Dark sights in North America
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Old Burying Ground
For a deeper look at local history, wander the Old Burying Ground.
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Historic Jail
- Litchfield, USA
- Sights › Dark
Just north across West St from the information booth is the town's Historic Jail.
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Garden of Memories Cemetery
Steinbeck is buried in the family plot at Garden of Memories Cemetery, 1 mile south of the center.
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cemetery
Also of interest is a large cemetery in the center of town, where spirit houses have been erected over many of the graves.
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Mausoleo de la Corregidora
The Mausoleo de la Corregidora is the resting place of doña Josefa Ortiz and her husband, Miguel Domínguez de Alemán.
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Ancient Burying Ground
In the Ancient Burying Ground behind Center Church lie the remains of Hooker and Revolutionary War patriots Joseph and Jeremiah Wadsworth. Some headstones date from the 17th century.
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Altar a la Patria
Two blocks inland from the malecón is the 1998 Altar a la Patria, an obelisk marking the buried the remains of those who defended Veracruz during its numerous conflicts.
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Cemetery
Residential neighborhoods, off the north end of Washington St, are lined with restored Victorian houses, and the spooky old cemetery at the west end of Jackson St has many graves from that era.
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Mausoleo de los Hombres Ilustres de Zacatecas
From the right of the statues, a paved path along the foot of the rocky hilltop leads to the Mausoleo de los Hombres Ilustres de Zacatecas, with the tombs of Zacatecan heroes from 1841 to the present.
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Loyalist Cemetery
The Loyalist Cemetery, dating back to 1784, is an atmospheric, thought-provoking history lesson of its own, revealing large families and kids dying tragically young. The Loyalists arrived from the 13 colonies after the American Revolution of 1776.
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Old Jail
The old jail (1900), near the bus station on Calle 15, is also an impressive sight in an otherwise rundown neighborhood. A project is in order to move the now razed Museo Histórico de Guaymas here, though not much progress had been made at time of research.
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Oakland Cemetery
Gone With the Wind author Margaret Mitchell and golf great Bobby Jones are buried in the Oakland Cemetery. Many interesting Victorian and neoclassical monuments are scattered throughout the site, and - if it doesn't creep you out too much - there's a nice open greenspace for picnics.
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El Campo Santo
El Campo Santo, is a tiny, touching cemetery dating back to the earliest Spanish settlers. One grave near the gate was so placed because the man, 'Jesus the Indian', died while 'completely drunk'. The construction of San Diego Ave accidentally covered many resting spots, so you may notice some medallions marking grave sites embedded in the street.
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Edgar Allan Poe's Grave
Acclaimed author Edgar Allan Poe lies under a 1.8m (6ft) white obelisk in this churchyard. A literary giant whose horror novels continue to inspire authors and film-makers, Poe settled in Baltimore in 1831 and died in 1849. An admirer decorates Poe's grave with roses and a bottle of cognac every year on the anniversary of his birthday (19 January).
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Eastern State Penitentiary
Eastern State Penitentiary, opened in 1829, was controversial for a program that was meant to change behavior through solitary confinement and labor. Before it was abandoned in 1971 it held some of the country's most notorious criminals, including Al Capone. Today you can wander throughout the ancient cell blocks and even take a 'haunted' night-time tour.
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Russian Cemetery
Old headstones and Russian Orthodox crosses can be found in the overgrown and quintessentially creepy Russian Cemetery, located at the north end of Observatory St, or just squeak through the gap in the chain-link fence behind the princess' grave), where the drippy verdure seems poised to swallow up the decaying graves, like something out of a Stephen King novel.
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Hancock Cemetery
Hancock Cemetery is the final resting place of many notable Quincy residents, including most of the Quincy and Adams families. The Adams family vault, near the street, was the original site of the graves of the presidents and their wives, before they were interred in the Presidential Crypt. A map to Hancock Cemetery is available at the United First Parish Church.
