Rolling hills, grass as green as an emerald, and beautiful weeping willows droop harmoniously with one another. Granite stones are enmeshed between this mesmerizing landscape that is so captivating, one may not even notice the gravesites at first glance. This infatuating site is none other than that of Homewood Cemetery. Homewood Cemetery’s nature-focused structure is what makes this cemetery seem so seamless and natural in its design; however, Homewood is entirely man-made, every tree, every hill, every plot of grass is all intentionally built to look that way; but why?
The answer is simple; in utilizing topography and botany to create a perceived space, it is only then that a perceived space can begin to shift into a living space. Perceived space is a space that is based in reality, it is where a person physically is, during a certain time and space. A lived space is a combination of perceived space and a conceived space. A conceived space is an imaginary space in a world that is not real. The lived space allows for imagination to be incorporated into reality. People tend to want their loved one’s lives to be remembered and in some way even have their memory prosper after death. This continued life after death is entirely conceived and imaginary; this resurrected life is seen through most commonly grave markers and the stories surrounding those grave markers. Yet, the perceived space being the nature surrounding, combines these two contrasts to create the lived space.
Homewood has reached arboretum status, and the location prides on its landscape. No matter where one stands, there is an ability to see out into every direction of the cemetery which gives the cemetery this sense of openness. This along with the trees, hills, and grass go into constructing Homewood’s perceived space. Homewood’s perceived space is a physical place to bury the dead while its conceived space simultaneously emphasizes this concept of the continuation of life. The two concepts when combined then create a lived space consisting of a beautiful landscape amongst the stories and gravesites of those whose lives have been lost. All of the nature surrounding Homewood creates this contrast that makes this cemetery appealing. Each gravesite tells a story of a different person’s life although the person is dead, and each gravesite, especially at Homewood is incredibly unique.
Take for example the gravesite in Homewood with a large granite headstone reading the name of Ellen M. Watson. Ellen was a big leader in the temperance movement to ban alcohol. Her fight was to prevent men from spending all of their money on alcohol because women had no property rights. Essentially if a man drank away the family’s life savings, women would be thrown out on the street. Ellen made it her mission after her husband died and she inherited a lot of money to fight for the women who were being left homeless and penniless. Ellen died six years before prohibition, but her efforts did not go unnoticed. Her gravesite is quite different from other women’s gravesites before and during her time period. In fact, Ellen is one of the first females in Homewood, whose gravestone is very large, and says her name without having “wife of” in front of it. Ellen is one of the first women to be buried at Homewood whose impact along with her wealth throughout her life warranted her to not be identified solely with her husband but as her own being on her gravestone.
While Ellen is an example of a person whose life is well-admired incongruence to her death, partially because of her wealth, there are other gravesites of people who have passed that are not as well known or rich. A man named Hervey Van Forheis is one of these people. He does not have a marker because most likely his family couldn’t afford it after his death, so, unfortunately, wealth may play a key role in how long someone’s story or memory is able to prosper after death. Hervey Van Forheis was cremated after his death and buried at Homewood. Although his life may not be recognized by a gravestone, it is still very interesting; Hervey Van Forheis was a spiritual faith healer who invented the flying machine.
In Saint Louis, there was a flying machine contest and the grand prize was $100,000, so he rented a field put up a fence and tried to invent the flying machine. Hervey Van Forheis even approached the mayor for money to continue inventing his machine, but the mayor refused to meet with him thinking this man was crazy. He was however allowed to set up a model in a city building despite not receiving the money he wanted, and at the end of his life he moved to Virginia and died there with his wife. This man is not represented physically after his death. His story would be forgotten if Mrs. Jennie Benford would have not chosen to tell his story, yet without a marker, his physical body still exists in Homewood. Jennie Benford is especially knowledgeable in digging through the archives and preserving the history of Homewood. And as long as people continue to interact with Hervey’s gravesite because of Jennie’s efforts despite the lack of a marker, his life and his story will live on even after death.
A text we read in class called Spoon river, continues this concept of life after death through stories and grave markers for those who have passed. Spoon River is a collection of poems that are all about people who have died and are buried in Illinois. Each story is about an individual and what their lives were like up until their deaths. One poem, in particular, is about Judge Somers. At the end of the poem, Judge Somers says:
How does it happen, tell me
That I lie here unmarked, forgotten,
While Chase Henry, the town drunkard,
Has a marble block, topped by an urn (Masters 14).
These words insinuate that Judge Somers sees life and memory after death as something that is preserved by a fancy land plot and the story that the land plot tells. He sees a town drunk being marked better with a nice gravestone while he has no grave marker at all. This makes him feel as though the stories of his life and memory of him are going to be forgotten. In Judge Somers stating this idea of being forgotten, he is reaffirming the idea that gravestones in some way carry on someone’s memory after death. Judge Somers is upset because wealth is the determinant if someone is to be remembered by a physical marker. It is not entirely what a person has accomplished in their lives that will make them be remembered.
A person who is someone in current history who is buried at Homewood Cemetery is Mac Miller. He is a Pittsburgh rapper that has recently passed in 2018 and is buried at Homewood Cemetery despite not having a marker yet. Someone so notable being buried has led to people trying to find his gravesite. This feeds back to this idea of someone’s memory being kept through their gravesite, and the story of their life being preserved through this site as well. People will most likely visit Homewood to see where Mac is buried, thus his memory will continue to remain throughout the years. This preservation of memory is different from someone like the memory of Hervey Van Forheis, who likely is forgotten about for the most part. However, while both Hervey Van Forheis and Mac Miller are different in how they will be remembered, both are two different people who lived very different lives. In spite of this, the two both exist in the same perceived space despite the differences in their stories of how they got to Homewood Cemetery.
Ellen M. Watson, Hervey Van Forheis, Judge Somers, and Mac Miller are all existing in a lived space. The idea of people’s lives being continued on and preserved by having their stories told through a plot of land that somehow holds their memory, is an imaginary concept. However, the beautiful perceived space the bodies are surrounded by is very much real. Both of these spaces combined helps procure dead people’s stories and spaces in which they inhabit within Homewood Cemetery into a lived space. Thus, there is a reality and a fantasy being interwoven of what humans can physically see. The land and grave plots of those who are deceased is within a perceived reality. This perceived reality forms a lived space when combined with the conceived space. This conceived space being the imaginary aspect of what humans don’t see but believe, being that those who have passed want to be commemorated.
Work Cited
Masters, Edgar Lee. Spoon River Anthology. Digireads.com, 2019.
Soja, Edward W. Seeking Spatial Justice. University of Minnesota Press, 2010.
The Blast Staff. “Mac Miller to Be Buried at Pittsburgh Cemetery Used in His Music Video.” The Blast, The Blast, 10 June 2019, theblast.com/c/mac-miller-family-cemetery-pittsburgh-nikes-on-my-feet.