I would first like to say how deeply honored I am to be selected as one of the winners of the “Blogging Your Dreams” contest.

During the upcoming months, I will share my experiences on how I go about fulfilling my dream of starting a Cemetery Preservation and Cemetery Tourism program for Eden Cemetery. Located in Collingdale, Pennsylvania, Eden Cemetery comprises 53 rolling acres, and is the oldest, public African American owned cemetery in the United States.

You might ask why a cemetery preservation project? What is cemetery tourism? Why is this important? It is important because “History Matters.”

Cemeteries are not just final resting places of our ancestors, but they are outdoor museums, sculpture gardens, and historical & genealogical repositories. To genealogists, scholars, and historians, cemeteries offer researchers clues to family relations, economic status, beliefs, and cultural customs. Cemeteries also have the ability to keep the history and legacies of the interred alive.

Cemetery Tourism is a growing niche industry within the growing Cultural & Heritage Tourism Industry. Historic cemeteries have found the need to pursue creative public outreach programs to assist with their long-term preservation projects. With the growing interest in genealogy and living history programs, many cemeteries see an opportunity to serve as outdoor living history and interpretive centers.

Laurel Hill Cemetery, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is an excellent model on how a cemetery has re-branded itself as a tourist destination. They sponsor a full range of weekend educational and interpretative programs that offer something for everyone. With Laurel Hill being the final resting place for twelve of the Titanic victims, each year they sponsor an internationally known nine-course Titanic Dinner, Lecture and Tour. This year’s program will mark the 96th Anniversary of the Sinking of the Titanic.

Eden Cemetery is at a unique time to begin a preservation and tourism program because of their many famous African American interments. The State of Pennsylvania is currently planning the Sesquicentennial (150th) of the Civil War, which will occur from 2011- 2015. With these celebrations, millions of dollars will be spent on re-telling the Civil War, Enslavement, The Underground Railroad and other historical aspects of this period of United States History.

Eden Cemetery is well positioned to become part of these Civil War activities and other historical events because it is the final resting home for many important abolitionists such as:

- William Still (Father of the Underground Railroad in Philadelphia)
- Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (Writer, Lecturer, Underground Railroad Conductor)
- Octavius Valentine Catto (Educator, Intellectual, Civil Rights Activist, and Baseball Player)
- Absalom Jones (Abolitionist, and Co-founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church)

Imagine the living history and musical programs that can be developed around Marian Anderson (World Renowned Opera Singer) and Rev. Charles Albert Tindley (Father of Gospel Music) who are also interred at Eden Cemetery. There are generations of people who have never heard Marian Anderson's music. How many people knew Rev. Charles Albert Tindley was the Father of Gospel Music?

The possibilities of Eden Cemetery being the next tourism destination place by establishing educational programs and tours around a host of subjects and interred members of Eden Cemetery are endless. It only requires a vision and some hard work.

Since I believe in the philosophy of copying success instead of reinventing the wheel; I will be seeking out advice, suggestions, books, articles, seminars, websites and blogs from people who have already gone through many different phases of a cemetery preservation project. I want to see what is the next technology being used for cemetery mapping and how “environmentally efficient ” products can be used in the operation of a cemetery.

Thank you, Washington Post Newsweek Interactive for allowing me to nationally showcase a cemetery preservation project that is an essential piece of American History.

Stay tuned.....

Well, I had my first meeting with Wilhelmina, Office Manager at Eden Cemetery last month to find out what their preservation needs are, and got the answer that I though I would. EVERYTHING!

When told you need everything for a cemetery project that has 85,000 interments on 53 acres of land, I admit that I was initially overwhelmed. Cemetery Preservation projects are big jobs, but reality sets in very fast when you standing on site, and as far as you can see is rolling hills of land and grave markers. You start asking, “do you really know what you are about to get yourself into”?

It is said that a good challenge builds character, so I am moving right along. Wilhelmina and I drew up the first draft of all the wants and needs for the cemetery. We came up with the following categories: Grounds Preservation, Record Preservation, Administration Capacity Building, Historical Documentation, and Public Programs. Within these categories are laundry lists of things that need to be done, but we also identified at least two immediate priorities in each.

Immediate Priorities

1) Grounds Preservation:
- Fencing For the Entire Site
- Repair Broken or Over Turned Grave Markers
- Record Preservation:
- Create an Archival Preservation Program
- Update Computers and Software
- Administration Capacity Building:

2) Revive The Friends of Historic Eden Cemetery

3) Create a Website
- Historical Documentation:
- Research Eden Cemetery’s History Completely
- Review Interments Records to Identify the Famous

4) Public Programs:
- Create Educational and Interpretative Programs that would Renew Interest in Eden Cemetery.

