Phila Cemetery law multiple burials 1898

[CHIOSSO]

Just wanted to get these locations down in one place on philadelphiaspeaks/History.

Department of Public Safety
Bureau of Health
Room No. 610
City Hall, Philadelphia

April 26th, 1898
RESOLVED, That the burial of more than one body in a grave in the thickly inhabited and built-up portions of the city is hereby declared a nuisance having a tendency to be prejudicial to public health.
RESOLVED, That in the thickly inhabited and built-up portions of the city the burial of more than one body in a single grave, or the opening of a grave in which a body has been buried, for the purpose of additional interment, be and the same is hereby prohibited on and after June 1st, 1898.

RESOLVED, That the following cemeteries or burial grounds be and are hereby subject to the above orders (all sic):
Arabella 5th and Washington Ave.
Arch Street Friends 4th and Arch streets
Arch Street Presbyterian Arch street above 10th St.
Axes Germantown avenue near Washington St. (Germantown)
Baptist Church Passyunk avenue, W. of Broad street
Cathedral 48th and Lancaster avenue
Christ Church 5th and Arch streets
Colored M. E. Church Centre (now Rittenhouse St..) and Morton streets (Germantown)
Dunkards Ground (Mennonite Church) Germantown Ave. and Sharpnack St.
Ebeneser M. E. Christian St. below 4th
Epiphany 15th and Chestnut streets.
Fair Hill Cambria St. and Germantown avenue
Federal Street Jewish Federal and 11th streets
First Presbyterian Ground 4th and Pine streets
Franklin Franklin Lane, W. of Frankford Rd.
Free Quakers 5th and Spruce streets
Friends Southwestern 16th and Race streets
Glenwood 22nd and Ridge avenue
Grace Church 12th and Cherry sts
Continued:

Department of Public SafetyBureau of HealthRoom No. 610City Hall, Philadelphia April 26th, 1898RESOLVED, That the burial of more than one body in a grave in the thickly inhabited and built-up portions of the city is hereby declared a nuisance having a tendency to be prejudicial to public health.RESOLVED, That in the thickly inhabited and built-up portions of the city the burial of more than one body in a single grave, or the opening of a grave in which a body has been buried, for the purpose of additional interment, be and the same is hereby prohibited on and after June 1st, 1898. RESOLVED, That the following cemeteries or burial grounds be and are hereby subject to the above orders (all sic):

Haines St. ME, Germantown Ave. and Haines St. (now closed)
Hanover, Hanover and Thompson streets
Hebrew, Spruce, below 9th streetHoly Comforter, 19th and Wharton streets
Holy Trinity, Passyunk and Washington avenues
Holy Trinity (1), 6th and Spruce streets
Holy Trinity (2), 5th and Spruce streets
Kensington (M. E.), Palmer street (see Hanover)
Lafayette, 10th and Wharton streets
Lebanon, Passyunk ave. and 18th street
Machpelah and M. E. Union, 10th street and Washington avenue
Market Square, Germantown avenue and Mill street (now Church Lane, Germantown)
Monument Cemetery, Broad and Berks streets
Mt. Zion, CHristian street east of 6th
Mutual Family, Washington avenue near 10th st.
Odd Fellows, 23rd and Norris streets
Olive Cemetery, Girard and Belmont avenues
Palmer Ground, Palmer and Belgrade streets
Paul Street M. E., Paul street, Frankford
Philadelphia Cemetery, Passyunk avenue, near 19th st.
Philanthropic Cemetery, Passyunk avenue and Tasker st.
Presbyterian Cemetery, Frankford
Ronaldson Cemetery, 9th and Bainbridge streets
Rose Cemetery, Ludlow street, below 41st street
St. Ann's (R.C.), Lehigh avenue and Memphis st.
St. Augustine's (R.C.), 4th below Vine street
St. John's (M. E.), 3rd below Beaver st.
St. Johns (R. C.), 13th above Chestnut st.
St. John's (R. C.), Manayunk
St. Joachim, Frankford Road and Pine street.
St. Joseph's (R. C.), 8th and Washington ave.
St. Luke's, 13th below Spruce street
St. Lukes's, Coulter steet, Germantown
St. Mary's (R. C.), 10th and Moore streets
St. Mary's (R. C.), 4th above Spruce street
St. Michael's, 2nd and Jefferson streets
St. Michael's Lutheran, Germantown ave. and Church street, now Phil-Ellena St.
St. Paul's 3rd below Walnut street
St. Paul's (M. E.), Christian above 6th street
St. Peter's, 3rd and Pine streets
St. Peter's (R. C.), Tioga and West (now Belgrad Street) streets
Swedes (P. E.), 931 Otsego street (now Swanson)
Third Presbyterian, 4th and Pine streets
Trinity (P. E.), Catharine below 3rd street
United Americn Mechanics, 22nd and Diamond street
Union Harmony Cemetery, Hanover street
Union Cemetery, 6th street and Washington avenue
Union Wesleyan, Hannover street
Wharton Street M. E., Wharton street below 4th street.

