Cemeteries open gates to Houston's past

Founders Memorial Cemetery, located in the 1200 block of West Dallas, is home to the graves of many of Houston's key historical figures, including John Kirby Allen, one of the original founders of the city.

"There are more Texas Centennial Monuments here than in any other cemetery in Texas except the State Cemetery in Austin," volunteer and organizer of the event Jill Brooks said. "The stories of the people buried here really read like a Texas textbook."

As part of the event, Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia led a ceremony to honor the first sheriff of Harris County, John W. Moore, who was buried in Founders Cemetery in 1846, laying a wreath next to his grave.

"There are lots and lots of stories here, and we want to show that in this little cemetery that used to be forgotten is the story of Houston," volunteer and Daughters of the American Revolution member Meda Wogan said.

Restoration under way

Also a once-forgotten lot, College Memorial Park Cemetery, about a five-minute drive down the street, is also a treasure trove of Houston history.

For the crawl, College Memorial Park dedicated a new fence that volunteers have been raising money for since 2007.

Originally an African-American Baptist cemetery, the land holds about 2,500 graves, most from between 1900 and 1940. The cemetery was opened in 1896 and is the burial site for freed slaves from the Fourth Ward.

Still in use until the 1970s, the cemetery was abandoned when the company that owned it went out of business, volunteer Bridget Jensen said.

"This is Houston's African-American founders, and to see it on the way to restoration with dignity and respect is a real social justice issue," said Jenny Bailey, a volunteer and former policy planner for former Mayor Bill White. "The African-American founders of the city often have not been recognized in the same way as everyone else."

The restoration of the cemetery, which was filled with weeds and trash, began when several neighborhood members realized it was not an empty lot but an old cemetery. Community member Randy Riepe has spearheaded the restoration along with many other volunteers, including Rev. Robert Robertson from Bethel Baptist Church, which now owns the cemetery.

"We want to bring it back to what it would have looked like if it had been taken care of all these years," said Riepe, who noticed the lot on his jogs through the neighborhood.

Multiyear project

The volunteers need to raise $150,000 to add lights, irrigation, drainage and a new road. The effort is expected to take three to five more years.

Celeste Bedford Walker, who lives in the Third Ward, was so inspired by the cemetery that she wrote a play in 1998 called Distant Voices for the Ensemble Theatre.

"I can just feel the spirits of the people buried here," she said.

hallie.jordan@chron.com