Woodmere Cemetery | |
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Details | |
Established | July 8, 1867 |
Location | |
Country | United States |
Coordinates | 42°17′45.1″N83°07′54.4″W / 42.295861°N 83.131778°W |
Type | Rural cemetery |
Size | 250 acres (100 ha) |
Website | Cemetery website |
Find a Grave | Woodmere Cemetery |
Designer | Adolph Strauch |
Woodmere Cemetery is at West Fort Street and Woodmere Avenue in Detroit, Michigan, in the neighborhood of Springwells Village in what was originally the township of Springwells. [1] Woodmere Cemetery is operated by the Midwest Memorial Group. [2]
The Woodmere Cemetery Association was organized on July 8, 1867, by a group of prominent Detroit businessmen who purchased approximately 250 acres to establish a rural cemetery for the city of Detroit. [3] Woodmere's layout was designed by Adolph Strauch, who also designed Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio. [4] Construction began in 1868 and the cemetery was dedicated on July 14, 1869. [5]
The first burials occurred prior to the cemetery's official opening. The first burial was for Anna Maria Schwartz, who was buried in Section C in November 1868. [6] She was soon joined by approximately 2,000 removals from Detroit's City Cemetery that were reburied at Woodmere. [7] In addition to these burials, the city of Detroit also contracted for approximately five acres for the burial of the city's poor. [8] Section C is the cemetery's oldest section and where the large Elks' Rest monument can be found. Once Section C was filled, Woodmere ended its contract with the city to bury the city's poor. [9]
The U.S. Army section is at the cemetery's southern end, next to Dearborn Street. The army purchased this section which contains veterans from the Civil War as well as World War II. In 1896 the Civil War soldiers buried at Fort Wayne were moved to Woodmere as the cemetery there had fallen to decay and the records were in shambles. [10] The flagpole in this section divides the Grand Army of the Republic section to the east from the U.S. Army section to the west.
Temple Beth El purchased two sections at Woodmere, Section Beth El and part of the adjacent Section NF. Many of the mausoleums in Section NF were vandalized in December 2012. The bronze doors were removed, leaving the mausoleums open to the elements. These doors were presumably sold for scrap. [11]
The American Moslem Society purchased a section at the northwest corner of the cemetery within view of its mosque on Vernor Highway. This mosque was established in 1937 and is Michigan's oldest. [12]
Victims of the Ford Hunger March killed on March 7, 1932, are buried in the Ferndale section at the cemetery's north end abutting Vernor Highway. The victims are Joseph York, Joseph Bussell, Kalman Leny, and Joseph DeBascio. The United Auto Workers also placed a headstone on an empty space in the same row as the others for Curtis Williams, a marcher who died several months later due to unrelated causes. Williams was cremated at Woodmere, but his ashes were not interred there. [13] A marker is located along the fence outside of the cemetery near these graves.[ citation needed ]
Three British Commonwealth war graves, of two Canadian Army soldiers of World War I and a Royal Canadian Air Force airman of World War II are buried in the cemetery. [14]
Mexicantown is a neighborhood located in Detroit, Michigan.
Vernors is an American brand of ginger ale owned by Keurig Dr Pepper that was first served in 1866 by James Vernor, a pharmacist from Detroit.
Fort Wayne is located in the city of Detroit, Michigan, at the foot of Livernois Avenue in the Delray neighborhood. The fort is situated on the Detroit River at a point where it is under half a mile to the Ontario shore. The original 1848 limestone barracks still stands, as does the 1845 fort. On the grounds but outside the original fort are additional barracks, officers quarters, a recreation building, a theater, commissary, guard house, garage, and stables. A large warehouse and the post fire station were torn down in 1976 and the two-story hospital was torn down in 2007.
John R. Williams was an American soldier, merchant, and politician who is best known for serving as the first mayor of Detroit, Michigan, after the city's reincorporation. In total, he served as Detroit's mayor for five other terms. He also was a brigadier general in the United States Army during the Black Hawk War.
