Friends of Historic Riverside Cemetery

Henry Carver Memorial Dedication on August 22nd

August 21, 2009 – 1:48 pm

Among the many historic figures who are buried at Riverside Cemetery is Henry Carver who, among other accomplishments, was the first president of Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania. Bloomsburg University Archivist and Historian Robert Dunkelberger has extensively researched Professor Carver’s life; a short summary of his research is available on the Bloomsburg University Website.

Professor Carver lived in Denver for several years after his time in Bloomsburg, serving for a year as the superintendent of the Denver School System in the 1870s. For much of his time in Denver he lived with his oldest daughter Sarah and her husband, Hiram G. Wolff, in their home in the Highland neighborhood.

Bloomsburg University’s first president, Henry Carver, died in Denver, Colorado, in 1889. He is buried in an unmarked grave at Riverside Cemetery in Denver. The Bloomsburg University Alumni Association and the Friends of the BU Library are donating a headstone for Carver’s grave to commemorate his legacy.

On August 22nd, 2009 at 2:15pm the Bloomsburg Alumni Association will be dedicating a monument to Professor Carver at Riverside (Block 4, Lot 73). For more about the luncheon, presentation, and dedication, visit the Bloomsburg Alumni Website.

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Doc-A-Block Training – August 15th

August 13, 2009 – 8:00 am

We’re excited to announce that we are currently training volunteers for our “Doc-A-Block” program. The next training session will be on Saturday, August 15th 2009 from 10 am to noon. To register for this program please send an email to our Doc-A-Block guru, Kate Barnes, at kate@friendsofriversidecemetery.org.

Through this program, volunteers from the Friends of Historic Riverside Cemetery will create a digital archive of the more than 35,000 monuments at Riverside Cemetery. Volunteers are trained in how to photograph the monuments, document the inscriptions, and analyze the condition of the materials (whether sandstone, limestone, marble, granite, or other), set GPS coordinates, and upload the information to the doc-a-block website.

Each volunteer will be given a section of the cemetery which they can document on their own schedule – at the end of the day we intend to have a comprehensive resource for the history and condition of Denver’s oldest and most historic cemetery.

If you can’t attend this training, don’t worry – we have more training sessions coming up later this year. Anyone interested is encouraged to send your info to volunteers@friendsofriversidecemetery.org to be informed of upcoming volunteer opportunities.

Special thanks to Sue Weatherman and Kate Barnes for their great efforts in making this training happen.

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May 16: Annual Members Meeting & Reception

May 3, 2009 – 4:53 pm

You are invited!
Friends of Historic Riverside Cemetery
2009 Annual Members Meeting, Reception,
and Walking Tour

When: May 16th, 2009, 10 a.m. ­– noon

Where: Holy Transfiguration of Christ Cathedral, Community Hall

Address: 349 E 47th Ave, Denver, 80216
(map is available at bottom of this page)

The Friends of Historic Riverside Cemetery is celebrating our first anniversary with our annual meeting, lemonade reception, and walking tour. Join us to meet the board of directors, hear about our initiatives, and find out how to get involved in supporting Denver’s oldest cemetery.

The annual meeting will include information on our monument archive program (Doc-A-Block) and our long-term planning initiative (Riverside 2020), a brief update from each of our Committee Chairs, and opportunities for volunteer involvement. We will also elect up to five new board members*.

