A while back I stumbled down a Wikipedia rabbit hole and wound up finding a photo adventure. Discovered that Louisville has a(nother) dirty little secret and I just had to see it for myself.
By court order, this looks promising. Seems Louisville has what one documentary described as 'the most over-buried cemetery in America,' Eastern Cemetery.
The 28 acre cemetery is right next door to the much more famous Cave Hill Cemetery and contains somewhere in the neighborhood of 16,000 graves. Only problem is they have documentation for 138,000 bodies.
In 1989 somebody blew the whistle on what was going on. Per Wikipedia:
Bodies were buried atop other bodies, graves were carelessly excavated for reuse, and medical cadaver body parts from the University of Louisville were buried in-mass rather than intact (as is legally required for donated bodies). Human bones were found in inappropriate areas, including in a tool box, a glove compartment, a fast food bag, and shallow graves. Some of the behavior had been practiced since the 1920s, and records indicate reuse began in 1858.
Ultimately there were no legal consequences for this but the place has been abandoned ever since. Looks like it's an Airbnb now, who wants to stay here? Don't pack your bags just yet, could find no trace of it on Airbnb, which just makes me wonder about the sign even more.
It was a cloudy, gloomy day which seemed perfect for exploring such a place. Volunteers do what they can to take care of the place but their patchwork efforts mostly serve to call attention to the air of neglect that permeates the place.
Is that gravestone flipping me the bird? Somebody knew what was up...
What wasn't up was half the headstones. Being overgrown may have been a blessing in disguise, the tall grass concealed just how many tombstones had toppled until you got close.
Father, Mother, Daughter, Beloved Friend. Wait, beloved friend? Wondering if that's not 19th century code for lesbian lover. Never come across that before, anybody else know of someone who up and decided they wanted to be buried with their friend's parents?
Looks like there were enough people in Eastern Cemetery that they got their own post office. Either that there's been a jailbreak cemeterybreak. Anybody know what's actually supposed to be in those cubbies?
In some parts, Mother Nature's efforts at reclamation lent a sense of peace and tranquility.
Other parts just left you convinced you'd seen this horror movie before.
There were a couple headstones that were obviously much newer and in better shape. Don't know the story behind this one but thought it might be of interest to 
This marker was so new you could almost smell it. Looked Felton Snow up when I got home and discovered that he'd been buried in an unmarked grave and it was only last September that the Society for American Baseball Research put up this marker.
Wonder what fine folks were laid to rest in this fancy structure?
None apparently, just some American flags and military headstones.
Here Lies Dumpster, Died of Abandonment in the year of Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Nine
There was a cinderblock structure towards the back of the cemetery that I suspect may have been the old crematorium. As I circled it to see what I could make of it from the outside I discovered where all the fake plastic flowers go to die. Well, at least the ones the mowers don't eat.
The brick wall marked the boundary between Eastern and Cave Hill. With cemeteries on both sides I'm having a hard time figuring out who the razor wire atop it is for.
The whole place looked like it'd seen better days but this section in particular looked like it had seen teenagers.
Leave y'all with one last photo of overgrown cemetery. It's kind of wild to me, I've lived here since 2004 and just now came across this place. Now to see what other little bits of Louisville history have been buried and neglected.
Does this count as urban exploration? Always thought that required a bit of trespassing to count but otherwise I think it checks the boxes.
