Do You Visit Cemeteries?

Yeah I love cemeteries. The coolest one I’ve ever seen is Holt cemetery in New Orleans

Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman got married at Forest Lawn Glendale

Only the one where my grandparents are interred.

I do. In small towns. I find them very peaceful and enjoy reading the gravestones.

I wish there was more biographical information. A name and two dates tells you so little about a fascinating life.

You can not imagine what NYC cemeteries are like

They are super crowded

Yes, OP.

The one where my paternal grandmother is buried is one of my favorite places to visit. Very old with numerous old monuments, gravestones and ancient trees.

When I go there to visit, I swear time stands still. I love this place so much that I often dream about it. Of course, in the dreams it much larger and much, much more ancient but it's the same place.

Most of the older ones have beautiful old trees and flowers as well as really fascinating tombstones.

I haven't visited one since my grandmother died in 2013. She was my best friend, and I'm still somewhat grieving. She was a very special person and my life will always be a little less without her. I will one day bring flowers and have a small chat with her vault. Even though that's senseless, I want to just tell my loved one hello and goodbye one last time. My stillborn older brother, grandfather (her husband, never knew him), my other grandfather and numerous others are buried there. I do not want to be buried there. Too much of my family's tragedies reside there, I just can't do it.

Père Lachaise in Paris and the Protestant Cemetery in Rome are favourites of mine. At home in Glasgow I have the magnificent Victorian Necropolis, which is a popular walking and cycling route. It has many opulent graves of city founders and Victorian industrialists and shipbuilders.

I’d like to exhume one to see the state of the body.

Yes, I enjoy visiting very old cemeteries. I will seek them out in places I visit. Smaller towns tend to have more interesting ones for some reason.

I love cemeteries. I've wanted for a long time to own a home right next to a cemetery. It insures peace and quiet. Many years ago an old friend and I used to scout out old cemeteries around our city. And we have an abundance of them. And now he's close to being in one permanently and in the grand scheme of things I'm not far behind.

So many vloggers on youtube visit Bettie Page's grave at Westwood Memorial without pointing out that Sam the Butcher/Allan Melvin is buried right next to her

There's a semi disused one near me that's mostly 100+ year old graves that I walk the dog around every now and then. For some reason I find it relaxing to look at the names and think about what these people no one remembers anymore were like... I promise I'm less suicidal than that sentence makes me sound.

Yes. I'm an historian and I will stop at cemeteries to look at gravestones, both for the words on them, and their design. I just visited a large state park near me last week, and part of the park was once a homestead in the mid 1800s. There is a small cemetery with about twenty graves, in the middle of the forest.

I saw the Titanic graves at Mt. Olive cemetery in Halifax. Very moving. I do tend to visit them. I love the history and they are also beautiful. The louis Riel gravesite and memorial in Winnipeg is also very nice and the old burnt out cathedral facade is still there to explore as well in St. Boniface.

Yes, often

Titanic graves are buried in 2 cemeteries in Halifax. I didnt see the Anglican one. It was a bit out of the way. But this is the Catholic one.

I always visit cemeteries I stumble upon when I'm travelling. Here's a tale from my latest trip to Santorini last September. I visited the tiny island of Therasia (which is like 10 minutes away from Santorini by boat) and there's a cute little church with adjoining cemetery in the middle of the island. There was a tiny decaying shed-like structure in the corner of the cemetery and there were these big metal boxes stored on shelves in it. Each one had a name on it and some also came with photos. I presumed these were some sort of memorial boxes for the people buried in the cemetery and were there to store some of their personal items so I picked one up and opened it. Imagine my shock when I saw a skull and human bones in it. Then it occurred to me that I was standing inside an ossuary.

I googled the matter later and apparently it's a tradition in Greece to dig out the bones of the deceased ones a few years after they are buried, clean them up and store them inside these boxes. Kinda spooky, huh? Here's a pic I took of these boxes. If you ever come upon them on your Greek vacation I don't recommend opening them!

Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, VA is very nice. Located along the James River, it is also the burial site of two US presidents (Tyler & Monroe) and one Confederate one (Jefferson Davis).