What Eden Cemetery really needs is a multi-phase Cemetery Master Plan that would incorporate all their present and future needs. In order to jump-start this cemetery preservation project the revival of the nonprofit group “Friends of Historic Eden
Cemetery” has to begin immediately. The last big project Eden Cemetery sponsored
was their 100th Anniversary in 2002.

This preservation project is a multi-million dollar venture and the proper fundraising apparatus has to be in place to raise and receive funds. The new board members MUST be a cross section of people from Corporate America, the Historical & Preservation Industries, Family Members of the Interred, Academia, Government Officials, and Cemetery Preservation Activists that have the ability to raise money, bring resources to the table and have a vision. It is equally important to reach out to the community through memberships in the “Friend of Historic Eden Cemetery.

The great thing about this project is that Wilhelmina has a good vision on where Eden Cemetery should be heading over the next two decades. We already talked about building a $10 million dollar Eden Memorial Park Cemetery, Education & Interpretive Center, and know what tract of land it should be located on.

You have to dream big – because History Matters!

History Matters! So why and how was Eden Cemetery created? The below history of Eden Cemetery was researched and written by Benjamin Wilson for Eden Cemetery's 100th Anniversary.

Although Eden’s creation was a cumulative effort, it was the original idea of its founder and organizer, Jerome Bacon. Bacon was a teacher at the Institute for Colored Youth on Bainbridge near Ninth Street, which was later, renamed Cheney State College.

In 1990 most African American in Philadelphia live in the SP Ward, an area examined in W.E.B. DuBois’ study, The Philadelphia Negro. As the city’s industry and population increased, “neighborhood” cemeteries were condemned due to improvements in sanitary and sewage systems. Out of respect for those currently interred and to provide a future resting place for African Americans, Bacon discussed with his contemporaries a plan for a unified African American cemetery.

Eden Cemetery’s first president, J.C. Asbury; first manager, Daniel W. Parvis; first treasurer, Martin Lehman; and first vice president, Charles Jones agreed with Bacon on a fifty-three acre plot in Collingdale, Pennsylvania. The area was selected because of its proximity to Philadelphia, beautiful landscape, size and availability.

Unknown to Collingdale residents, magistrates agreed to grant a charter to the company, which J.C. Asbury executed. Bacon and board members agreed with Jacob White, the president of Lebanon Cemetery, located at Passyunk near Ninth Street, to re-inter all remains in Eden in 1903.

However, the sudden death of Celestine Cromwell, wife of advisory member, Willis M. Cromwell, in August of 1902, hastened the need for a place of interment for African Americans. Bacon, J.C. Asbury and undertaker, J.T. Seth convinced all of the board members that Celestine Cromwell should be the first interred in Eden Cemetery.

On August 11, 1902 before the first interment was to take place, some of the white Collingdale residents blocked the entrance to the cemetery, protesting the interments of African Americans in their community. Mrs. Cromwell’s body was returned to Philadelphia. The following evening on August 12, 1902 after dark, Mrs. Cromwell was buried.

In January 1903 all remains from Lebanon Cemetery were interred in Eden. In the spring, the remains from Stephen Smith Home Cemetery were interred. In 1923, the remains from Olive Cemetery, which was adjacent to the Stephen Smith Home, were also buried in Eden. Celestine, Lebanon, Home and Olive are the original four sections of Eden Cemetery.

Eden Cemetery would later expand to twenty-three sections. In 1924, the mortgage was satisfied and today annual distribution of stock shares is paid to over two hundred stockholders. Eden is now the resting place of hundreds of prominent national and local “Old Philadelphian” African Americans. (Wilson, Benjamin. The History of Eden Cemetery, Philadelphia: Historic Eden Cemetery Company, nd.)

Eden Cemetery today consists of 23 sections. Each section honors a person or an organization that helped advance the African American community in some way. Listed below are the names of the sections and some of the organizations that purchased lots for their members:

Bowers: Honors Henrietta Bowers Duterte, an African American woman who was the first female undertaker in Philadelphia, and also an Underground Station Master who helped slaves by hiding them in caskets.

Catto, A & B: Honors Octavius V. Catto, an Educator, Civil Right Leaders, Political Activist and Baseball Player in Philadelphia.

Celestine & Celestine Reserve I & II: Honors Celestine Mosley-Cromwell, the first person buried at Eden Cemetery.

David Bowser: Honors the Philadelphia artist noted for the paintings of Abraham Lincoln and John Brown. He was also a member of the Philadelphia Bustill family.

Daniel Parvis: Honors Daniel Parvis, one of the original five charter members of Eden Cemetery.

Douglas, A, B, C, D, and E: Honors Frederick Douglas.

