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What happens when a cemetery is abandoned? This is the question many Philadelphians asked when Mount Moriah Cemetery went out of business after 156 years of burying the city’s citizens.
One day in April 2011, the cemetery laid someone to rest; the next day, the gates were locked up for good. It was an unceremonious closing, but by many accounts, the cemetery had been headed in this devastating direction for decades. Large questions hung in the air: Who is responsible? Who will make it right? How will this sacred space be protected? What happens next?
What ensued after that fateful day is a story of the good things that can happen when strangers come together to work toward a common goal and slowly build momentum. Volunteers, supported by generous donors, work to preserve the cemetery. For those involved, it is, quite simply, the right thing to do. Buried America: Philadelphia’s Mount Moriah Cemetery tracks the city’s largest cemetery from its heyday through its decline, abandonment, and eventual rebirth.
Jennifer O’Donnell is a taphophile from Southeastern Pennsylvania with a love of genealogy and historic preservation. She has volunteered at the previously abandoned Mount Moriah Cemetery in Southwest Philadelphia and Yeadon, Pennsylvania, for over a decade and currently serves as the president of the all-volunteer Friends of Mount Moriah group. Jenn has photographed over 150,000 headstones for findagrave.com and publishes cemetery art photography on Instagram @cems_and_things. She lives with her husband just outside the city limits, has a fondness for overgrown cemeteries, and visits burial grounds everywhere she travels.
