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Work complete on historic entrance to Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Boardman
BOARDMAN
The cemetery and its historic features date back more than 80 years, but the entrance to Forest Lawn Memorial Park now has an updated look.
Work to repair the historic stone archway that serves as the Market Street entrance to the cemetery, restore two chandeliers that hang from the archway and illuminate the cemetery’s front sign is now complete.
The project is part of an effort by the Forest Lawn Cemetery Board to preserve the cemetery’s historic features.
“These structures are irreplaceable. We don’t have the materials, we don’t have the craftsmen,” said Tom Masters, board president. “It’s something that’s worth preserving for the community.”
The project to restore the Market Street entrance began at the end of last summer at a cost of about $15,000. Most of the funds came from a private donation.
The Gothic archway on Market Street was designed by Monroe Walker Copper Jr. and was built in the early 1930s when the cemetery was founded.
Other features of the cemetery include a shelter house, a wishing well, The Four Apostles and a stone structure depicting a Bible turned to the Lord’s Prayer. Masters says the quality of the craftsmanship of the iron, stone and wooden structures is what makes them worth preserving.
The cemetery board plans to do similar restoration projects for other structures, depending on finances, Masters said. The next project on the agenda is a restoration of the stonework in the cemetery’s Little Church of Forest Lawn, a chapel constructed in 1935.
Finances, however, might prevent the cemetery board from doing any major projects in the near future, Masters said. The issue, he says, is that interments are at an all-time low because cremation has become a more popular choice.
“People are just not being interred,” he said. The number of interments at Forest Lawn was down more than 15 percent last year, he said.
The cemetery’s close connection to the area’s history is another reason that preservation is important, Masters says.
Many of the 19,000 people interred at the cemetery were prominent members of the Boardman community, and the founders of the cemetery were active members of society, he said.
“If you walk this thing, you recognize names if you’re from Boardman. It’s Boardman’s history,” he said previously.
The board also is working to promote the historic legacy of Forest Lawn by trying to get it on the National Register of Historic Places. Working with Youngstown State University, the cemetery board recently submitted the application and is waiting to hear back.