The oldest known gravesite in one of the oldest cemeteries in San Antonio belongs to a woman who died in 1854.
A stone pillar pays tribute to Fredericca Hummel, born in the Alsace region of France, who died at age 25.
The marker is one of more than 26,000 marked burial sites within 31 contiguous graveyards on the East Side, where wrought-iron fencing surrounds a historic cemetery complex that spans 103 acres.
While the memory of Hummel and others buried a century or more ago are perhaps lost to time, many San Antonio residents still live and work in the surrounding neighborhoods.
Nine of the cemeteries are owned and maintained by the City of San Antonio. The grass is kept neat, litter discarded and fallen trees and limbs cleared. Volunteers clean and repair old headstones with help from the city’s Office of Historic Preservation.
In November, Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2) asked San Antonio’s parks department to do more for the city of the dead, which is situated in the heart of his district.
“The cemeteries are a historic and vital part of our community,” McKee-Rodriguez said. “Unfortunately, ours have been neglected.”
In response, parks staffers recently dusted off a 34-year-old master plan that dug deep into the cemeteries’ history and came up with millions of dollars in proposed improvements, much of which remained on paper.
“Our thought is, ‘Why start from scratch when we already have an existing master plan?’” said the department’s Assistant Director Nikki Ramos, who recently outlined the approach for the City Council’s community health committee.
Resurrecting a plan
At 68 pages, complete with maps, photos and data, the 1990 master plan was funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and covered everything from capital improvements to tree and plant maintenance and was created by architects, historians and engineers.
It followed a 1989 historic survey and a National Register of Historic Places nomination that was entered in 2000.
The nomination states: “Here, wagon drivers, clerks and stonemasons were buried alongside mayors, architects and judges — all citizens whose lives shaped the city. Today, the cemeteries are not only the final resting places of those individuals, but in most cases are the most tangible surviving reminders of early San Antonio ethnic, religious, and fraternal enclaves.”
The master plan called for improvements to the care of the cemeteries that included things such as a visitor’s center and new paving and lighting. The estimated cost of $11 million at the time was insurmountable.
The plan also suggested a cooperative agreement with owners of the other cemeteries to ensure proper maintenance and the creation of a fundraising and “friends” group.
A bronze plaque at entrances to City Cemetery #3 features the inscription, “Dedicated to the memory of the deceased by the San Antonio Civic Cemetery Club, July 31, 1947,” according to the National Register. The names of club members, many recognizable as prominent Black San Antonians, are listed on the plaques.
Those recommendations could figure into what officials hope to see in the future. “The councilman wanted to look at the community engagement piece and the ties to the community,” Ramos said.
An update to the master plan is in its very early stages with funding approval needed from City Council, she said, followed by a bidding process for the work to be completed. The cost is unknown, but based on other such projects the Parks department has overseen, an updated plan could cost about $250,000.
Needs of the living
It’s not unusual for municipalities to deprioritize funding for cemeteries amid all the other needs of a community, said Martha Lyon, a Northampton, Massachusetts-based landscape architect who specializes in cemetery and historical sites work. It’s also not uncommon for cemeteries to be abandoned and misused.
With some support, however, cemeteries can do double duty and become an amenity to the living, she said, offering needed outdoor gathering and green space. Cemeteries were in fact used that way in the early 1800s, she said.
“They would be peaceful sites, wooded and often hilly … so they were really quite park-like in their design and then also in their use,” Lyon said. “People would come in and picnic there.”
As more public parks were established, and recreation and organized sports activity became more popular in those parks, cemeteries became places for primarily commemoration, Lyon said. But another evolution is occurring on the cemetery landscape, she said, especially in New England where open land is scarce, even for burials.
Places to bury the dead are contributing to the quality of life in some cities.
At a Salem cemetery where she has worked for many years, many residents walk their dogs and enjoy bird-watching. “That particular cemetery is used for a lot of different things, even though it’s primarily a commemorative space and it needs to be thought of in that way first and foremost,” she said.
At a cemetery in Cambridge, an active arboretum with organized programming is part of the cemetery, she said. Another one in Connecticut holds concerts.
A cemetery can also serve as a cultural and historical resource. “Cemeteries often tell the history of the community just by the names on the headstones,” she said.
A city’s history
In San Antonio’s Eastside cemeteries, familiar names such as Frost, Wurzbach, Hildebrand, McAllister, Driscoll, Giles and Gunter can be found among hundreds of gravesites of fallen heroes, beloved mothers and children gone too soon.
The cemetery’s headstones, crosses and scrolls in granite and marble, stone faux bois and intricate sculptures, are works of art both simple and elaborate. Some are intact and many are tumbling and crumbling. In a sign of times gone by, markers often sit within family plots framed by a cement curb.
Flower arrangements honoring the deceased are understandably less common in the historic cemeteries. While the cemeteries are not considered active, burials occur there from time to time as the city honors family-owned deeds.
Also unlike more active cemeteries, visitors tend to be people walking or cycling through, tour groups and groundskeepers. The pathways are wide open and the Tower of the Americas is visible from nearly every vantage point.
Park Liaison Supervisor Xavier Garza of the Park Stewardship division, who checks on the cemeteries regularly, also said he sometimes sees people visit the cemetery to explore and document who is buried where. “They’ll find a grave and they’ll add it to the Find A Grave app,” he said.
Garza and Park Stewardship Assistant Manager Pete Garcia also pick up items left behind from what they think are rituals, such as candles of different colors. Crime and vandalism are not common, they said.
They do meet people who come from other cities to locate ancestor plots, Garcia said, and he finds it interesting how they know about the cemeteries.
“Then there are people three houses away, three blocks away, who don’t even really know what’s here,” Garcia said.
Vanessa Shelton is president of her neighborhood association in Dignowity Hill, where part of the complex is located. She is glad to hear about the focus on the cemeteries because she wants the city to pay more attention to the East Side in general.
“We want it all,” she said. “There’s been so much neglect for so long. I used to live on the North Side. I’ve been here three years now. The inequity is just amazing.”
When a friend sought to buy a house near one of the cemeteries, specifically because she appreciates a graveyard, Shelton had to dissuade her due to the home’s condition and location. “This doesn’t seem safe,” she told her.
In April, Ramos set expectations for council members with the updated plan, saying the emphasis could be on basic maintenance efforts versus large projects.
“Overall, just accomplishing that would bring people a lot of peace, I think, around where their loved ones are,” she said.
