Photos

Enjoy seeing some of our events!

Dia de Los Muertos Doll Painting - Grave Marker Preservation

Our thanks to all who made our Dia de Los Muertos doll painting an amazingly fun day with friends! Your support will be utilized to provide training for our Grave Marker Preservation team to continue conservation efforts on our trickier deteriorating grave markers.

Member Appreciation Ice Cream Social 2018

Pioneers' Cemetery hosts TWO Member Appreciation events annually - our Holiday Party and Ice Cream Social!

Members gathered Saturday, August 4 at Smurthwaite House for ice cream a'plenty with LOADS of tasty toppings available. Prizes were beautiful and standing by for those playing Bingo with Marshall Shore, Arizona's Hip Historian!

This was the FIRST opportunity for many to purchase PCA's LATEST book, Beneath the Headstones! Many of the contributing authors were available for autographs!

You, too, can join the excitement of preserving Arizona history - and some amazing free ice cream next year! - by becoming a member of PCA - TODAY! We're beginning to accept NEW memberships for 2019 while you enjoy the remainder of 2018 as a member for FREE! Those wishing to RENEW memberships will be entered into a PRIZE DRAWING - IF you renew BY December 31, 2018!

Hope to see everyone at our Member Appreciation Holiday Party next!

Thank You for Attending Our Memorial Day Remembrance!

From PCA President Vivia Strang -

There were 100+ individuals who poured their hearts into making our 35th Memorial Day Observation one of the best ever! The South Side Division of Parks and Recreation (our partner) trimmed trees, raked up leaves and trash, watered grass and flowers, and made the grounds look fantastic! PCA volunteers also worked on the grounds, donated trees and planted flowers, cleaned and decorated the Smurthwaite House and set up a beautiful display of Victorian and Depression Glass inside. In the days before, on Memorial Day, and the clean up on Tuesday, volunteers set up and took down tables, pop-up tents, over 400 chairs, one very heavy metal bell, flags, banners, hundreds of flowers, accepted cases of water, mixed up lemonade, and set out cookies for our 350+ guests. Not to mention being at the Cemetery at 5:00 a.m. on Monday for Channel 12 News to shoot live-shots for the early news! The historic organization participants, our generous contributors, the speakers, the Media person, our Master of Ceremonies, the Tour Guides, the Cannon and Musket guys, plus a live trumpeter and a Bag Pipe player, and anyone who helped make this event even possible - just know that one person could not have done all this; it is each and every person contributing………it is SYNERGY, when the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. THANK YOU ALL for believing in PCA and supporting our Mission!

Recent Events at Smurthwaite House & Our Cemeteries

Enjoy a selection of activities at our cemeteries from March and April!

Major Winfield Scott Chapter, NSDAR - Many thanks for your generous donation of TREES to line and shade our historic cemeteries! Thanks to the City of Phoenix for the planting assistance!
Qingming Festival or Tomb-sweeping Day - Members of our Chinese community welcomed PCA volunteers to witness this annual ceremony. Cleaning the tomb and paying respect to the dead with offerings are the two important parts of remembering the past relatives. Food and wine are taken to sacrifice to them, along with paper resembling money. This is all burned in the hope that the deceased are not lacking food and money.
Piestewa Peak & Maricopa Chapters, NSDAR Work Day - HUGE thanks to these two DAR chapters for making the time Saturday, April 7, to help spruce up our cemeteries as we look forward to our annual Memorial Day ceremony! We LOVE the fresh posies that were added!

THANKS to David Stanton!

Our sincere thanks to wood window repair specialist David Stanton of Stanton Advantage, LLC for sharing his time and craftsmanship to restore the beauty of historic Smurthwaite House on a number of windows and doors! She's BEAUTIFUL! Enjoy some of our "before" and "after" photos of his amazing work!

We Love to Provide Tours!

Pioneers' Cemetery Association is available to provide tours of the house and cemetery grounds, host meetings and events, and make your visit one of the friendliest around! You may choose tours of the house, cemetery (closed toe shoes suitable for outdoor walking is important!), or BOTH!

Groups of 5 or more are asked to contact us to best accommodate a tour tailored to YOUR group needs. You may contact us any time at pioneercem@yahoo.com or check our Calendar page and submit an Event form.

We look forward to sharing stories of historic downtown Phoenix through our facilities and knowledgeable docents!

Thank you, friends - new flooring!

We are sincerely grateful to Desert Sage Questers and Phoenix Antiques, Bottles, & Collectibles Club for their generous donations to enable us to proceed with new flooring in the kitchen and bathroom of the historic Smurthwaite House! The project took place the end of October 2017 under the supervision of volunteers Mark Lamm and Kim Kasper. The pattern is a likeness to what is seen in photos of the Smurthwaite family! Thanks to all for such gorgeous work!

Thanks to Our Eagle Scout Projects!

Historic Cemetery Walks

Volunteers of Pioneers' Cemetery Association will occasionally host events in which they will recreate accounts of the lives of those buried in our historic cemeteries. Thanks to Debe Branning for producing and allowing us to share this video!