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Union Cemetery

Kansas City, Italy

Union Cemetery

Union Cemetery is the oldest surviving public cemetery in Kansas City, Missouri. It was founded on November 9, 1857, as the private shareholder-owned corporation, Union Cemetery Assembly. As a commercial enterprise remote from city limits, its 49 acres (20 ha) became a well-funded and remarkably lan

dscaped destination by 1873. Through the late 1800s and early 1900s, it declined into haphazard burial practices and virtually no maintenance. Some graves (including some shallow or mass graves) were permanently unmarked, unidentifiable, and human remains were scattered into the potter's field. In 1889, all records were lost when the sexton's cottage burned. In the early 1900s, human remains were inadvertently plowed and dynamited up during development of roads and businesses. A legacy of lawsuits and public campaigns from the 1910s through the 1930s led by bereaved families, including survivors of area settlers and boosters, created new leadership and city park status with accorded maintenance. Union Cemetery is now a public park and tourist attraction occupying most of the Union Hill historic neighborhood. It neighbors the historic National World War I Museum and Memorial, Union Station...

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