Dr. G's photoblog: Glenwood Cemetery

While the northern suburbs in Houston woke up because of the train horns, the photographers of the Photowalk Meetup group were already on their way to this week’s Photowalk. Because of the Halloween festivities on October 31st, it was decided to go to Glenwood cemetery.

To get the full Halloween spirit we arrived before sunrise. When I shot this picture I could barely see my tripod and had no idea what I was shooting. I learned that night shots only work when something is emitting light, a graveyard is not the place for a night shot. I think I will return at sunrise on a foggy day. Luckily sunrise take much less time in Houston than in the northern part of Europe.

Glenwood cemetery opened in 1872 as a private cemetery. Many graves from those years are still there. Due to bad management in the late 19th century, the cemetery fell into a deplorable condition. In the early 20th century a group of prominent Houstonians acquired Glenwood and paid of the depts. In 1969 the cemetery was transformed into a non-profit cemetery corporation.

It turned out that there are actually two cemeteries: Washington and Glenwood Cemetery. Washington is the relative more simple cemetery, but probably still expensive. Each family has a rectangular shaped cemetery lot, which are privately owned. I assume there is an annual fee to pay for the road maintenance etc. Yes, this is a typical cemetery which is unknown in Europe. You just take your car and drive around the cemetery.

The Glenwood part of the cemetery offers much bigger lots and more recent graves. It has more or less the same concept as Washington, rectangular shaped lots are privately owned by families where about 2 to 6 people are buried.

The lot below is just one cemetery lot. A few minutes walking from where I took this photo there was a construction site for what already looked like a temple. Because the sun was just in the wrong spot I was not able to take a shot.