Agenda:

10:00
Annual Meeting with Committee Updates
Election of New Directors*
Fundraiser: Prize Drawing for a Diamond Ring
($5.00 tickets, ring appraised at $2,250.00! Thanks to Stephen Dawson for his generous donation)

11:30
Lemonade & Sweet Reception
Argo Park (across from Transfiguration Cathedral)

12:00
Walking Tour of Riverside
(presented by Cliff Dougal – former caretaker of Riverside for 19 years – and heritage uber-volunteer Garry O’hara)

RSVP by sending an email to friends@friendsofriversidecemetery.org

Note *Call for New Board Members: We are looking for up to five people to serve on the Friends of Historic Riverside Cemetery Board of Directors. The new board members will be elected to serve three year terms. We would prefer individuals who are interested in leading specific committees (at least for the first year of their term), as follows:
– Membership
– Fundraising and Partnerships
– Special Events
– Marketing and Communications
– History and Research
If you are interested in serving on the board of the Friends of Historic Riverside, please contact Hugh Graham via email at hugh@hughgrahamcreative.com or by phone at 303-458-6077

Current board members (beginning the second year of their terms) will serve in the following roles:
President, Hugh Graham
Vice President, Sandy Marvin
Treasurer, Cynthia Del Ponte
Secretary, Traci Stoffel
Preservation and Environment, Lane Ledbetter and Sue Weatherman
Outreach, Cliff Dougal
At Large: Kate Barnes, Jill Hadley Hooper, Stephen Dawson

Map to Holy Transfiguration Cathedral:

View Larger Map

The Friends of Historic Riverside Cemetery is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit corporation dedicated to increasing awareness and preservation of Denver’s oldest and most historic cemetery.

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Replanting Riverside

April 20, 2009 – 11:22 am

After a tough winter for the environment at Riverside, The Friends of Historic Riverside Cemetery (FHRC) is pleased to support the “Replanting Riverside” initiative undertaken by Fairmount Heritage Foundation and the Colorado Association of Lawn Care Professionals (see the press release below for more information).

The Friends of Historic Riverside Cemetery is committed to increasing awareness and encouraging preservation of Denver’s oldest cemetery. We believe that this program is a very valuable preliminary step in the process of revitalizing Riverside. The process of weeding and replanting Riverside’s 77 acres of landscape will require a great deal of time, energy, and expertise, and will take many years.

The cleanup and replanting of Riverside will serve as a complement for the two primary initiatives being undertaken by the Friends of Historic Riverside Cemetery:

1. Doc-A-Block: because of their age and fragile condition, many of the monuments at Riverside are in danger of being lost forever. The purpose of the FHRC Assess-A-Block program is twofold: first, to develop comprehensive documentation of all the monuments and features of Riverside, and second, to develop priorities for restoration and preservation.
2. Visioning Riverside 2020: developing a sustainable long-term vision for Riverside will take input from a wide spectrum of the community, including family members, historic preservationists, cemetery planners, open space advocates, landscape architects, politicians, and many others. During the summer of 2009, the FRHC will sponsor a series of planning sessions that will provide a framework for developing a long term plan

With the work that Fairmount is beginning to pursue to restore the environment, plus the two initiatives being undertaken by the FHRC, we are hopeful that this signals a welcome rebirth in interest in commitment to the long-term well-being of Riverside.

For more information on the Friends of Historic Riverside Cemetery, please contact us via email at friends@friendsofriversidecemetery.org. Fairmount Heritage Foundation can be reached through their website.

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On Earth Day, April 22nd, beginning at 8:00 a.m., dozens of lawn and landscape experts from throughout the state—headed by the Colorado Association of Lawn Care Professionals (CALCP) – are volunteering their time, materials and equipment to “replant Riverside”.

The groups will gather this spring to begin their work, which will include:

• April 22 (Earth Day) — Planting and “testing” various types of native grasses in various plots in order to find out what kinds of plant life will thrive in Riverside’s soil. The plantings will include ground cover, native perennials and native grasses.
• (May 23rd) An Eagle Scout will coordinate more than 30 volunteers including other Eagle Scouts and Boy Scouts to pull weeds remove dead shrubs and clean-up the entire fence line surrounding riverside Cemetery.
• Boy Scout Adopt-a-Block. Boys Scout Packs, Troops and Crews have adopted blocks at Riverside Cemetery to assist with the revitalization plan. Cutting weeds, mulching trees and shrubs etc.

