Northfield Macedonia Cemetery - Northfield, Ohio

Time for one last trip through a local cemetery and our last installment of Cemetery Sundays for this season. This week I tour Northfield Macedonia Cemetery in Northfield, Ohio. It's a cemetery that has been on the list for a few years after driving past it on a random trip. I happened to be out that way again yesterday, so I brought the camera, braved the cold, endless rain, and finally got my photos. It wasn't easy, but it seems to be a fitting end for a season plagued by bad weather...

Northfield Macedonia Cemetery was founded in 1847, although the first recorded grave on the land dates all the way back to 1812. It's a large cemetery, with over 4,900 burials recorded, but I was only interested in documenting the earliest graves from the early to mid-1800s. These graves were all located at the back of the cemetery, so I only had to walk that section within the entire sprawling grounds. And there are some really wonderful old tombstones with amazingly-preserved epitaphs here!

As I quickly toured the older section photographing the ornate tombstones, I noticed that many of them had been damaged and were leaning against other stones or simply laying in pieces. And with the stones being streaked with rain, it gave an added sense of eeriness. Even during the middle of the day.

I took as many photos as I could before retreating from the cold and wet weather to the warmth of my dry car, quickly calling it a day. I would have loved to have stayed longer and gotten some more photos, but Mother Nature just wasn't having it this day.

I'm still quite happy with what I did shoot, so sit back, relax, and enjoy a quick tour of Northfield Macedonia Cemetery...

This last photo proved to be somewhat interesting. As I was finishing my tour, I went to get one last photo of this mausoleum. As I got closer, I noticed that the doors seemed to have been replaced and a small sign saying "Office" was attached to the one door. I peeked in the window, only to notice that it was indeed some sort of office. Desk. Chair. Papers. And a spinning ceiling fan. How strange. If this was a mausoleum, what did they do with the original bodies that were interred there?

And as I was driving home, I thought about how cool it would be to have an office inside of a former mausoleum. It would be right up my alley!

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I hope everyone enjoyed the photos from this year's cemetery tours. I still really enjoy taking the time to go through each one and document the ornate stones and epitaphs from a bygone era. In a hectic month filled with Halloween planning, it's nice to hit the pause button and take a relaxing trip through a quiet old cemetery. And the great thing is that there are still quite a few local cemeteries on my list to visit, so I'll definitely be doing Cemetery Sundays next year!