Questions from 1st Walkabout in Sections 45 & 46

Sections 45 & 46

There is an attitude of weeping/sorrow expressed by the drooping nature of the (mature) trees and shrubs.
1. Was this the intention of the landscape builders as part of the plan or is it unintended?
2. Is this attitude continued and maintained today?
3. As the trees mature, especially evergreens, their branching spreads over some of the grave markers, is there any attempt to keep the markers visible in current day?
4. Or, as the deceased may have no family left, are their markers disappearing into the undergrowth?
There is a difference in weathering of markers for similar burial dates and in the weathering to carved figures.
5. What results in this difference?
6. What materials are used for the monuments in these sections?
7. Are there local stonecutters/masons who created these monuments?
8. Who were these workmen, regardless if they were local or from out of the region?
9. Was this a sideline or their main business? (there is a lot of stone used in the building of Cincinnati)
10. What was the going rate for carving a grave marker? By number of characters?
There is a difference between family monuments with their outlying headstones/grave markers and very plain, small headstones/grave markers without an associated monument.
11. Is there an economic or social or class level that felt obligated to place monuments to the family?
12. What would be the cost of these monuments in relation to today’s dollars?
13. Are these usually markers of the grave and not just a memorial?
14. The pyramid lists persons who died abroad. Were their bodies shipped back to Cincinnati to be interred in Spring Grove?
There are a number of persons who died at what we today consider a young age, those in their thirties and forties.
15. Were there an appreciable number who died from what we now consider to be minor, easily treatable diseases/conditions?
16. What were the causes of death?
17. How did they change based on demographics? If you were lower socio-economic level and could not afford a doctor, were you more likely to die from conditions that were
At least one family grouping has only names and no dates. And there are other individual stones with no dates.
18. What is the reason for this?
19. Was it less expensive?
20. Did the living family members decide that just listing the name had enough meaning?
The roads have a meandering pattern, especially in the longer developed sections.
21. Is this pattern based on a master plan for the entire site?
22. In the undeveloped area to the north, does the management plan to continue this pattern?
The new sections around the funeral home have a more open, modern feel.
23. Is this intended? (It is very similar in feel to Gate of Heaven to the north of town)
24. What effect do styles or fashions in cemetery layout and planting have on the future development of Spring Grove?
25. In planting trees for the future, what is the overall atmosphere that the developers want to portray as these trees grow and reach maturity?