“Based on the arid conditions, and limited availability of water, we’re focusing on native plants and plants developed for these conditions that will have the chance to survive and thrive on the cemetery grounds,” sa id Richard Roehm of CALCP. “Everyone involved is extremely proud and excited to be part of this important effort; we’re committed to seeing this project through.”

Following the efforts of CALCP, the Fairmount Heritage Foundation will continue with several other community groups to revitalize Riverside Cemetery throughout the summer.

The key participants include:

• Colorado Association of Lawn Care Professionals.
• Front Range Community College’s Ray Daugherty, Professor of Horticulture and Landscape Technologies.
• Colorado State University
• The Colorado Forest Service.
• Denver Botanic Gardens.
• The International Society of Arboriculture.
• Eagle Scouts and Boy Scouts from throughout the metro area.

Donors of materials and seed include Pawnee Buttes Seed, Sharp Brothers Seed, High Country Gardeners, Western Native Seed, Beauty Beyond Belief, John Deere Landscapes, Chem Way, Alpha Once Inc., Helena Chemical Co.

Workers and equipment are being donated by Davey Tree Expert Company, Whit Tree Service, Jim’s Pride Landscaping, Cyn Mar, Fertek, Van Diest Supply, Bestyard.com, Green Mountain Lawn and Tree Care, Lawn Doctor.
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FHRC Newsletter, 17 March 2009

March 18, 2009 – 11:46 am

17 March 2009
Friends of Historic Riverside Cemetery Newsletter

Hello, and welcome to the March 2009 newsletter of the Friends of Historic Riverside Cemetery.

As many of you already know, this winter had been a tough one on the landscape at Riverside; most of the mature trees have died since watering was discontinued in 2002, and at this point the remaining trees pose a hazard to historical monuments and visitors.

Since November when we posted a story on The Leaning Trees of Riverside Cemetery, a number of trees have fallen over, causing damage to several monuments (including the Evans Mausoleum, among others).

Realizing the seriousness of the situation the owner of the cemetery, Fairmount Cemetery Company, has become much more proactive, and has removed many of the most precarious dead trees, including the one that was ‘leaning’ over the Archer monument.

We appreciate Fairmount’s attention to this situation; nonetheless, it points out that the current approach to managing Riverside is not sustainable.

The Friends of Historic Riverside Cemetery is dedicated to finding a long-term solution for preserving and maintaining Denver’s oldest, most historic, and most fascinating cemetery. Specifically, we are working on two initiatives:

1. Adopt a Block: A Comprehensive Assessment of Riverside
2. Riverside 2020: Vision for the Future, Respect for the Past

More information on these initiatives is included in this newsletter.

As always, your membership, contributions, and volunteer efforts go directly to helping us build a better future for Riverside. You can always find more information and contact information on our website.

Best regards,

-Hugh Graham
President, Friends of Historic Riverside Cemetery
friends@friendsofriversidecemetery.org

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Adopt A Block
A Comprehensive Assessment of Riverside

n November of 2008, The Friends of Historic Riverside Cemetery (FHRC) announced a plan to conduct a comprehensive assessment of Riverside.

This assessment program will serve as the foundation for the future preservation and restoration of Riverside. Once the comprehensive audit is complete, we will build our set of priorities moving forward. The plan contains a number of elements, including the structures, monuments, trees, roses and horticulture.

We have named this program “Adopt A Block”, as we are looking for participation from the community in helping us to conduct this ambitious audit of the condition of Riverside.

We are pleased to report that we are making progress in building the framework for moving forward on this project. Specifically, our intention is to create a fully digital web-based resource center (including GPS mapping) for all our findings.

We’re planning to allow you to ‘adopt a block’ later this spring; please let us know if you would be interested in participating by sending an email to friends@friendsofriversidecemetery.org.

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Riverside 2020
Vision for the Future; Respect for the Past

What’s your vision for Riverside eleven years from now?

