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Ryan McGee
#6
Dorotheos wrote:
Growing up, I used to tell the other kids at school that I lived in a cemetery, and that we had bats in our belfry. The first statement was a slight exaggeration. The rectory was beside the cemetery not quite in it. The second statement was literally true.
My father is an Episcopal priest, and when I was growing up we lived at St James Kingsessing in southwest Philadelphia, founded by Swedish colonists in 1760. The parish became Anglican after the Revolution as the Swedish colonists dispersed into the general population.
All this is to demonstrate a certain “professional” expertise in the matter at hand.
This structure or vault serves a dual purpose, if as I assume this is in a place with a colder climate.
1. It is simply storage for the “equipment” of running a cemetery. Now-a-days graves are dug by an earthmover vehicle, but in the old days this was done by hand. There is other typical equipment, some of it quite large, and you these things lying around
2. During a cold winter, the ground may be simply undiggable, and so remains may be stored in the vault over the winter until the ground is has defrosted enough for actual internment. This accounts for the stoutness and a lack of windows.
This looks quite old, probably at least early 19th century. I would love to know what you know about this.
Thank you for your insights. The cemetery is very old. It is in Steubenville, OH (Union Cemetery). Several of the gravestones go back to the 1700\'s, and there is a significant Civil War section. The building in my picture is located probably 1/4 mile away from the main cemetery. It\'s kind of away from everything else. Near the center off the cemetery there is an old receiving vault, near the old office building. Steubenville can get quite cold (weather is like that in Pittsburgh). It very well may be that the building was used to hold bodies when the ground was too frozen.
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