On Saturday, October 18, 2008, Phi Alpha Theta member and history major Joseph Richardson gave Phi Alpha Theta members a tour of Maple Hill Cemetery in downtown Huntsville; it is Huntsville's oldest and largest cemetery, founded around 1822.
Joseph explained the history of the cemetery to us and then focused our tour on the oldest parts of the cemetery, visiting the graves of several Alabama governors, senators, and other prominent figures in the history of Huntsville. We also paid close attention to the final resting spots of many "ordinary" people, learning what we could about life and death in nineteenth-century Huntsville from their gravestones. At the end of the tour, we visited the special Catholic and Jewish sections of the old cemetery, as well as "Potter's Field," where the indigent were buried.
A highlight of the tour was visiting the gravestone of Dr
. Frances C. Roberts, the founder of the UAHuntsville History Department. Roberts Hall, where the history department presently resides, carries her name.Pictured here see Joseph hard at work giving us a tour, and also German exchange student Simon Rebiger and history majors Charles Westbrook, Elisabeth Spalding, and Joseph Richardson at Dr. Roberts' grave.
1 comment:
wow, that looks fun. I bet his tour was great. I met him at the library and enjoyed talking with him.
cool pic of the group with Dr. R's tombstone.
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