An overcrowded historic cemetery tucked into a corner of Philadelphia is for sale for $1 million — and it comes with an estimated 33,000 dead tenants.
In addition to corpses, the 26-acre Mount Vernon Cemetery in Northeast Philly is also complete with swarms of ticks, poison ivy, creepy stuffed animals that inexplicably appear at night and ghost hunters looking to connect with the other side, according to Philadelphia. interrogative.
Buying the 168-year-old cemetery would certainly be a top fix – but it’s unlikely to be sold to a private developer.
The property is under conservatorship with the Philadelphia Community Development Coalition (PCDC) — meaning any sale must be approved by the court and putting it up for sale was legally required, according to the Inquirer.
Brandon Zimmerman, volunteer coordinator with Friends of Mount Vernon, said the listing — which went viral on the popular “Zillow Gone Wild” social media account — caused a panic among cemetery supporters.
“They were scared [prospective buyers] it will move bodies and become Walmart. That’s not going to happen,” Zimmerman told the newspaper.
“There are 33 thousand people here and we don’t have accurate maps and records. You’d have to do a ground penetrating radar over 26 acres to find them all. There are infinitely cheaper and easier places. If you are looking for the site of your next distribution center, Mount Vernon is not it,” he added.
The cemetery first opened in 1856 at a time when there was a national movement to have bucolic, park-like spaces to bury the dead instead of overcrowded churchyards or plots on private property, according to the website of the cemetery.
New plots have not been sold in the cemetery since 1968.
Decades of neglect have led to a wild, truly disturbing landscape among the tombstones.
“The overgrowth is like nothing you’ve ever seen. “You can cut the vegetation and two weeks later, it’s hanging down to your waist,” Zimmerman said. “I describe it as supernatural, it’s unreal.”
Zimmerman said a fellow volunteer once stopped a group of elderly women at the front gate believing the cemetery was “a portal to another plane of existence.”
Stuffed animals have suddenly appeared on the graves in the closed cemeteries. The foxes will pick up the toys and drag them back to their den, Zimmerman said.
There’s also a man who often throws candles over the fence asking the dead to help him with some “pretty naughty things” that “would make you blush,” he said.
Dozens of historical figures are buried in the cemetery, including a family plot containing generations of the famous Drew and Barrymore acting families. It was also a whites-only burial ground.
The PDCD has maintained control of the property since 2021 after its former owner, Washington DC-based attorney Joseph Dinsmore Murphy, left the property to fall into disrepair.
Gravestones and cemetery paths have been mostly covered with brush, animals and debris for decades.
When no owner could be found to take the property, the Mount Vernon Cemetery Company (MVCC).
PCDC said its “hope and expectation” is that MVCC will be able to raise enough money to approve the judicial transfer of the property — but first the nonprofit must raise $300,000 to manage and maintain the cemetery.
The court would approve the sale of the MVCC property for just $1, according to the Inquirer.
“We wanted to make sure we had the money to do this before we took over the cemetery,” said MVCC manager Thaddeus Squire. “We don’t want an asset that we can’t even take care of, and taking care of it is just a matter of money.”
However, to date donors have only pledged $65,000 towards her goal. Squire described it as a “chicken and egg problem”.
“The court needs us to have money, but nobody wants to give us the money until we have the cemetery,” Squire told the paper. “If we can’t raise money and if there’s no buyer I don’t know what happens, then we’re in a pickle.”
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