I grew up very close to a cemetary in a segregated Midwestern suburb without sidewalks.

People used the narrow paved paths for rollerblading, bikes, and strollers.

I visited the Sedlec Ossuary and church and cemetery above on a trip to Prague several years ago. For me it was worth the day trip to Kutna Hora.

Burt Reynolds was moved to Hollywood Forever a few months ago

Where did Casey Kasem finally get planted, R24??

Not sure if they've resumed, but tours of Congressional Cemetery in DC are very interesting and I highly recommend. There are no real big names buried there (I think Edgar J Hoover is buried there), but the tour guides are passionate about the place & tell you all about the type of monuments & point out some key memorials (there's a memorial to the women & children killed in a munitions factory during the Civil War, the Oklahoma City Bombing of it's day).

I really wanted to go to the Necropolis Cemetery when visiting Glasgow (I was just passing through on my way to Inverness), but didn't have time. Supposedly J K Rowling pulled the names of characters like Alistair Moody McGonagall from the cemetery.

Yes, I find them beautiful and peaceful. The more historic, the better. I love to see what cemeteries look like in various locations...it's fascinating how different they can be. I am in Mexico now and recently went to a small cemetery that was like a folk-art garden full of bright paint colors, flowers and shrines.

I occasionally visit historic cemeteries. Work took me to Columbia, SC, occasionally. There's an Episcopal church by the state house with a small graveyard I visited a few times. I'm told they're good for bird watching.

Don't you ever feel creeped out when you're alone standing above all the buried bodies and surrounded by shelves of corpses in the moratoriums?

Take your damn hat off and show some respect when you go, especially if you are on a tour.

I don't feel creeped out - I feel insignificant. Particularly when you see graves of people who died young and the headstones have lengthy epitaphs, you know the families grieved over these people. Now standing here years later, no one even knows who that person is. It makes you realize (as if you didn't already know) how significant we are in the larger scheme of things.

Recoleta in Buenos Aires is a MUST!

(Jorge Luis Borges wrote a poem about it).

Ah r32, you beat me to it- I LOVE that cemetery, so much so i visited it twice while I was there.

I used to love to visit cemeteries but I always felt like I was looking for someone. Then I met the love of my life and then he died and I lost all interest in visiting cemeteries. I assume I had found him and lost him again so felt no need to visit except where he is buried.

I do find the youtube videos extremely interesting of the guys that find that old slave cemeteries in the south and then try to bring attention to them so they can be restored. strangely the guys are white.

oh I forgot, I loved the cemetery in an old abbey in Ireland. It was strange that they were laid out as the walkway so you had to walk on them. Then there were the above ground cement burial vaults just out in the open which I found intriguing. I learned that in Ireland you can only be buried on sacred land. So even though most of the abbey was deteriorated all the graves where there inside and out.

The English Cemetery in Florence, Italy is absolutely beautiful.

It features on the opening of Tea with Mussolini.

Love Laurel Hill in Philly

I'd also recommend the Commonwealth War graves cemeteries in Belgium and France. It sort of helped put what an abject slaughter WW1 was into perspective for me.

Harold and Maude

OP I do.

Live in Europe and i like to dress in a long black cape and hood, and visit late afternoon as light is falling. I get a kick out of making people nervous.

My husband and I did on Remembrance Day, with a ohotographer in tow, of course.

R38 I took my dad to see his uncle's grave from the first world war in France a couple of years ago.

It's only a small cemetery. No more than 100 graves, but it is immaculately kept by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Green River, East Hampton, NY

The Albany Rural Cemetery is one of the most beautiful ones Ive ever seen. Ive always loved old cemeteries,and NY state is chock full of them.

r42 I think they're some of the best kept graveyards in the world tbh. I've seen pictures of ones in Egypt and Burma where you'd think it'd be difficult to reach but the CWGC still seems to manage them pretty well. And honestly the Cross of Sacrifice is one of the most poignant symbols I've ever come across.

