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TUCSON'S CEMETERIES: 
Another View of a City’s History
By Jeanne Burrows-Johnson

PART II

Unless Halloween or the parallel Día de los Muertos [a popular Hispanic holiday] is approaching, or death occurs in one’s inner circle, contemplation of cemeteries is not foremost in our thoughts.  However, in recent years, media reports have examined Tucson’s shrinking cemetery space with varying degrees of seriousness and humor.  Obviously, the growth of any city necessitates periodic review of accommodations for the dearly departed.  In those few instances when a city is strategically designed and built, founders may have the chance to plan the location of graveyards.  Unfortunately, such exacting opportunities seldom present themselves.

In the early 20^th Century, the value of real estate in Tucson increased significantly.  In July 1907, Herbert B. Tenney, J. Knox Corbett, John M. Ormsby and Frank L. Culin [officers of the newly formed Tucson Cemetery Association] announced the purchase of 240 acres of farmland north of the city on Oracle Road for establishment of Evergreen Cemetery.  The distinctive new cemetery offered permanent records of each lot, with the 80 acres fronting Oracle Road boasting heretofore unheard of "perpetual care," with "a lawn maintained equal to any private lawn in the city."  Just to the north was the newly opened 120-acre Holy Hope Cemetery, owned and operated by the Tucson Roman Catholic Diocese.

Despite innovations in marketing and comprehensive service, and the City Council’s prohibition of further burials in the Court Street Cemetery in 1908, there was no rush to remove bodies, or to sign up for future graves in these new cemeteries.  For years, local undertaker John Reilly oversaw exhumations from the old Court Street cemetery.  His rule for relocation was to assume the dead to have been Roman Catholic if they appeared Spanish; if not, re-internment was in the ecumenical, and multi-cultural Evergreen, which accepted everyone’s dearly departed, including those who were Chinese, Jewish and non-religious.  The land of the “old” Court Street Cemetery was not deemed fully abandoned until March 1916, when advertised bids on its 88 lots netted the government $10,000.  With private cemeteries firmly established, civic leaders could retire the flourishing township from the complexities of funereal business.  With increasing wealth among the city’s growing citizenry, commercial funeral parlors rather than the front parlors of the next of kin became the venue for last rites honoring Tucson’s dead.

Unbridled civic expansion, garbage removal and storage, as well as covert plundering once accounted for everyday desecration of Tucson’s burial sites.  Today, road excavation, building construction, and laying utility lines routinely unearth the remains of past residents, especially beneath the city’s central buildings and connecting streets, old garbage dumps, gardens, and parks.  Discoveries during roadwork and renovations at the Old Pima Courthouse helped to pinpoint the site of the old Presidio chapel and cemeteries and predicted other potential archeological sites.  Disturbance of old burials is now limited, with removal of bodies generally limited to those specifically being displaced for construction projects.  In such cases, archeologists are consulted to perform careful extraction and analysis of bones and other artifacts.  After completing such studies, coordination with organizations like Los Descendientes del Presidio de Tucson [direct descendants of original Presidio soldiers] the Catholic Diocese of Tucson, representatives of the Tohono O’odham Nation and other authorities ensures appropriate reburial of unearthed remains.

Modern American society carefully records matters of birth and death and many factors must be considered in selecting one’s final resting place.  While Pima County’s Department of Vital Statistics says there are no laws governing or prohibiting burial of neither man nor pet on private property, key legal questions revolve around land use zoning and property deed covenants, conditions and restrictions.  Even if you do not live in a restrictive development, zoning of property for single-family homes would preclude establishing a family cemetery.  Beyond this, there remains the issue of appropriate internment that will not interfere with water, gas, electric, or television cable lines.  Additionally, death certificates require specification of final disposition of the deceased’s remains and any burial on land in Arizona must be recorded on property deeds.

Consumer advocate groups like the Tucson Memorial Society, as well as the nation’s largest owner and operator of cemeteries and memorial homes, can assist you in circumspect funeral planning, or the simple purchase of a burial plot as a real estate investment.  You could even consider the emerging market of the virtual cemetery where you can locate a “Garden of Remembrance” to honor your family, friends and pets--virtual or otherwise.

The Joel D. Valdez Main Library (791-4393) and the Archives and Library of the Arizona Historical Society (628-5774) have many resources examining the subject of cemeteries in Arizona.  If you have questions regarding the issue of burial, reburial and cemetery plots, you can contact the Arizona State Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers (602) 542-3095, or the Arizona Department of Real Estate (602) 468-1414, Ext. 100.

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