Township could take over cemetery
Volunteers have maintained, but church no longer exists
TOWAMENCIN >> Tucked away between a hotel and a highway is a little-noticed piece of Towamencin’s history.
That piece of history could soon become the property of Towamencin itself, as the township supervisors voted this week to start the process of taking over a long-neglected cemetery.
“Our Veterans Committee has been working to maintain the cemetery behind the Holiday Inn,” said supervisor Rich Marino.
“The cemetery was affiliated with a church that went defunct in the 1920s, about 100 years ago. The cemetery was maintained somewhat, but it’s overgrown at this point,” he said.
The cemetery in question is located just south of the Holiday Inn hotel and Royal Farms fuel station on Forty Foot Road at Towamencin Avenue, and just north of the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
According to Marino and
Township Manager Don Delamater, the cemetery is a roughly 100-by-100-foot parcel with easement access off of Bustard Road, and the last listed owner is the Methodist Episcopal Church, which was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 through 1939 when it reunited with two other Methodist denominations.
Marino told his fellow supervisors on Wednesday night that the township’s public works committee has recently taken up talks on the cemetery, after the veterans committee had gone to the site earlier this year to cut weeds, trim grass, and remove invasive tree seedlings that had started growing there.
“There are two Civil War veterans there, in addition to Jacob Kulp, whom Kulpsville was named after,” Marino said. Township records indicate that Jacob G. Kulp passed away in October 1884 and had served in a Pennsylvania infantry regiment during the Civil War, then was a member of the “Grand Army of the Republic” veterans organization afterward.
“At this point, given the fact that it really can’t be maintained by a volunteer organization, and there isn’t a church congregation to take it on, we would like to begin the process to assume control of that cemetery,” Marino said.
Over the past two decades, the township underwent a similar process with the Tennis-Lukens cemetery on Allentown Road, which has since been designated “Veterans Memorial Park” and which is currently the subject of a master plan being developed to spell out future uses.
“There was a provision where municipalities can take over a derelict or defunct cemetery,” Marino said
“Maybe it’s a two-step process, to have the township begin maintenance and cutting the grass on the property,” before more formal actions to document the ownership, he said.
Supervisor Chuck Wilson asked solicitor Jack Dooley if he saw any problems with cutting the grass there, and Dooley said he did not, but recalled “We did something more official with Tennis-Lukens.” The board then voted unanimously twice, with the first vote authorizing staff to begin maintaining the cemetery itself.
“And then, a second motion to begin the process to have the township assume control of that cemetery,” Marino said, and the board voted unanimously to do so.
Towamencin’s supervisors next meet at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 8 at the township administration building, 1090 Troxel Road. For more information visit www. Towamencin.org.
“The cemetery was maintained somewhat, but it’s overgrown at this point.” — Supervisor Rich Marino.