That’s the question that the Friends of Historic Riverside hopes to answer through a new, community-focused program to develop a vision for the future of Riverside.

Over the course of the past year, FHRC has been meeting with a number of groups, including the Trust for Public Lands and the Greenway Foundation, to discover opportunities for the preservation and restoration of Riverside.

Based on these initial conversations, we are now ready to move to the next level; through Riverside 2020, we hope to engage civic and government leaders, experts in historic preservation, planners, landscape architects, and members of the community in this conversation.

So, what’s it going to be? A Historical Park? Open Space? An operating cemetery with a focus on green burial? A combination of all three?

Look for more details about “Riverside 2020” on our website in the near future. In the mean time, if you’d like to be involved, please email us at friends@friendsofriversidecemetery.org.

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Upcoming Event: Book Talk by Annette Stott
Pioneer Cemeteries:
Sculpture Gardens of the Old West

Annette Stott, Friends of Historic Riverside Cemetery Board member and co-chair of our history and research committee, will be holding a book talk and signing to benefit DU Art!

Annette is the Director of the School of Art and Art History at the University of Denver. Her book, Pioneer Cemeteries: Sculpture Gardens of the Old West, “offers an intriguing tour of the importance of cemeteries as havens of art and culture in a place and time where the living was rough, the dying frequent, and the embellishments few.”

Sunday, April 26 2:30-4 PM
Lindsey Auditorium, Sturm Hall
2000 E Asbury Ave., on the DU Campus

FREE to DU Art! members & students; $10 to others.
Free with purchase of book at the event.

More information on the book and how you can get a copy is available on our website.

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Riverside tidbits:
News, Events, and Connections

Mark your Calendar: The Friends of Riverside Cemetery annual meeting will be held on May 16th at 10:00 am. We encourage all members, volunteers, potential board members, and interested parties to attend. We’ll be announcing more details soon…

Riverside in the News: The demise of the Rocky Mountain News was a sad day for all of us (after all, it was one of the few Colorado institutions older than Riverside), but before the final paper hit the presses they ran a terrific story on the plight of Riverside. If you missed it, you can still read it online.

Riverside Cemetery on Facebook. Facebook.com is a social networking site that allows people to find and cultivate connections with friends, neighbors, and to and to discover new ones. So, come join us, and tell your friends to become friends with the friends…

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Get Involved:
Volunteer, Become a Member, or Make a Donation

Got a hankering to get involved? We have committees dedicated to History & Research and Preservation & Environment, and we’re also looking for people with internet communications and database skills. If you’re interested, send a note to friends@friendsofriversidecemetery.org. Or, visit our get involved page for more information.

The Friends of Historic Riverside Cemetery is a volunteer-run and member-supported non-profit organization. Your donation goes directly promoting awareness and preservation of Denver’s oldest cemetery. Visit our membership and donations page for more information on how you can offer your financial support. You can donate online or print our membership brochure if you’d rather mail us a check.

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Contact Information

Join Our Email List We encourage you to sign up to receive this newsletter via email. You can always unsubscribe, and we won’t be giving your information out to anyone else.

If you have an idea or suggestion we encourage you to get in touch with us:

Friends of Historic Riverside Cemetery
PO Box 16237
Denver CO 80216
friends@friendsofriversidecemetery.org

The Friends of Historic Riverside Cemetery is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization dedicated to increasing awareness and promoting preservation of Denver’s oldest cemetery.

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Riverside in the Rocky Mountain News, February 7, 2009

February 8, 2009 – 1:57 pm

Julie Hutchinson wrote a terrific feature article on Riverside and the goals of the Friends of Historic Riverside Cemetery (FHRC) in the Rocky Mountain News on February 7, 2009. She does a great job of summarizing the history of the cemetery, and putting it into a contemporary context.

