Ludlow Cemetery

In a much earlier blog, we went over our first visit to Ludlow, CA. Once a stop along the famous Route 66, it is now almost a ghost town. In fact it looks much more the worse for wear. See the picture above. Passing through the first time, we did not find the cemetery. This fact has bugged me for more than a year, so  since I knew we would be going through again, I did a little research and was able to obtain a description of where it might be.

To get there we had to go up a dirt road, and then get out to walk and cross a double set of train tracks that several signs warned up to stay away from.  The Cemetery is as sad and desolate as Ludlow is. 

Mount Calvary Cemetery - Albuquerque, New Mexico

Here is a little info about this cemetery. As cemeteries go , it was not really remarkable. Although beautiful and well kept up, the older section looks like it has had a problem with vandalism. Also the entire area back there seems to have a layer of very sharp sticker plants growing over the grass. The bottom of my shoes were coated with the things and it took over a month to get them all out.

The Mount Calvary cemetery can be reached from Lomas Boulevard, turn north on Edith Blvd and continue to Indian School Road. Here you will see it on the east side of Blvd.

The original (oldest) section is called Santa Barbara and is listed as SB in the burial locations.

In 1869, the Jesuit Fathers in Albuquerque announced they would be building a new chapel and new cemetery. The old cemetery near the San Felipe de Neri Church would no longer hold burials. Father Donato Gasparri found a better site three miles from the Old Town site. The greater number of the bodies from the old grounds were carefully moved in 1869.

The first recorded interment was August 1870. The earliest existing monuments are those of Vicente Otero (1877), Jesusita Baca de Romero (1877) and Diego Armijo (1878).

In 1936, the Reverend Libertini chaired a committee to modernize and beautify the cemetery. In 1938, a solemn high mass dedicated the new chapel and cemetery. The parishes of San Felipe and Immaculate Conception used Santa Barbara Cemetery which later became a part of the newer larger Mount Calvary Cemetery.

The new cemetery consisted of an additional eighteen acres of land north of the older Santa Barbara portion. I new chapel was built in 1992 as well as a mausoleum. The original business office is now a columbarium for cremated remains.