Who pays to maintain old graves at a cemetery?
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This article originally ran on Oct. 27, 2023.
Listener and reader Katherine from Milwaukie, Oregon, asks:
What is the business plan for cemeteries? I often ride through a local cemetery and it is always immaculate — grass green and trees picturesque. The headstones are for people who died in the 1920s. Who is paying for this upkeep and why?
The business of forever is a complicated one.
Depending on the state, there are statutes that require certain cemeteries to take a portion of the money that they generate from grave site sales and put them into what’s called a perpetual care fund or endowment, explained Tanya Marsh, a law professor at Wake Forest University in North Carolina.
The cemetery uses the money generated from the endowment for maintenance and repair, she said.
“Typically, the state is going to have either statutes or regulations that place minimum requirements on how those funds are held and invested. The states are concerned about cemetery owners misdirecting those funds or misusing those funds.”
But there are exceptions. Marsh said cemeteries owned by religious organizations, individuals and families are generally exempt from having to establish an endowment.
“For example, in the state of North Carolina, we have about 30,000 cemeteries, and there are only about 100 that are actually regulated by the state and subject to those requirements,” she said.
Marsh noted that cemetery law varies state by state.
Sometimes, local governments might own and maintain a cemetery, but receive help from local organizations when funds are limited.
The nonprofit Friends of Lone Fir Cemetery in Portland, Oregon, for example, raises money to help clean, maintain and repair the cemetery, and obtains its money through a mix of donations, grants and sales from events like historical tours, according to communication director Margaret Fenton. However, the local Oregon government of Metro owns the cemetery (along with 13 other historic cemeteries).
Fenton said many of the people buried in Lone Fir, which has existed for centuries, had headstones made of wood which are now long since gone. In some cases, they had no headstones at all.
Fenton explained that if a headstone needs to be repaired or constructed, Metro will sometimes help handle the task or Friends of Lone Fir will reach out to people who specialize in restorative work.
At Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York — which spans 478 acres — maintenance entails constantly filling depressions (because there are graves that sink), mowing the lawns, and watching monuments to ensure they don’t become dangerous, according to Richard Moylan, the president of the cemetery.
The cemetery, founded in 1838, is one of the country’s first rural cemeteries and serves as the burial ground for more than 570,000 people, including composer Leonard Bernstein and artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Marsh of Wake Forest University pointed out that the statutes requiring a portion of sales to go toward an endowment or perpetual care fund have been in place for the past 50 to 100 years, so cemeteries that have existed for centuries only have money from a portion of these graves going into their funds.
She said sufficient funding is a “constant concern” for cemeteries, especially as the cremation rate goes up.
The cremation rate in the U.S. is anticipated to rise from more than 60% this year to more than 81% by 2045, according to data from the National Funeral Directors Association.
In a news release, the NFDA said Western and Northwestern states – including Oregon – are expected to have cremation rates of 80% or higher, which would be the highest rates in the U.S.
There are various reasons for the increasing rate, which include the cost of a burial, concern about the environmental impact of burials and an increasingly mobile population.
In 2021, the national median cost of a funeral with a viewing and a burial stood at almost $7,850, while the cost of a funeral with a viewing and cremation was $6,970, according to data from the NFDA.
“Abandoned cemeteries are already a significant problem,” Marsh said. “It is a fairly common phenomenon, especially in some parts of the country. The population moves away, the church folds, but the cemetery remains. And so then who’s responsible for it?”
She explained that while most states will allow a county or municipality to take over an abandoned cemetery, local governments are reluctant to do so because of the additional work it entails and the fact that the cemeteries aren’t generating any income for them.
Moylan said he’s concerned about the future of Green-Wood.
“I started worrying more than 20 years ago. I knew we were running low on space,” he said. “So we started planning for that day. And we’re still planning for that day.”
For New York’s public cemeteries, at least 10% of proceeds from the sale of burial lots or space in mausoleums must go into their perpetual care funds. However, that money is supposed to last forever.
“We still sell $9 million to $10 million in cemetery space each year, but that’s going to drop off. It’s already dropping off. And when that stops, then we’ll have a problem. But we have a decent endowment,” Moylan said.
However, he added that for him, it’s still not big enough, which is why it’s essential for the cemetery to find more sources of revenue. Green-wood hosts tours where you can walk and explore the area at night or traverse through the cemetery grounds via trolley.
“The events we do bring people in; it makes some money,” Moylan said. He added that the cemetery also gets money through grants for special projects and donations.
As for why it’s important to put the effort into maintaining and restoring cemeteries?
“It’s the history of the country in a cemetery. I’m pained anytime I see an inscription that’s not legible any longer, and that happens a lot with marble,” Moylan said.
Being able to preserve history is a goal that Fenton agrees with.
“I’ve been to cemeteries all throughout London and Paris and Germany and New York. Everywhere. I’ve seen all over the great love and care that you can have for a cemetery. I think it’s really important to keep historical provenance within the city,” she said.
Some cemeteries are also considered arboretums and serve as areas where different species of animals can thrive. Green-Wood, for example, hosts thousands of trees and has developed a cult-following for honey produced by bees in the cemetery.
And in Lone Fir Cemetery, Fenton pointed out, there are old heritage trees and the Audubon Society hosts an annual bird count event on the grounds because many birds migrate into the area.
“It’s a place of learning. It’s a place to be cherished,” Fenton said.
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