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St Raphael's Catholic Church
St Raphael's Catholic Church, Kaua'i's oldest Catholic church, is the burial site of some of Hawaii's first Portuguese immigrants. The original church, built in 1854, was made of lava rock and coral mortar with walls 3ft thick - a type of construction visible in the ruins of the adjacent rectory. When the church was enlarged in 1936 it was plastered over, creating a more-typical whitewashed appearance.
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Old Jail
The aura of the Old West still lingers over Truckee's teensy historic downtown where railroad workers and lumberjacks once milled about in raucous saloons, bawdy brothels and shady gambling halls. Most of the late-19th-century buildings now contain restaurants and cutesy boutiques. The Old Jail, in use until the 1960s, is filled with relics from the wild days of yore. The visitors center has free walking-tour maps.
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Historic Truckee
The aura of the Old West still lingers over Truckee's teensy historic downtown where railroad workers and lumberjacks once milled about in raucous saloons, bawdy brothels and shady gambling halls. Most of the late-19th-century buildings now contain restaurants and cutesy boutiques. The Old Jail, in use until the 1960s, is filled with relics from the wild days of yore. The visitors center inside the Amtrak train depot has free walking-tour maps.
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Gold Rush Cemetery
Visitors who become infatuated with Smith and Reid can walk out to Gold Rush Cemetery, a 2½-mile stroll northeast on State St. Follow State until it curves into 23rd Ave and look for the sign to Soapy's grave across the railroad tracks. A wooden bridge along the tracks leads to the main part of the cemetery, the site of many stampeders' graves and the plots of Reid and Smith. From Reid's gravestone, it's a short hike uphill to lovely Reid Falls, which cascades 300ft down the mountainside.
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Hope Cemetery
Where do old granite carvers go when they die? In Barre, they end up in Hope Cemetery. To granite carvers, tombstones aren't dreary reminders of mortality but artful celebrations of the carver's life. And what celebrations! A carver and his wife sit up in bed holding hands, smiling for eternity; a granite cube balances precariously on one corner. Other gravestones reproduce the deceased's favorite soccer ball or even a small airplane. If a cemetery can ever be amusing, this one is. It's open to the living all the time.
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Princess Maksoutoff's Grave
Across Marine St, at the top of Princess St, is Princess Maksoutoff's Grave, marking the spot where the wife of Alaska's last Russian governor is buried. But for a strategically placed chain-link fence, the grave would be in the Russian Cemetery. But a bright and shiny sign proclaims this tiny three-grave site as the Lutheran Cemetery.
Cynics might postulate that the princess probably lost her status as a bona fide Lutheran when she married the Russian Orthodox governor, but now that she's a bona fide tourist attraction, the Lutherans want her back.
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Fairview Lawn Cemetery
Since the film Titanic swept through the 1998 Academy Awards like, well, an iceberg, nondenominational Fairview Cemetery has been incorporated into the tour bus circuit. Halifax, base of rescue operations for the tragedy, is home to nearly all the residuals of the fateful voyage.
Among the 121 victims buried here is a lowly coal shoveler named Jim Dawson, who was transformed by Hollywood into Jack Dawson. It's easy to find grave No 227, marked simply 'J Dawson, April 15, 1912', as weepy adolescents have made it a pilgrimage point and there are usually flowers.
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Forest Lawn Memorial Park - Glendale
- Los Angeles, USA
- Sights › Dark
This humungous cemetery is the final home of such Golden Age superstars as Clara Bow, Humphrey Bogart and Jimmy Stewart. Alas, many of their graves are in mausoleums and off-limits to the public. It doesn't help that cemetery staff strongly discourage star seekers. You can download maps from the internet (for example www.seeing-stars.com), but be discreet or risk having them confiscated. The grounds are still worth a visit if only to marvel at the country-club feel of the place and oddly impressive art such as a stained-glass version of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper.
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