This place was great! It has abandoned buildings, an old cemetery, nature, and history. I'm a big fan of all of those things. Mount Moriah Cemetery was created in the mid 19th century, it was one of the first national cemeteries which were spurred by the need to bury the many casualties of the civil war. In 2004 the owner died leaving no one to care for it. The massive cemetery was slowly reclaimed by nature. Fortunately a non-profit group was able to get funding and volunteers to restore it. I believe they were able to claim it as a historic place to get the funding.
I would have liked to have seen it totally overgrown, but it's great an organization came together to honor those that were buried here and maintain this historic place. No doubt it was a monumental task to take back hundreds of acres of the overgrown cemetery. You'll in the pictures where it is still overgrown.
It's not in the best part of the city, but not the worst either. If you go during the day you should be fine, I saw two people all day. I recommend parking in on the street (plenty of street parking), the gates were locked when I left at about 7pm.


This building by the main entrance is being restored, or at least kept from falling apart.








The inside












The roof has fallen in here



There was definitely some fire damage, I'm under the collapsed roof here.






The red material is the old metal roof






Onto the rest of the cemetery. Much of it is still totally overgrown.



You can only see the peak of the obelisk in many places. I'm sure there is still a lot to uncover.







This area has been partially cleared, it really shows how much nature had overtaken.




Getting to the fully restored areas now. More than half of the cemetery has been at least partially restored.

All of the mausoleums have been sealed shut with cinder blocks.



Some history



This is the centerpiece of the cemetery, a lot of wealthy people were buried here.



Looking pretty good



Nice view here



There were three military burial areas, civil war, Navy, and the third seemed to be a mix, some WW1 in there for sure.







Now this was something. Hundreds of veteran's headstones stacked up. I'm sure this is part of the restoration project. The veterans' areas were well kept, and they are even replacing some of the old headstones with new ones, I guess because some are so worn down you can't read them.



New headstone next to old ones.




This was an awesome trip, a lot to see. I'm really happy that this place is being restored/maintained, and I have a lot of respect for the organization that took on this massive project, they're doing an excellent job.

i live in a town called Moriah... in northeastern New York.

Nice set! I was surprised to see they had begun to clean the property up when I was sending stuff to a friend to check out when visiting. It's nice to see, I just hope they keep it up.

Posted by EsseXploreR Nice set! I was surprised to see they had begun to clean the property up when I was sending stuff to a friend to check out when visiting. It's nice to see, I just hope they keep it up.

As far as I can tell, they are getting a lot of funding to maintain it as a historic landmark, and they have a dedicated volunteer staff. I'm hoping that they will start burying people there again so it becomes self-sustaining.

Posted by DudeManDeuce As far as I can tell, they are getting a lot of funding to maintain it as a history landmark, and they have a dedicated volunteer staff. I'm hoping that they will start burying people there again so it becomes self-sustaining.

Really what they need is a crematorium. It's often the only way for historic cemeteries to maintain themselves. I've come across this issue before while working with groups trying to preserve graveyards.

Posted by EsseXploreR Really what they need is a crematorium. It's often the only way for historic cemeteries to maintain themselves. I've come across this issue before while working with groups trying to preserve graveyards.

Oh, interesting. Are crematoriums just generally profitable? I imagine the initial investment would be substantial.

I forgot the pictures of the old garage next to the gate house. You can see where they've patched it up.

Posted by DudeManDeuce Oh, interesting. Are crematoriums just generally profitable? I imagine the initial investment would be substantial.

They aren't a goldmine or anything, but they are a more sustainable use of finite space that many cemeteries have. You can only do so many burials, but a crematorium can run forever in theory.

Posted by EsseXploreR but a crematorium can run forever in theory.

My old man would say "there are people dying today that never died before". Still makes me snicker....

Beautiful photos!

This is really close to where I grew up and I've always wanted to go there. Like you said, it would've been nice to see it more overgrown, but there's definitely something to having relics cared for. Thanks for the preview. Can't wait to visit!