Holy Rood Cemetery

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View of Washington Monument from Holy Rood Cemetery
View of Washington Monument from Holy Rood Cemetery
Much of Holy Rood Cemetry has fallen into disrepair.
Much of Holy Rood Cemetry has fallen into disrepair.

Holy Rood Cemetery is located at 2016 Wisconsin Avenue at the southern end of the Glover Park neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It was established by Holy Trinity Church in 1832, and further land was purchased in 1853. [1] It stands at one of the highest elevations in Washington, D.C. and has memorable views.

The cemetery was active from the mid-nineteenth century into the early twentieth century (although some burials took place as late as the 1990s), and as many as 1,000 free and enslaved African Americans are said to be interred here. [2]

By the 1990s, the cemetery clearly reflected years of disuse and neglect. Many of the tombstones are toppled, damaged or overgrown, and grass grows up through large cracks in the lone asphalt walkway leading through it. [3]

The cemetery has for some time now been owned by Georgetown University, which has long sought to remove the graves, remove the hill on which the cemetery sits, and develop the land. Part of this process has been the steps the university has taken to contact possible owners of the plots, to establish which graves can be removed without legal complications. [4]


[edit] References

  • GloverPark.org. "Holy Rood Cemetery I", reproducing material originally appearing in Newsletter of the Catholic Historical Society of Washington, Volume X, Number 3, July-September 2002; and in the Glover Park Gazette, from October to December, 2002. Retrieved on October 31, 2007.
  • GloverPark.org. "Holy Rood Cemetery II", reproducing material originally appearing in Newsletter of the Catholic Historical Society of Washington, Volume X, Number 3, July-September 2002; and in the Glover Park Gazette, from October to December, 2002. Retrieved on October 31, 2007.
  • GloverPark.org. "Holy Rood Cemetery III", reproducing material originally appearing in Newsletter of the Catholic Historical Society of Washington, Volume X, Number 3, July-September 2002; and in the Glover Park Gazette, from October to December, 2002. Retrieved on October 31, 2007.