Community Corner
Dead Body Storage Was Building's Primary Use
Former cold storage building now used to hold maintenance items.
Have you ever driven past Evergreen Cemetery and wondered what was in the big brown crypt Near the western portion of the property? We found out.
On a recent trip to the cemetery, we talked to Westlake service department employee Daniel Swim, who was painting the trim on the building. When asked who was buried in the crypt, he said no one.
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The building was originally constructed as a cold storage building in the winter when it was too cold to bury bodies. The city kept bodies in there until spring thaw.
Westlake historian JeanneWorkman confirmed the building and city-owned cemetery was used as a cold storage building and most likely built around 1880.
"This was before power machinery was available to dig graves," she said "They piled all the bodies in there. "In the winter, of course, there were a lot of deaths."
Swim said these days, the building is used to store cemetery maintenance items, not bodies.
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