Category: West Fairmount Park

Last week, on this day, I came upon this grave. Overgrown and forgotten lie the remains of a family. Reading the inscriptions on the granite tomb told a sad story: the couple had a son that died in the same year born (1916). I took interest in this cemetery plot and worked to uncover it from the overgrowth. I went home and did some internet sleuthing and came up with some information. The husband, Adam Sinclair was born in Ireland and came to Philadelphia. He worked as a trolley motorman for the Philadelphia Transit company and lived in North Philadelphia near Germantown Avenue with his wife Hannah. Adam was diagnosed with carcinoma of the stomach and died at the age of 51 on October 13th 1921. He was buried on October 17th on a beautiful fall sunny day with the high temperature of 72 degrees. Hannah lived for another 16 years and died at the age of 61 with no cause of death recorded. Interestingly enough, she was living in a rowhouse at the time of her death in Southwest Philadelphia, just blocks away from her family’s burial plot. Upon learning this interesting detail, my mind immediately wandered into speculation.

I imagined that Hannah wanted to be close to her tragically lost family and chose to live near the cemetery so she could visit and feel close and have some kind of connection. She had moved to a completely different part of the city from where she was living when her husband died. Wild speculation to be sure, but who knows the real story.

From what I could see on the raw physical data was that there were no direct descendants of this family and that their memory was lost. Only what remained was this abandoned plot.
If anyone knows anymore It would be fantastic to hear from you! #hannahsinclair#adamsinclair.

Um, so basically what it looks like here, the big takeaway, is that once you’re gone, that’s it. You might have a tomb or a glamorous tombstone or even a big mausoleum etc etc, but so what, it could be overgrown or even removed to make room for housing. Philadelphia has a long sordid history of removing cemeteries for urban development.

The anniversary of Anthony Burton’s death is here. He suddenly passed away 14 years ago. I went to visit his grave and pay my respects to this wonderful man, and good friend. Tony was my neighbor 3 rowhouses down and after I moved in we got to know each other. He was very interested in who I was as a person and he was like that with everyone. He loved our block and everyone on it and always reached out. Tony had love to give out to this cruel world and nothing would stop him from delegating that out to whom he saw fit.

Tony immediately understood my desire to restore my rundown rowhouse and he was instrumental in getting me some of the missing house parts he had collected in his basement. Tony had an unusual quality about him, he was able to let go of his own worries and distractions and really be interested in other people. He loved to ask questions about people and sincerely wanted answers. He was always so grateful of anyone who engaged him. His reward was that he really knew people. He was so engaging with humanity and all of its beauties and deep flaws. As a police officer in his last days he was dealing with so much stress. He told me he had to cut a child down who hung himself at Overbrook High school, here in West Philadelphia.
He told me this knowing I would listen and absorb his story. He needed me to to hear his story, his experience and situation as a friend. I’m so glad to have been there for him.

Well, Tony, you are remembered and thought of kindly, as your last earthly remains are integrated into eternity.