Posted on 12/23/2006 5:04:17 PM PST by indcons
In a little valley ringed by trees on the edge of the Presidio of San Francisco is a lost cemetery containing the graves of hundreds of merchant seamen, buried years ago and forgotten.
The graves are unmarked and the names of many buried there are unknown.
The cemetery itself, located just beyond the closed Public Health Service Hospital near 15th Avenue and Lake Street, is invisible. The graves, which once had neat wooden headstones enclosed by a fence, were buried under 16 feet of debris from excavations of a missile site in the 1950s.
A parking lot was built at the same time over one corner of the graveyard and a tennis court over another.
And then the cemetery was forgotten -- literally covered up.
Now, archaeologists from the Presidio Trust, which operates the former Army post, are looking into the lost cemetery with an eye to explaining it to the public.
It is an eerie spot, even now. The cemetery is located behind the derelict and abandoned hulk of the old hospital, which looks a bit like a shipwreck. Its windows are broken and the walls are covered with graffiti. There is not a single sign explaining what lies under the weeds in the little valley of the dead.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Thanks for posting it! It's an interesting story. I have always been fascinated by stories like this. Every city, every area has them and every once in a while one of them is discovered and reported. Great read.
Ping
Thanks, Sunken Civ, for bringing attention to this important news story.
The larger question of preservation of military sites is one that needs further examination and introspection. The other day, I was watching a History Channel documentary that discussed how Civil War/War between the States battlegrounds are being lost because of lack of awareness and development needs.
The Portsmouth Naval Hospital, ( Portsmouth, Virginia), has some fairly old graves, ( early 1800's ), there. Some of the headstones are becoming difficult to read due to weathering.
You're welcome. Glad you liked it.
It happens. I have family whose graves were paved over with a highway.
This area was heavily fought over during the WBTS, and there are graves all over everywhere.
Some were supposed to be moved and weren't, some were lost, some were paved over surreptitiously by developers.
Every so often some bones turn up in an excavation. Once they're satisfied it's not a recent murder, they reinter them in Marietta National Cemetery. Of course, there's no chance of an identification, unless the soldier was one of the few who had brass ID tags specially made (they were available but not official, and many didn't bother.)
We have many dead here "known but to God." My great-grand-uncle John Stewart was one of them, they never found his body.
Great post. BTW, Atlanta was one of the cities that was discussed in that documentary.
You might be interested in this thread that I just posted on photographs from the CW/WBTS: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1757909/posts
Thanks for the link, I'll go check it out.
I went to school in that building (Defense Language Institute), and we held our morning formations on that tennis court.
That's very interesting, Patton.
Were people at the DLI aware of the history of this place?
Not in the least - we just knew it was an old hospital. Had frat parties in the morgue, that sort of thing.
Very sad. Good news that it's being rectified.
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