Phila Cemetery law multiple burials 1898.

[CHIOSSO]

This was transcribed by a member named Eugene Stackhouse.

[Titus]

So we can assume from this that these cemeteries were committing these practices (multiple burials or opening graves for same) at the time while certain others were not. For example Laurel Hill. Holy Trinity and St Mary's certainly retain portions of their churchyards as do Christ Church on 5th & St Paul's on 3rd Street. Presumably those existing burials were not causing offense.

[Moonraker]

Looking at the law, I am at a loss over nomenclature. Grandfather bought a plot, he buried baba deep to allow for a my parents vault to be placed over theirs. We now have 2x2=4 vaults in our plot. That sounds multiple to me.

[Phillyxpat]

"Public Nuisance" is possibly a boiler plate term to use on a complaint form once an old graveyard was reopened or got too many weeds if neglected. A lot of these real old graveyards had no deeds or persons of record in terms of taxes or complaints. The city was by default the one that had to clean up the unregistered plot of land with a tradition of burial. In any case, Public Nuisance was no doubt a term needed to start condemnation of any land for a prospective real estate development.

Some info here: Philadelphia Graveyards and Cemeteries - Thomas H. Keels - Google Books

[Phillyxpat]

This ties together some loose ends of an old memory of mine. There used to be a shopping plaza, Harrowgate Plaza, almost on a hill and almost on the same level of the elevated Pennsy railroad tracks at “I” and E Tioga Sts. The parking lot was maybe ten to fifteen feet above street level. You had to drive up an incline or walk it to get access to the parking lot and plaza stores. The big anchor store then was an Acme. This was the seventies. I was walking by at street level about to walk under the tracks and there on a sidewalk was an old gravestone, maybe two by three feet and eight inches thick, maybe red granite. There had been a small mud slide of sorts from outside the edge of the elevated parking lot that had no abutment holding up, supporting the lot’s edge. It had recently been a couple of rainy days. The name on the stone was something like “Anne Pitchie Hogg” who lived something like from the 1830s to about 1910. I used to have a better memory. It was only recently when I was doing some family research on the national census sites that I tried to find this woman’s name to no avail. I had heard that this shopping plaza had been the cemetery attached to an old Lutheran Church but I could not find that written elsewhere or the name of any church nearby. The Belvue, Bellvue, Cemetery, spelled differently in places, was condemned in 1951 with the remains supposedly moved elsewhere. I bet there is still a lot of history and gravestones still under that parking lot etc.

[Phillyxpat]

Ref: Phila. Atlas, 1886, 25th Ward, Plate 13, PhilaGeoHistory

[CHIOSSO]

PHILADELPHIA CEMETERIES
Compiled by Anne J. Mitchell

http://www.phillygenweb.org/PHILADEL...T_10052005.pdf


Philadelphia Area Cemeteries

Philadelphia Area Cemeteries

[Titus]

Awesome links, Chiosso!

[CHIOSSO]

thanks titus i want to get then all in one place.