Cemeteries have an interesting history. In the late 1800s cemeteries were places people visited to picnic, stroll and enjoy the landscape that was made to accept graves but also be beautiful parklike and very controlled landscape design. There are temples, ponds groves of trees, winding roads and this was the start of the city park movement.

They have always been one of my favorite landscape topics, the history from a romatic landscape design to some that are striking and simple in northern Europe.

My favorites are the cemeteries on the east coast, one was in a forest, hidden near our house, from the revolution, one is a very late 1800's cemetery where many of my family is buried, and another in the small town I grew up in on a hill overlooking farmland all around it in central New Jersey. Nothing with put you in a thoughtful moment more than walking through a cemetery in the country on a still August afternoon.

Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland is beautiful.

Westwood Memorial Park is a tiny place behind a bank building on Wilshire Blvd in Westwood--everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Richard conte.

Hillside has a lot of the famous Jews including Dinah Shore, Al Jolson, & David Janssen

Holy Cross has the Catholics and doesn't like tourists--Roz Russell and Loretta Young are there.

The more interesting Forest Lawn is the one in Glendale.

It's strange that the Jacksons chose to place Michael in a private area at Forest Lawn Glendale since thousands of people visit every year and try to figure out a way inside, leaving tons of stuffed animals, gifts, notes and flowers, which all end up in the trash. The staff is constantly suspicious and on alert. There is now a white curtain placed outside Michael's casket.

R49 and five security cameras

The most intense, moving cemetery I've ever visited was the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach. It was the most powerful place I have ever experienced. I stopped at one of the cliffside overlooks. That was when the bodies of hundreds, possibly thousands of soldiers raced through my body, flooding me with their thoughts, their presence, and thanks for coming to remember them. I was so overcome by their movement through my physical body that I was dropped to my knees and found it difficult to stand back up. They talked to me as passed through my body. I was unable to speak about it until the next day. I've always been able to channel people after death but had never experienced anything as intense as this. It was incredibly moving, to say the least.

I forgot the D-Day cemeteries. The Bayeux war graves one had the most passive aggressive epitaph from the liberating British soldiers I've ever seen.

[quote] NOS A GULIELMO VICTI VICTORIS PATRIAM LIBERAVIMUS / We, once conquered by William, have now set free the Conqueror's native land

I was at Hollywood Forever a few weeks ago. It was quiet and peaceful, and I was alone next to Valentino and my glasses fogged up. Some skeptics will say it was the face mask. It is a nice little park and you get to meet a lot of famous dead people.

If you've ever watched the View, Joy Behar has talked about learning to ride a bike in a cemetery. It was the only place without a lot of cars

Hollywood Forever is an interesting mishmash of celebrities and Russian and Armenian graves in their typical style. I like to see the peacocks and feral kitties running around too. I still need to visit Forest Lawn and some of the other places around LA.

I did visit a very old and glamorous cemetery to do some birding recently, and even though it was quite beautiful I found the place disturbing. I'm a nurse and see death on the job, I really don't need more reminders of death when I'm out trying to have fun.

But some people love old cemeteries, history buffs and whatall. I met a lady who was severely agoraphobic, and was starting to recover, because the one thing that enticed her out of her house was a community movement to save an old cemetery. The city had said that if the graves weren't tended then the place would be sold and converted to housing, so community volunteers went there and started tending graves, on their own time, for free. The agoraphobic lady was able to leave the house for this, to tend graves and do a bit of gardening in a beautiful old cemetery filled with sculpture and greenery. I'm glad it worked for her, even if I could never do the same.

Several years ago the father of a close friend passed away, and I drove down to attend the funeral. He was buried in the cemetery that was used in the opening scene of "Night of the Living Dead."

That was too creepy to me.

Cemeteries have never been among my favorite places to visit.

My cousin, a Vietnam vet, died a few years ago after a lifetime of battling the effects of Agent Orange, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. I drove down for the funeral and it was quite a moving experience, unlike any other cemetery I've ever visited.

