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The Warren State Hospital Cemetery at one time
was neglected, abandoned and sat not to far away from the asylum. Recently
it was cleared of its brush and sits behind the only Lowe's up in Warren
PA. Normally I do not give out locations but due to time limitations I was
really not able to do a night investigation of the grounds therefore you
are not going to see any ghost photos from this place.
But since this cemetery is a landmark in the
Warren area you cannot possibly visit the area without at least touring
the cemetery. You can easily tell their are alot of unmarked burials the
place is more like a potters field. Actually if you want honest statistics
let me give it to you there is 900 unmarked burials and only 8 to 9
visible stones all crammed on a few acres. So its pretty possible that
bodies upon bodies are within inches of one another.
It was obvious that many years ago when people
died in the hospital that they were buried here first burial being 1881. Rumor has it the state
hospital had a couple cemeteries in the area. Just knowing this was a
state hospital sort of gives you a curiosity of what sort of ghost would
haunted a place like this.
I mean honestly 900 unmarked burials here on a
hill you know that the unseen wander the hillside still waiting for their
stone!
I was pretty excited to visit this cemetery
cause it was my first investigation in a few years in the Warren area. Jim
wanted to show it to me and I am glad he did cause this is not just your
typical cemetery this is a place with years of Asylum history.
©
By
AngelOfThyNight-Lord
Rick
Group
plans to restore WSH cemetery
By CHUCK HAYES Staff Writer
12/15/2006 - Numbered markers
were placed on the graves.
They are still there, but over the past century most of them have been
overgrown and buried.
It looks like one of the many other small cemeteries scattered throughout
Warren County.
But, in fact, 954 people are buried at the cemetery along Jackson Run Rd.,
overlooking Warren State Hospital and now Warren Commons.
The first burial at the Warren State Hospital cemetery took place in 1881.
Most of the people buried there “are people who we served,” said David
Kucherawy, chief of social and rehabilitative services at the state
hospital.
There are also two infants buried at the cemetery, probably the children
of people buried at the cemetery.
Perhaps ten of the 954 grave sites have “an appropriate marking,” said
Kucherawy.
A group of Warren State Hospital employees is now planning to restore the
cemetery.
“We want to make it a place of dignity and respect,” said Kucherawy.
“We’re very interested in how it looked,” he said, but so far the
volunteers have been unable to locate any photos of the cemetery to work
from.
The volunteers have located burial records for the cemetery.
“We know their names and now we have to check the records for days of
birth and death,” said Kucherawy. “Our goal is to uncover the markers
and place a headstone with each person’s name, birth date and date of
death.”
“We’re hearing that the markers stood six inches above the ground,”
said Kucherawy, but so far no photos have been found to confirm that.
State hospital archives have been searched for photographs without
success.
The volunteers are also planning to reconstruct pathways, entrances and
landscape the cemetery to as near their original appearance as possible.
Like the grave markers, the pathways have been obscured by time.
There are two large stone markers, which may have been an entrance gate,
near the site, but the volunteers are not certain if the markers were in
fact the entrance to the cemetery.
Kucherawy said the state hospital still receives occasional inquiries from
people interested in the cemetery and exactly where a relative may be
buried.
Two Eagle Scouts have proposed helping the state hospital volunteers in
the restoration effort, said Kucherawy.
Eventually, he said, the volunteers will have to solicit some funds to
restore the cemetery and headstones, but what the group needs most now is
information about the cemetery and its original appearance.
Anyone who may have
photographs, newspaper articles or other information regarding the Warren
State Hospital cemetery is asked to contact Cathy Swanson, 726-4585, or by
e-mail at cswanson@state.pa.us.
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