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Pioneer & Military Memorial Park,
Phoenix, Arizona
The Pioneer & Military Memorial
Park is located at 15th Avenue and West Jefferson, near
the Arizona State Capitol complex in Phoenix,
Arizona. Geographical coordinates are Lat: 33°
26' 43"N, Long: 112° 05' 22"W.
The eleven-acre cemetery grounds have
low-maintenance desert landscaping and are surrounded by
a wrought-iron fence and gates which are kept padlocked
unless volunteers are present. The grounds are
open to the public on selected days throughout the year.
To arrange a private tour, please email pioneercem@yahoo.com
well in advance so that arrangements can be made.
Of the estimated 3700 burials, only
about 600 graves have headstones, many of which are
broken or otherwise illegible. Donations for
restoration/preservation through our Adopt-A-Tombstone
program are gratefully accepted.
Archaeologists have determined that
much of central Phoenix is built upon the ruins of a
pre-Columbian Hohokam community. Beneath the
Pioneer & Military Memorial Park are the remains of
a Hohokam village now known as La
Villa. Pottery sherds can be found
throughout the cemeteries, and archaeological digs have
uncovered pit houses and a canal.
The cemeteries at this location were not the
first in Phoenix. During the 1870s, when Phoenix
was still a small settlement, burials took place in the
'old' city cemetery which was located approximately
between Fifth and Seventh Avenues and Jackson and
Madison Streets, near the downtown train station.
After Phoenix incorporated as a city on February
25, 1881, citizens and community leaders became
concerned that train passengers' first glimpse of
Phoenix was a cemetery "right at the door of our
beautiful city and in the most irregular, dilapidated,
and disgraceful condition...a disgrace to the town" [Daily Herald, 27
May 1884].
To remedy the problem, the fraternal
orders of the city purchased Block 32, Neahr's Addition,
keeping the east half to establish their own cemeteries
and selling the west half to others for cemetery use.
Families moved their loved ones from the old
cemetery to the new one, and the City reburied the
unclaimed bodies in a common grave.
The Pioneer & Military Memorial
Park is comprised of seven historic cemeteries which
were in use between 1884 and 1914. They are:
Ancient Order of United Workmen (AOUW), Independent
Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF), Knights of Pythias (K of
P), Loosley, Masons, Porter and Rosedale. Loosley
was also known as City Cemetery. After a law
forbidding further burials within city limits went into
effect in 1914, the cemeteries were declared closed.
They fell into disrepair until private citizens rallied
decades later to restore them.
In May 1988, the seven historic
cemeteries were officially designated as the Pioneer
& Military Memorial Park with the dedication of the
Avenue of Flags and the new fence. Over the years,
visitors from all over the United States and several
foreign countries have come to pay their respects to
Phoenix's pioneers. Among the notables buried here
are Darrell Duppa, King Woolsey and Jacob Waltz.
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