FHRC board members Sandy Marvin, Annette Stott, and Hugh Graham were all interviewed and quoted in the article, as was historian Stephen Leonard, chair of the history department at Metropolitan State College of Denver. Leonard is quotes as follows:

It is a shame that with all the millions spent on historic preservation in Colorado that it does not appear that anyone is interested in honoring the resting places of many of our great pioneers

The FHRC is committed to finding a sustainable long-term solution to restoring and maintaining Riverside. The truth is, however, that any solution will require a unique and unprecedented collaboration between governmental, community, and preservation groups, and the efforts of many, many individuals who share our concern.

The response from the article have been phenomenal; in one day we’ve had over 60 people join our email list. We encourage you to get involved as we move this process forward. Join our email list for updates on our efforts, become a member or volunteer, contact your local politicians, and generally just spread the word.

Many thanks to Julie for her terrific article, and to everyone who has offered their support. With your continued support, 2009 may be the year we turn the corner on preserving Riverside!

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Sand Creek Healing Run, November 27-29

November 26, 2008 – 12:35 pm

The Tenth Annual Sand Creek Spiritual Healing Run is taking place November 27-29th, 2008, and will once again be visiting Riverside to honor Captain Silas Soule and Lieutenant Joseph Cramer, both of whom are buried in the military section of Riverside.  You can get more info here about the best healers in town. Although Soule and Cramer were at Sand Creek on November 29th, 1864, they refused to fire on the Cheyenne and Arapaho camped there.

The honoring ceremony will take place at 8:00am on Saturday, November 29th at Riverside Cemetery, (5201 Brighton Boulevard). From Riverside, the healing run will continue to the State Capitol, and then on to the Colorado History Museum for a noon reception. Everyone is welcome to attend this event.

Here’s the full itinerary for this year’s Spiritual Healing Run:

10th Annual Sand Creek Massacre Spiritual Healing Run / Walk
November 27-29, 2008

“This years Healing Run is dedicated to the November 29, 1864, victims whose remains were repatriated at Sand Creek 144 years after the massacre.”

Everyone Welcome
Thursday November 27th, 9:00 AM
Pipe Ceremony and prayer at the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site
18 miles northeast of Eads in Southeastern Colorado
Runners will be blessed and commencement of ‘Healing Run’ to Denver

Friday, November 28th, 7:00 AM
Sunrise Ceremony – TBD
Continue ‘Healing Run’ to Denver

7:00 PM
Candlelight Vigil at the Denver Art Museum Wheel sculpture,
100 West 14th Avenue Parkway, Denver

Saturday November 29th 8:00 AM
Honoring Ceremony for Captain Silas Soule, Company D 1st Colorado Calvary, U.S. Army and Lt. Joseph A. Cramer, Company K 8th Ohio Calvary, U.S. Army at Riverside Cemetery, 5201 Brighton Boulevard, Denver
9:00 AM
Continue ‘Healing Run’ from Riverside Cemetery to 15th and Arapahoe
4 miles distance – MUST REGISTER TO RUN
9:50 AM
At 15th and Arapahoe —near the site where Soule was assassinated—the runners will join with walkers and continue on to the State Capitol Building
NOTE: ALL PARTICIPANTS MUST WALK THE LAST 1-MILE
11:00 AM
Presentation at the Colorado State Capitol Building (West side)
NOON
Reception for Sand Creek Healing Run/Walk Participants at the Colorado Historical Society, Boettcher Auditorium, 1300 Broadway, Denver

For More Information:
Otto Braided Hair (406) 592-3599
Darius Smith (720) 913-8459
Bill Tall Bull (303) 695-4175
Financial contributions to support activities in Denver are still being accepted –
contact Bill Tall Bull at (303)695-4175 or btallbull@msn.com.

For more detailed information (or for a printable schedule), please download the event brochure.

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A Date With the Departed, NYT’s op ed article

November 20, 2008 – 4:21 pm

This beautifully written piece about cemeteries and our cultures changing relationship to them and the folks within, can be read on the New York Times site here. The author is Thomas Lynch, an excerpt below.