Not a fan of funerals or cemeteries, but I'm certainly glad that I went. He never really talked about his experiences, like so many other vets. He was a humble soul, and I never knew about his acts of courage, included earning the purple heart, until after his death. This is an experience that I'll never forget.

I live next to a cemetery on Cape Cod dating back to 1800. It's very peaceful, but more stark than beautiful. The headstones are fascinating.

There's a Cemetery Commission that is attempting to clean up and maintain the cemeteries, and has been collecting information from every headstone (when possible and visible) regarding names and dates, and then providing in booklets some of the histories of the dead.

I took a walk through a local cemetery on a quiet day. It's a nicely maintained, unpretentious ecumenical cemetery and it was interesting to see all the different communities that had their own plots. Then I ran across a children's area with a grave that had just been prepared for a baby's funeral, and I couldn't help crying.

Connecticut has some really excellent cemeteries. Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford, Connecticut (burial place of Katherine Hepburn) and the Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven, just down the street from Yale, are two that stand out in my memory.

I just assumed that this was a thread about cruising, there used to be some great old cemetery’s in London that were really overgrown so ideal for daytime hookups.

R51, we love you but get a blog.

Forest Lawn (Glendale, CA) is camper than row of tents.

Forest Lawn Glendale is MASSIVE and frustrating if you're searching for someone in particular.

I've been frustrated and given up looking for Kim Shattuck of The Muffs, Carrie Snodgress and Ted Knight

Some cemeteries are deliberately difficult to visit too.

"shelves of corpses in the moratoriums"

Oh, dear!

Another cemetery that's closed to the public is Quaker Cemetery in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. No one would probably even know the place exists if it wasn't the last resting place of Montgomery Clift.

Green-Wood Cemetery in NYC is on the National Registry of Historic Places it is also one of the largest arboretums in the country. I've taken a few tours one was a the twilight tour of the catacombs.

R68 My first partner is buried there, it's a beautiful cemetery and hidden from the rest of Prospect park by heavy shrubbery and huge trees.

Houston has a WONDERFUL old cemetery close to downtown (Glenwood Cemetery) where Howard Hughes is buried. It has some great headstones (weeping angels, etc.) in a very pretty setting.

R68/R70 It looks beautiful on the pictures of it.

Does the diseased need to be a Quaker to be buried there?

R63, I don't want a blog.

What I shared here was not a long, bloggish piece.

I have never spoken of this on DL at any time since I've been coming here and I've been here for quite a while. It's a peculiar *talent* of sorts that possesses me.

I can't say why my little story upset you but please do me a favor and stay far away from me if you fear death as I suspect you do.

R73 I liked your post - very descriptive. Thanks!

I liked it too r73

R72 Yes or partnered with one the plot next to him was reserved for me but I decided to give it up since I needed to move on with my life and I have a new partner now. It's a small cemetery and there are fewer available plots now which I feel should be reserved for active members.

3 1/2 decades ago (yes I'm old), I had thought of a type of cemetery that instead of a headstone or a mausoleum, you would have a tree for your family, where you could bury the ashes under/behind the tree(s), thereby nourishing the tree in some aspect. A beautiful forest of trees. But I guess that would excise a whole segment of craftsmen/industry.

They are overwhelming if you think about all the individual lives

I loved your story R73 . My beloved aunt used to channel ghosts (witnessed many times ) and I 1000% believe it happens.

I plan a trip back east soon to visit my parents' plot.

My dad died first, young in his 30s; I remember him, but not a great deal.

My mother only recently died.

Her older sister died first. She asked my mother if she could be buried in the family plot. (There's room for four.)

My mother said of course and as soon as her sister died she said oh, of course I want here there. In between, she confided in me SHE wanted to join my father in the ground first; I said well, your sister is almost 10 years older and you're in better health so...that's not going to be likely.)

I said wait...what if I were to die first? Would it be okay if I went into the family plot with dad?

My my mom said: oh, HONEY! Don't even think that way!!

Actually, no.

She said: "Sure. that'd be fine. Don't give it a thought."

For a great monumental cemetery it's Mirogoj Cemetery in Zagreb.