Welcome to another edition of Cemetery Sundays. Today, we head to the east side of town for a walk through East Akron Cemetery, positioned next to the Goodyear Tire & Rubber World Headquarters in Akron, Ohio, former rubber capital of the world...
East Akron Cemetery
Akron, Ohio
Akron, Ohio
Beautiful patina...
I was enjoying my walk through the grounds, documenting the beautiful, old stones in the cemetery. At the very back of the grounds, I went up a hill and came upon this...
A decrepit, old, grey marble building completely sealed off (except for the kicked out window at the basement level of the building where wild animals, homeless wanderers or perhaps even Satanists of some sort can climb in). I carefully walked around the entire building (as it was wild and overgrown), taking a few shots, but for some reason I had a very uneasy feeling while I was here. Something about this building really creeped me out, so I took the shots and then got out of there. On one corner of the building, someone had left a pile of bread for the animals and a pile of spaghetti for whom or what I could only imagine.
I ended up calling the cemetery the next day where a woman with a horrifying, old voice told me that the building was a public mausoleum and that it was completely full. Which is fine, because I had no desire to get in there any time soon.
Unless I can convince someone to go back there with me with some flashlights and muster up the courage to climb through that open window...
Scrapes? I'm looking at you, brother. Or if there are any intrepid readers who would love the opportunity to enter a public mausoleum and face the possibility of getting arrested (or bitten or robbed or killed), contact me. I'm dead serious.
15 days to go, haunters. Are you ready?
15 comments:
Great pictures. I have been wanting to to an open book monument for a while now....that picture is great inspiration. Thanks for sharing with us!
Ready? We have been up for 2 weeks :D
Now are all the props working every night? Well...how many days until Halloween? :D
We will get there!
Cheers!
Wow, those buildings are creepy! I don't know if I could be brave enough to go in one with peeing myself!
Another great post.The stones that lean always freak me out a little. There could be things digging under there.
I would love to go back and crawl through that window with you. I will bring spaghetti just in case.
As to being ready.... most of my stuff is up but are we ever truly ready ;)
The Children's Home stone was super creepy. I'm not quite ready. I have about 1/2 of the front yard set up and the back yard is a freaking mess. So much to do!!!
Frog Queen, feel free to take that photo for reference. It's the least I could do! And we've been drooling over your photos ever since you posted them up. Your abbey is a work of art!
KED, come on up, but don't forget the penicillin! We have some mean little raccoons and groundhogs around here!
Faith, the Children's Home stone had two broken angle figurines on top of it. I forgot to take a closeup of it, but definitely creepy.
And everybody is ahead of me on the setup. But in my defense, we don't set up until the day of trick-or-treat. And then we tear it all down that night. Insane, I know...
I stumbled across your blog as I was searching for my relative. I think she was buried in this cemetery but unfortunately I haven't found records online for the plots in this cemetery. And none of the stones you photographed were hers. But, I would highly recommend donating your pictures to findagrave.com so that others may find their ancestors.
I personally have family members in that graveyard and mausoleum... they were the type to creep you out just for laughs.... good photography taken
I have been here a lot of times, this is a beautiful cemetery and well kept up and the lady who run it is a very nice person I have met her in person while visiting this cemetery I feel you should get to know a person before you make negative comments about them ..
Lois
I used to work there around 1976 or so. The family who ran the cemetery at that time were the Smiths. Great people. I used to date their daughter Cindy.
I have been I'm masoulum, it was nice 15 or so yrs ago. Just like any other.
My grand parents are buried there as of Sat the grass was about knee deep. They were cutting it but left big clumps of grass and had not weed eaten. It was not cut regular last summer.
The lady i spoke w said it it's taken care of on volunteer basis? She was volunteer as well.
My family is buried here. The cemetery is a disgrace. The "caretaker" only complains about what she doesn't have. There has been no water in the cemetery in AT LEAST 5 years!!!
Thank you to everyone who commented with family members buried here. The lack of consistent upkeep seems to be a problem shared by other cemeteries in the Akron area as well. I will have to check in on the "volunteer" status of these grounds to see if something can't be done to better preserve these sacred places.
When were you there last? Bc now it's not being taken care of according to my aunt.
A lady fb messaged me that she had spoken to care giver who said anyone any time can come help clean up. I live in Alabama so it would be hard.
Just to let the public know that their is a group of people that has been trying to clean up the cemetery this past spring, summer and fall. This is all "volunteer". If you would like to help you can contact us thru the Cemetery phone 330-784-7238 ask for Blair, Malinda or Tim. Please leave a message and we will contact you back. I would like to Thank all of the ones that came out this past year to help clean and clear up the cemetery to what it is now. Yes, I to have my family and loves one buried their and this cemetery mean a lot to me I was raised here until my father retired. So we're back to clean and clear up the cemetery to make it what it suppose to be. This is a lot owner cemetery so that's why the City nor the State does anything above it. We are working and planning on the Positive side to getting thing done for the up coming 2016. So please be patience with us as working on it. We are trying to be their every Saturday so stop in and see us. Thanks for taking the time to read this little note. Malinda
Large public mausoleums are normally open to the public. How can family members visit when their loved ones are interred there.if visitation is closed. Why is it closed? Is it so badly kept up inside that they want no one to see the poor conditions? Usually when a family decides for someone to be placed in a mausoleum it's because they know their loved ones will be taken care of properly. What are they trying to hide?
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