ASKING FOR A HAUNTING
Graves of nuns to be moved as cemetery will become housing, business space in Colorado_fitted.png)
Vandana Ravikumar, The Charlotte Observer - Yesterday
The graves of 62 nuns buried in a Denver cemetery will soon be moved to another location, local media reports.
The nuns were buried near Loretto Heights, a campus that has acted as an educational institution in several ways, including as a girls boarding school, a college, a high school, nursing school and a military training ground, according to the website Historic Denver.
The nuns, who were among the Sisters of Loretto, operated the campus. The 62 women were buried in the cemetery from the late 1890s to 1969, according to The Denver Post.
Surviving members of the Sisters of Loretto owned the campus until 1988, and the college closed in 2017, 9 News reported. The campus was sold to the Colorado-based developer Westside Investment Partners the year after, in 2018, according to the outlet.
Now, the nuns’ bodies will be moved from the 123-year-old cemetery so the former campus can be redeveloped into housing and business space, according to The Denver Post.
The Denver City Council approved plans to redevelop the campus in September 2019, Denverite reported. Those plans include adding housing and “preserving and reusing historic structures,” the outlet reported.
Mark Witkiewicz, principal at Westside, told Denverite in 2021 that the goal of developing the campus is “not about changing the neighborhoods, it’s about enhancing the neighborhoods.”
But before the land around the historic campus can be converted into housing and “retail and cultural facilities,” the bodies of the 62 nuns will have to be moved, 9 News reported. Witkiewicz told the outlet that the decision to move the bodies was not made by the development company and that it was prepared to incorporate the cemetery into the plans.
But the Sisters of Loretto were concerned about the maintenance of the cemetery, even prior to the campus’ sale, and felt that the nuns’ bodies should be moved to the Mt. Olivet Catholic Cemetery, The Denver Post reported.
According to the Loretto Community Facebook page, the first of the nuns was buried on the campus before it was an official cemetery. Sr. Frances O’Leary died on Nov. 5, 1898, and was buried there shortly after, the organization said.
The last burial took place in 1969, after Sr. Rita Therese DuBor died on Oct. 22, the organization said.
Efforts to exhume and relocate the nuns’ bodies are set to begin on June 20, and the site of their original burials will be turned into a memorial park, according to The Denver Post.
©2022 The Charlotte Observer. Visit charlotteobserver.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
The graves of 62 nuns buried in a Denver cemetery will soon be moved to another location, local media reports.
The nuns were buried near Loretto Heights, a campus that has acted as an educational institution in several ways, including as a girls boarding school, a college, a high school, nursing school and a military training ground, according to the website Historic Denver.
The nuns, who were among the Sisters of Loretto, operated the campus. The 62 women were buried in the cemetery from the late 1890s to 1969, according to The Denver Post.
Surviving members of the Sisters of Loretto owned the campus until 1988, and the college closed in 2017, 9 News reported. The campus was sold to the Colorado-based developer Westside Investment Partners the year after, in 2018, according to the outlet.
Now, the nuns’ bodies will be moved from the 123-year-old cemetery so the former campus can be redeveloped into housing and business space, according to The Denver Post.
The Denver City Council approved plans to redevelop the campus in September 2019, Denverite reported. Those plans include adding housing and “preserving and reusing historic structures,” the outlet reported.
Mark Witkiewicz, principal at Westside, told Denverite in 2021 that the goal of developing the campus is “not about changing the neighborhoods, it’s about enhancing the neighborhoods.”
But before the land around the historic campus can be converted into housing and “retail and cultural facilities,” the bodies of the 62 nuns will have to be moved, 9 News reported. Witkiewicz told the outlet that the decision to move the bodies was not made by the development company and that it was prepared to incorporate the cemetery into the plans.
But the Sisters of Loretto were concerned about the maintenance of the cemetery, even prior to the campus’ sale, and felt that the nuns’ bodies should be moved to the Mt. Olivet Catholic Cemetery, The Denver Post reported.
According to the Loretto Community Facebook page, the first of the nuns was buried on the campus before it was an official cemetery. Sr. Frances O’Leary died on Nov. 5, 1898, and was buried there shortly after, the organization said.
The last burial took place in 1969, after Sr. Rita Therese DuBor died on Oct. 22, the organization said.
Efforts to exhume and relocate the nuns’ bodies are set to begin on June 20, and the site of their original burials will be turned into a memorial park, according to The Denver Post.
©2022 The Charlotte Observer. Visit charlotteobserver.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
No comments:
Post a Comment