William Gillon Thompson was a Union Army officer, lawyer, politician, and the mayor of Detroit, Michigan. He also founded Detroit's first major league baseball team.
Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit is one of Michigan's most important historic cemeteries. Located at 1200 Elmwood Street in Detroit's Eastside Historic Cemetery District, Elmwood is the oldest continuously operating, non-denominational cemetery in Michigan.
Burns Park was a baseball park located in Detroit, Michigan that served three seasons as the exclusive Sunday home of the Detroit Tigers baseball club in the American League from 1900 through 1902.
Woodlawn Cemetery is a cemetery located at 19975 Woodward Avenue, opposite the former Michigan State Fairgrounds, between 7 Mile Road and 8 Mile Road, in Detroit, Michigan.
Moses Wheelock Field was a businessman and politician. He served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from the U.S. state of Michigan, and was instrumental in organizing the Independent Greenback Party.
James Vernor Sr. was an American pharmacist and druggist who began selling Vernors brand ginger ale in 1880.
Mount Olivet Cemetery is a cemetery at 17100 Van Dyke Avenue in the city of Detroit in Wayne County, Michigan. It is owned and operated by the Mt. Elliott Cemetery Association, a not-for-profit Catholic organization that is otherwise administered independently from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit and any of the various Catholic religious orders active in Metro Detroit. At 320 acres (130 ha), it is the largest cemetery in Detroit, although it no longer promotes itself publicly as a Catholic establishment.
Mongaugon Township, is a former township of Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. Quarries including the DTE Energy Sibley Quarry that mines, gray limestone and celestine associated with calcite, fluorite, gypsum, epsomite, and rarely, sulfur were first worked by the French circa 1749. United States forces aided by Muskrat French defeated United Kingdom aided by Native Americans forces at the Battle of Monguagon during the War of 1812.
Springwells Township is a defunct civil township in Wayne County, in the U.S. state of Michigan. All of the land is now incorporated as part of the cities of Detroit and Dearborn. Springwells is also famously known as the birthplace of Henry Ford.
Jonathan Kearsley (1786–1859) was an American military officer and politician. He fought in the War of 1812 and was a two-time mayor of Detroit.
The Eastside Historic Cemetery District is a historic district bounded by Elmwood Avenue, Mt. Elliott Avenue, Lafayette Street, and Waterloo Street in Detroit, Michigan. The district consists of three separate cemeteries: Mount Elliott Cemetery, Elmwood Cemetery, and the Lafayette Street Cemetery. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
The Most Holy Redeemer Church is located at 1721 Junction Street in Southwest Detroit, Michigan, within the West Vernor–Junction Historic District. The church was once estimated as the largest Roman Catholic parish in North America. West Vernor–Junction Historic District is adjacent to Mexicantown and contains a growing Mexican community and resurgent neighborhood.
Patton Park is a 93-acre (38 ha) park located on the southwest side of Detroit, Michigan. The park, named for the World War II US military leader General George S. Patton, was dedicated in the early 1950s. Local landowner Jacques Baby bequeathed the 93-acre (38 ha) tract of land to the City of Detroit for a park. The park retains a restrictive covenant that prohibits the City from tampering with the park, lest the park returns to Baby's descendants.
Andrew Mack was an American businessman and politician who, among other things, co-founded the Detroit Free Press, served as mayor of Detroit, Michigan, and whose land holdings became a portion of the town of Marysville.
Henry Brockholst Ledyard Sr. was the mayor of Detroit, Michigan, and a state senator, briefly served as assistant secretary under Secretary of State Lewis Cass, and was the president of the Newport Hospital and the Redwood Library in Newport, Rhode Island.
Francis Palms (1809–1886) was the largest landholder in Michigan during the mid-1850s. He had major business interests as well and was nicknamed "Croesus" because of his wealth.
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