
If you’ve passed Holy Rood Cemetery just north of Georgetown recently, you may have wondered what the large construction is about. The construction is part of an ambitious plan to save the crumbling cemetery and bring it into use again.
The cemetery has a strong connection to the Georgetown community. It was the final resting place of generations of Catholic Georgetowners. It is also the location of one of the largest cemeteries for free and enslaved African Americans. It was first established by Holy Trinity Catholic Church in 1832. The church maintained it until Georgetown University took over control in 1942. Burials declined sharply. Only a handful of individuals who had purchased plots decades before were allowed to be buried there into the 1990s. In the 1980s, the university explored removing the graves and developing the property. That never came to pass.
But in the meantime, the cemetery turned to ruins. Grave stones were broken and toppled all over the property. GM criticized the university harshly for their disgraceful custodianship of the cemetery over ten years ago. (GM has hardly the only party criticizing GU). And to the university’s credit, they finally came up with a plan to restore the cemetery, which was announced last year. Continue reading →
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