Home: Named after the Stephen Smith Home Cemetery whose bodies were re-interred in Eden in 1903.

Harriet Tubman: Honors the most famous female Underground Railroad Conductor.

John Brown: Honors the abolitionist who led insurrections against slavery.

Katherine Parvis Gardens: Honors the daughter of Daniel Parvis and Secretary of Eden Cemetery.

Lebanon: Named after Lebanon Cemetery whose bodies were re-interred in Eden in 1903.

Lehman: Honors Martin J. Lehman, one of the original five charter members and founders of Eden Cemetery.

Letson-Martin: Honors Albert Letson, President of Eden Cemetery Company; Member of the State of Pennsylvania Real Estate Commission; Founder of the first black golf and country club named “Freeway.”

Honors I. Maximillian Martin: Treasurer of Eden Cemetery Company; President of Berean Savings Bank; Life Heritage member of NAACP.

Olive: Named after Olive Cemetery whose bodies were re-interred in Eden in 1923.

Richard Allen: Honors the founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Organizations that purchased lots for their members at Eden Cemetery are:
The British Great War Veterans
Veterans of World War I and II
House of Refuge
The Association of Colored Orphans of Philadelphia
Home for Destitute Colored Children
The Prince Hall Masons
The IBPOE of W
Odd Fellows
The Cyrenes
African Presbyterian Church
Grace Union A.M.E. Church
Lombard Central Presbyterian Church
Wesley A.M.E. Church
Grace Union A.M.E. Church
Church of God and Saints of Christ
St. Thomas P.E. Church
St. Mary’s P.E. Church
Church of the Crucifixion
St. Simon the Cyrenian Church
Union Baptist Church

I hope this gives you a glimpse inside the history of Eden Cemetery because – History Matters!

The other goal for Eden Cemetery is to create a tourism program that would highlight the history of the cemetery and the interred. To start this program Eden Cemetery has reached out to organizations that can help them promote their facility locally, statewide and nationally.

Since Eden Cemetery has many interred members that were abolitionists, Underground Railroad Station-Masters and Underground Railroad Conductors, I assisted in the application process for them to become part of the National Underground Railroad: Network to Freedom Program.

What is the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program?
The National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Act of 1998 (P. L. 105-203) directs the National Park Service (NPS) to establish a program that tells the story of resistance against the institution of slavery in the United States (and related territories) through escape and flight.

Through the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program, the NPS acknowledges the significance of the Underground Railroad not only in its contribution to the eradication of slavery in the United States, but also as the cornerstone for a more comprehensive national civil rights movement that followed.

The program coordinates preservation and education efforts nationwide, and is working to integrate local historical sites, museums, and interpretive programs that have a verifiable association with the Underground Railroad into a mosaic of community, regional, national, and international stories.

The Network to Freedom Program is celebrating its 10th Anniversary this year and will have their annual conference in Philadelphia in September 2008. More importantly the U.S. Government has recently found some funds for the Network to Freedom Program to offer grants for this year. These grants are for the preservation and restoration of historic sites, as well as support for related research and documentation for sites, programs and facilities. The last time they were able to do this was in 2006.

Eden Cemetery submitted their application for acceptance into the Network to Freedom Program in January 2008. With the application review process in April, the grant deadline in early May, will we be allowed into this year funding cycle?

I consulted with Sheri Jackson, the Northeast Region Director, of the National Underground Railroad Network Program to see where we stand in this process. Sheri stated that all applicants will be notify in April on who will be accepted in this year cycle of the Network to Freedom Program. This leaves organizations one month to put together their grant application. So she said just start thinking about what project that we would like to do.

Based on the interments of William Still, ('Father of the Underground Railroad in Philadelphia') and the other abolitionists at Eden Cemetery; I feel confident that we will be accepted into the Network to Freedom Program. So thinking positively, and with May around the corner, we have to start thinking about what project we want funded, because History Matters!

Today is a great day!

The National Park Service informed Eden Cemetery that they were selected to become a member of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program. They will be known as the burial site for William Still (Father of the Underground Railroad in Philadelphia).

In previous posts I talked about the importance of Eden Cemetery receiving this national honor. The Network to Freedom Program will provide free publicity for Eden Cemetery through their national print and on-line promotional advertising materials. Most importantly we now have the green light to apply for the 2008 Network to Freedom Grant.

While the National Park Service pushing out the media advisory notices of their 2008 inductees, we at Eden Cemetery will also begin tooting our own horn around the State of Pennsylvania.

I will also have Eden Cemetery reach out to the descendants of William Still and let them know of the honor the cemetery received because of their belated family member. Many of the Still family members have strong roots in Southern New Jersey. It would be nice to have the family involved in our future activities promoting William Still and Eden Cemetery, because History Matters!