Blog entry from Arro Smith, Save Austin’s Cemeteries Secretary
In preparation for my speaking role in the Monument Dedication on Saturday, I’ve asked our founders Dale Flatt and Leslie Wolfenden to remind us of Save Austin’s Cemeteries’ initial work to restore the 1914 Chapel.
Here is what Leslie sent me:
The path to restoring the 1914 chapel took teamwork. SAC member Bob Tieman with his background in engineering wrote the preliminary Building Assessment report. I worked with SAC board member Danny Camacho to research and write up the building's history. Dale and I spent the summer of 2007 measuring and photographing the interior and exterior, so that we could create scaled drawings (plans, elevations). Through fundraising efforts (mostly membership drive and MMM tours), we raised funds to pay for professionally done tasks that were essential to prepare for the restoration project. These tasks included a Structural Evaluation Report by Sparks Engineering, a Feasibility Study by Heimsath Architects, asbestos and lead testing on paint and floor tiles, a geological testing of the soil around the chapel, and structural engineering documents for stabilizing the structure itself.
Here is what Dale sent me:
In 2007 the old Chapel was literally falling apart. When it rained, water swept through the back door and flooded the inside of the chapel until it ran out the front door. The Chapel had asphalt shingles that were missing in large patches; you could see sunlight through the roof. Historian Leslie Wolfenden and I went to work to raise money to do the preliminary architectural and engineering studies. After a long hot, dusty, summer of carefully measuring, photographing, and documenting the interior, Leslie hired an engineering company for a structural evaluation report, and Heimsath Architects did a feasibility study. I went to work to get the City of Austin to take notice—and Kim McKnight of the Parks and Recreation Department became an early advocate of the restoration. Because of Save Austin’s Cemetery’s prodding, the City drew up a Cemeteries Masterplan that included funding the restoration of the Chapel.
I will use these founding recollections in my remarks at the Dedication on Saturday afternoon. I’m still working on my draft, but here’s my conclusion (I think):
Now, I do not believe anyone expected to find women, men, and children buried underneath this 1914 Chapel. But when the first remains were found, the project got a lot more complicated… and it got much more interesting. No one wants to desecrate graves—especially not Save Austin’s Cemeteries!—but these graves had been desecrated in 1914 when the Chapel was built on top of them…. We were an early advocate for finding the space near the Chapel to respectfully reinter these 36 women, men, and children. And I hope the sacrifice these bodies have made during the process results in increased understanding of the 2700 other unmarked graves that are in this section of Oakwood. The scientific examination has already given us important information about their ethnicities.
What the discovery of these bodies has done for Save Austin’s Cemeteries is refocus our attention. We had been concentrating on restoring the gravestones, and the fences, and the Chapel—all things above the ground to tell the stories of those beneath. But now we are also committed to finding out what is hidden beneath the ground without any markers.
In addition to the grand gravestones and obelisks and statuary that adorn the rest of Oakwood, I want to find a way to respectfully share the histories of these working women and men—their stories of labor and grit and pioneer life have as much to teach us now as their more celebrated neighbors here.
To the 36 souls whose bodies were unceremoniously covered in 1914 by this Chapel, then rediscovered in 2016, and now reinterred here: I am sorry to have troubled your rest. I hope you have been treated respectfully. I hope you like your new gravestone. Please now rest assured that your sacrifice has propelled us 21st-century folk to re-examine our past. And that the disturbance of your graves will lead to the stories of many more of your friends, families, and Oakwood Cemetery neighbors finally being told.