6 SPRING 2022 | WWW.SHAKER.LIFE
Shaker
Online
Sprucing up the past
A collaboration between the City,
the Shaker Historical Society,
and the Shaker Heights Public
Library will return the Warrensville
West Cemetery to its former glory.
The first phase of a year-long project to
restore and preserve the Warrensville West
Cemetery – the creation of the Warrensville
West Cemetery Historic Preservation
Master Plan – is nearing completion.
The plan is a roadmap for how to
restore the cemetery. It is a collaborative
effort between the City of Shaker
Heights, the Shaker Historical Society,
and Shaker Heights Public Library. In
late 2019, these three entities partnered
to facilitate an on-site tour of the
cemetery to gauge the public’s interest.
Cameron Roberts of the City’s Planning
Department says that the event revealed
“ keen interest” in the cemetery.
“The event’s registration filled on
the first day it was advertised. Over
30 individuals attended the tour,” he
says. “Attendees and resident groups
expressed interest in preservation and
landscaping activities to improve the
conditions of the cemetery, which have
deteriorated over time.”
The master plan is slated to be
complete by late spring. It will guide
the City’s efforts in applying for grant
funding to implement the multi-phase
plan. The plan that includes the cleaning
and resetting of all the gravestones;
landscaping – especially along the front
edge of the cemetery facing Lee Road;
educational signage; and returning the
cemetery’s appearance to what it may have
looked like in the 1800s.
A key component of the plan is
locating underground “anomalies” using
Ground Penetrating Radar.
“A Ground Penetrating Radar
machine looks a lot like a lawnmower,”
says Kara Hamley O’Donnell, the City’s
principal planner. “It is used to determine
soil density, and whether there have been
any underground disturbances. In the
case of the cemetery, an anomaly is most
likely a place where the ground has been
disturbed for a burial. In the northeast
portion, we discovered a number of burials
that weren’t marked by
gravestones and confirmed
a mass burial site of North
Union Shakers.”
Late last year, as part
of the planning process,
two events were held to
help bring attention to the
cemetery: a gravestone
restoration workshop and
a Veterans Day walking
tour to highlight the final resting places
of veterans of five wars. The Gravestone
Preservation Workshop was conducted
by Ta Mara Conde of Historic Gravestone
Services, a subconsultant of the plan’s lead
consultant, the Mannik Smith Group.
“The workshop was exciting because
it attracted a very enthusiastic group of
people of all ages who were interested
in cemeteries, interested in history, and
interested in the specific history of this
cemetery, and they all came together to
learn how to clean and reset gravestones,”
says O’Donnell.
In addition to overseeing the group
as they cleaned and reset stones, Conde
used a tripod device to reset a large
gravestone that had fallen over.
The Plan was funded in part by the
City, but 60 percent was provided by the
Ohio History Connection. Additionally,
the in-kind volunteer hours provided by
the Shaker Historical Society, the Shaker
Heights Public Library, and a 10-resident
stakeholder group proved invaluable to
the project.
Get more information on the
Warrensville West Cemetery at
shakeronline.com/cemetery.
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