Thread by @MimZWay

In #Roc NY - we have this FANTASTIC park called Highland Park. In 1854 George Ellwanger & Patrick Barry owned the largest nursery in the world!
They donated 150 acres of their nursery to the City of Rochester to create a park all could enjoy. They donated lots of plants too!

They donated funds for a Children’s Pavilion - because they believed children needed fresh air to be healthy!

Although the Pavilion was demolished in 1963 - Highland Park thrives today with an annual Lilac Festival - and thousands of visitors each year wandering the grounds to smell the Lilacs, visit Warner Castle and traipse through the Sunken Garden. But what these visitors don’t know

Is that something sad & sinister lies mere inches underneath their festival going feet.

Because - on the site where there are now lilacs, food vendors and musicians lie the unmarked graves of between 400 and 900 men, women and children. (Photo credit to Dick Halsey 1984).

In the early 1800’s - the City of Rochester established an Asylum, Almshouse and Penitentiary for the City’s poor people, mentally ill people, developmentally disabled people and criminals (both non-violent and violent).

When these people died, they were buried in unmarked graves in the “Bone Yard” - which is located on the corner of South Ave. & Highland in the park! On bad days when fever swept through the houses - they were buried one on top of the other - mere inches from the earth’s surface.

In 1984 a landscaper was bulldozing the earth at the corner of South Ave. & Highland Ave. - he uncovered six bodies. Authorities were called in - but the rain that evening, revealed six more bodies. Archeologists were called in to exhume the skeletons. (Photo credit Dick Halsey)

Ten of the bodies were of adults & two were children. One skeleton was missing both his legs. Reviewing the records of the Asylum - it was suspected that the legless skeleton belonged to Adoniram Perkins who did not survive the amputation of his limbs.

A total of 305 bodies were exhumed from the Bone Yard - but it was too expensive - time consuming & inconvenient to exhume all the bodies.

It’s estimated that between 400 - 900 bodies remain.
Buried.
Unmarked.
In Highland Park.

They are the bodies of children.
Mothers who died in childbirth.
Developmentally disabled people.
The criminally insane.
Desperate people.
People who were not valued.

Piled together - in a “Bone Yard.”
Hastily buried with a few inches of dirt shoveled over their plain, pine coffins.
Is it any wonder that many of them don’t rest easily?

The hills of Highland Park seem to gather foggy patches in an eerie manner. They skitter across the paths.
Strange noises emanate from the beautiful, tree-lined hills.
Is it a fox calling for a mate?
A screech owl?

Or is it Adoniram Perkins crying out for his missing legs?

The only way to find out is to spend a night in the park. Sitting on the site where the bodies are laid. If you dare.

If you want to donate to help keep a Remembrance Park open for those buried in the mass grave. Here is a link!

depaul.org/donate/remembe…