“We humans are bound to and identified with the earth, the dirt, the humus out of which our histories and architectures rise — our monuments and memorials, cairns and catacombs, our shelters and cityscapes. This “ground sense,” to borrow William Carlos Williams’s idiom, is at the core of our humanity. And each stone on which we carve our names and dates is an effort to make a human statement about death, memory and belief. Our kind was here. They lived; they died; they made their difference. For the ancient and the modern, the grave is an essential station.

But less so, lately, especially here in the United States, where we whistle past our graveyards and keep our dead at greater distance, consigned to oblivions we seldom visit, estranged and denatured, tidy and Disney-fied memorial parks with names like those of golf courses or megachurches.”

Painting of Riverside markers courtesy Sharon Feder

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The Leaning Trees of Riverside Cemetery

November 14, 2008 – 7:19 pm

Perhaps the most unfortunate effect of the loss of water at pay someone to do your assignment Riverside since 2002 is the death of the majority of the mature trees in the Cemetery. There at least 100 dead trees at Riverside, and unfortunately some of these trees are now threatening many of the monuments in the cemetery.

At least two of the trees have fallen over and dislodged monuments in the past three months, and the situation is bound to get worse.

These photos shows just two of the “leaning trees”, one in block two and one in block 13; the tree in block 13 is endangering the monument to Colonel James Archer (1824-1882), who helped to bring gas lights and a piped water system to the City of Denver.

In her book “From the Grave“, the historian Linda Wommack says that “His monument is one of the most impressive in all the cemetery.”

Of course, it would be very expensive to remove all the dead trees at Riverside, and the owners, Fairmount Cemetery Company, do not currently have the budget to support the cost of this program. The Friends of Historic Riverside Cemetery would love to hear from anyone who has ideas on how we can safely remove the dead trees from Riverside. Contact us at friends@friendsofriversidecemetery.org

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FHRC Announces Comprehensive Assessment Program for Riverside

November 9, 2008 – 3:52 pm

The Friends of Historic Riverside Cemetery (FHRC) is pleased to announce an ambitious, year-long plan to inventory and assess the condition of Riverside, with a focus on establishing priorities for the preservation and restoration of the cemetery as well as defining opportunities for increasing public awareness and engagement.

Riverside Cemetery is Denver’s oldest and most historic, and its condition is a cause of concern for many in the community, including historic preservationists, western and art historians, and those with family members buried there. As Denver celebrates the 150th anniversary of its founding in November of 1858, we believe it is important to develop a plan for the resting place of so many of the city’s pioneers.

This assessment program is the first step in a long-term initiative; we see it serving as the foundation for the future preservation and restoration of Riverside. Once the comprehensive audit is complete, we will build our set of priorities moving forward. The plan will continue a number of elements, including structures, monuments, trees, roses and horticulture.

A major component of this project is the monument documentation project. Picking up on what a team from the Heritage Foundation started (thank you Sue, Maria, and Jayne!), we are planning to have all the grave markers documented and photographed by the end of 2009.

The program officially kicked off on Saturday, October 25th, (in conjunction with the Fairmount Heritage Foundation) with a program organized by an enterprising Eagle Scout candidate, Michael Funk, who organized over 20 volunteers to inventory block 26. Michael and his volunteers were given two hours of orientation and training before going into the field to begin. Riverside is thankful to have access to the talent, energy and knowledge of Jayne Uhlir and her years of experience training volunteers.

Once the training was complete, the volunteers will broke into teams who documented the text on each stone, measured its dimensions, noted the material and its overall condition. Many of the stones at Riverside are quickly losing detail from natural weathering and pollution, which is one reason why creating a digital record is so important.

We are going to be putting together more training sessions in the future; we’ll also be looking to assemble some volunteers to document and map the viable and the not-so-viable trees, roses, and other horticulture. Please let us know if you would be interested in participating by sending an email to friends@friendsofriversidecemetery.org.

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