Moving a cemetery may sound like the plotline for a horror movie, but thanks to a dedicated five-year project that’s nearing completion, a local historic cemetery now has two homes.
Warwick …
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Moving a cemetery may sound like the plotline for a horror movie, but thanks to a dedicated five-year project that’s nearing completion, a local historic cemetery now has two homes.
Warwick Historic Cemetery Number 26, known as the Peter Freedman lot, was a familiar site off Main Avenue on Rhode Island Airport Corporation (RIAC) property at T.F. Green. The small plot of 25 graves stood behind the airport’s fence near the end of the runway, with grave markers that date from 1835 to 1902.
With the runway expansion project and the relocation of Main Avenue, the cemetery quickly became a travel hazard for planes, and members of the Warwick Historic Cemetery Commission (WHCC) took it upon themselves to preserve and protect the integrity of the plot.
“What they have done now, because the headstones could cause an accident if there was a runaway plane, they have moved the upright headstones to a location that is basically where Main Street meets Industrial Drive,” said Pegee Malcolm, chair of the WHCC. “Each headstone will be reset in the exact same formation as it was in the real cemetery. People will be able to then visit those headstones, who want to see who was actually buried there.”
All of the headstones were removed within the last two weeks, and those needing repair or stabilization received it before being transported to the new location. The original cemetery had been completely mapped using GPS, so when the cemetery is recreated in its new location it will have the same configuration as the Freeman lot.
“The Public Archaeology Laboratory [PAL] was hired to find each grave and to see if there were any more graves then there were headstones,” said Malcolm. “They found not only everybody that was accounted for, they also found three other people, three other burials.”
While the headstones are being moved, the remains of those interred will stay buried where they lay. Airport construction crews are aware of the cemetery’s location and are taking extra precautions to ensure that land is not disturbed.
“At the airport proper, there will be an exact replica of what is on the original headstone, but it will be on flat markers, so it will not impact the airport,” said Malcolm. “At the headstone cemetery, there will be an interpretive panel explaining exactly what happened, when and why.”
According to Malcolm, the real headstones will be re-erected in their new home within the next month after the land gets leveled. The new flat headstones won’t be installed until late September.
Peter Mair, senior archaeologist for PAL, served as project manager for the Freeman lot.
“Peter has been wonderful, telling us exactly what’s happening, and we’ve been informed on every step,” said Malcolm. “We never thought it would really happen, we just didn’t know, but now it’s finally happened.”
Plans for the project came out of an agreement approved in 2014 between RIAC, the City of Warwick and the WHCC.
“It was a long process and a lot of work to come to this agreement,” Mair said in a previous interview. “We have always considered the process we go through to be very considerate and respectful for those buried in historical cemeteries.”
Those wishing to visit the actual site of the cemetery on airport land will still have the opportunity.
“You can always go out with permission of the airport, and I’ve done it. They take you out in one of their little carts and stay with you while you’re there, then bring you back,” said Malcolm. “They do that so there won’t be a plane flying overhead. So if there are any relatives, friends or people interested in genealogy that wanted to go they’d be certainly welcome to do so.”
Overall, members the WHCC found the project to be a labor of love and a commitment to the past.
“The way that the Public Archaeology Laboratory and the airport are taking care of those headstones and respecting those people that are buried there I think is phenomenal,” said Malcolm. “They’ve done a wonderful job.”
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davebarry109
I would like to think that when I am planted in the ground that my remains will be respected, regardless of 'progress'. Perhaps the interned have no inkling of the activity around them. Perhaps they are greatly disturbed. We will not know until we are interned. It would be nice if people respected the burial sites and left them alone. I would not like people disrespecting my final resting place. The airport and 'progress' be damned. Respect please.
Wednesday, August 10, 2016 Report this
hlstarrett
I wonder if these people who are so against this project had an issue in the first place with the airport being developed around this cemetery.
I think given what they are having to do, they have a good job with this.
I do think it would be nice if somewhere in the airport is a display/ large wall picture of the cemetery originally and this story so that people who travel here might take notice to it to appreciate and respect the effort that was made for this.
Wednesday, August 10, 2016 Report this
spider125681
The People that have been buried there have been there over 150 years LEAVE THEM ALONE.
Thursday, August 11, 2016 Report this
RISchadenfreude
hlstarrett, if I were a nervous flyer (as many are), the last thing I'd want to see before I get on a plane is a big picture of a cemetery.
Why were the original markers not just laid flat IN PLACE if the remains of those interred were not relocated? It would have been cheaper and easier than buying new markers and building a mock-up of an empty cemetery just down the road to the East. Seems like they preferred to do a half-a**ed job rather than conduct a proper archaeological relocation of the remains.
The whole process sounds like it was planned by a committee...
Friday, August 12, 2016 Report this