SITE DIRECTORY
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Washington Park Cemetery
WASHINGTON PARK CEMETERY
FOUNDED: 1920
ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A
AFFILIATION(S): N/A
HISTORY:
Established in 1920. Abandoned in 1991. 42 acres remain (from original 75 acres). Over 45,000 interments remain (after the "removal" of over 12,000 burials in the 90s for the airport expansion).
Washington Park Cemetery is an historic African American cemetery located in St. Louis, Missouri, just adjacent to Lambert International Airport. Nearly 30 acres of the approximately 42-acre ancestral repository are in a wretched state of neglect and continued desecration. It serves as a generational source of community trauma, reminding descendants of both past and current injustice. The cemetery, which is highly visible from cars on Highway 70 and airplanes landing at Lambert Airport, is the final resting place for over 45,000 people, and for many years was one of few cemeteries where the black community could bury their deceased. Tens of thousands of travelers pass or land on this site daily, unaware of the tragic history and current plight of this sacred ground. We receive calls from families all over the United States looking for their relatives, and we believe everyone has a connection to someone at Washington Park, once a place of prestige and honor. Revered ministers, Urban League and other prominent fraternal order founders, Homer Phillips physicians, Harris-Stowe professors, Sumner teachers, attorneys, activists, funeral directors, dentists, and a Supreme Court attorney were all interred here. Washington Park Cemetery is also the final resting place for many U.S. servicemen who chose to be buried by family members and near the homes of their survivors as opposed to the rather far away Jefferson Barracks Cemetery. Veterans buried at the cemetery have served in the Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. With military stones found destroyed throughout the cemetery - that once represented their devoted service in five U.S. wars - survivors are lamenting their veterans’ decisions to be buried at the deteriorating Washington Park Cemetery which has no perpetual care funds.
BCN Contact Information:
Aja Corrigan
StLouisPreservationCrew@gmail.com
Washington Park Cemetery
WASHINGTON PARK CEMETERY
FOUNDED: 1920
LOCATION: Berkley, MO
ADDITIONAL NAMES: None
HISTORY:
Washington Park Cemetery is located in the suburb of Berkeley, Missouri, in St. Louis County founded in 1920 specifically for the final resting place of African Americans. The cemetery is one of the largest Black cemeteries and once most beautiful. Washington Park Cemetery was never just a cemetery, it was a vital part of the African American community. The cemetery sponsored annual events such festivals, food distributions and contained fruit orchards. Like many other Black cemeteries in America Washington Park has suffered from neglect, abuse and mismanagement.
Local interstate 70 in the 1950's, invaded the cemetery by plowing through the middle, which separated Washington Park into 2 parts; the loss of acreage due to airport expansion in the 1970's; the intrusion of the local Metro light rail system into the cemetery in 1990, which resulted in the forced (eminent domain) removal of thousands and thousands of our Black ancestor's remains. Some of the staff hired to work on this removal project mishandled, abused, disrespected and stole human remains. The cemetery has been encroached by a cell phone tower and 6 lighted billboards located inside of cemetery in that towered directly above graves. The billboards created a battle in 2017 between the Washington Park Cemetery - Anti-Desecration League (activists), the billboard company and it's advertisers resulting in a lawsuit being filed in April 2019 for the permanent eradication of the billboards. This lawsuit and battle appeared in national and local media. In July 2020, a settlement was reached and the billboards and structures were permanently removed from the cemetery in August of 2020.
The fight remains to preserve and restore Washington Park Cemetery to its glorious and rightful place and hold its significance into the future
RESOURCE LINKS:
BCN Contact Information:
Ancestral Landmarks Preservation Council
Washington Park Cemetery Anti-Desecration League
wpcadlstl@gmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/Washington-Park-Cemetery-Anti-Desecration-League-1998850373712486/