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-cemetaries-when-they-are-full/723256/14 "2015-06-24T15:01:48Z")
So basically it looks like the answers to the OP’s question, much like a lot of questions, vary based on circumstances and, at least a little bit, location. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Bill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mr.Bill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Bill)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2015, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-cemetaries-when-they-are-full/723256/15 "2015-06-24T22:18:37Z")
Thank you all for the replies! I guess it really does vary from case to case.