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Taphophilia (dot) Com...
A repository of morbid curiosities:
Thanatology and Taphophile Issues, Cemetery,
Funeral Industry and Death Related News.
A Taphophilia Thank You...
Taphophilia (dot) Com would not be possible without the knowledge, experience and talent of DarkestWeb. From its conception and early development, DarkestWeb was faced with many challenges; from inspiring and motivating, to providing guidance and direction. The continued dedication and support has produced results greater than ever expected, and for this, I owe a huge debt of gratitude.
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Graveyards of Chicago:
The People, History, Art, and Lore of Cook County Cemeteries
By Matt Hucke And Ursula Bielski. Discover a Chicago That Exists Just Beneath the Surface - About Six Feet Under! Take a tour of Chicago's permanent residents! Please visit the Lake Claremont Press website to purchase your copy of Graveyards of Chicago today!
Green-Wood Cemetery Arcadia Publishing announces the release of Alexandra Mosca's historic account of one of New York's most famous cemeteries. Aracdia Publishing's Images of America series has an extensive catalog of many cemetery publications! Please visit Arcadia Publishing to purchase your copy of Green-Wood Cemetery and to browse other available titles!
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Epitaphs: The Magazine for Cemetery Lovers By Cemetery Lovers
For information regarding subscriptions, single issues, submission guidelines, deadlines, classifieds or advertising for future issues, please visit The Cemetery Club.
Guardians of the Soul: Angels and Innocents, Mourners and Saints, Indiana's remarkable cemetery sculpture
with photography by John Bower and foreword by Claude Cookman is now
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West Springfield Massachusetts: Stories Carved in Stone by Rusty Clark features information on early New England gravestone carvers with more than two hundred photos and illustrations. Please visit the Dog Pond Press website.
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Lawsuit over cemeteries delays OHare expansion |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Saturday, 02 October 2004 |
Critics say Chicago's plan would relocate graves, cost too much
By Eric Ferkenhoff
September 20, 2004
CHICAGO -- Five generations of Bob Sell's family are buried in St. Johannes Cemetery, a 156-year-old graveyard that stretches 2 acres at the southern edge of O'Hare International Airport.
It's a place of solitude, Sell says, even with the parade of planes overhead.
"When you're in a state of prayer, and a state of reflection and a state of thinking about your own place in the world, everything else is irrelevant," he said.
But that peace, according to Sell and others who oppose an airport expansion plan, is being threatened by the city, which they accuse of pushing families to immediately dig up their loved ones' graves to clear the way for a $15 billion expansion of the world's busiest airport.
Chicago officials say that by as early as 2013, the planned expansion of new terminals, runways, and access roads will pump $18 billion into the local economy and create 200,000 jobs. They also say the plan will cut delays by up to 80 percent at O'Hare, which is ranked last among major US airports in on-time flights.
Opponents in the state, including several suburban mayors as well as US Representative Jesse Jackson Jr., a Democrat, and Senator Peter Fitzgerald, a Republican, say the plan will cost too much, hurt the airline industry, and decrease safety while failing to substantially cut into delays. A better solution, they say, is to build a third airport in the southern suburbs.
Attorney Joseph Karaganis filed an objection to the city's plan last month with the Federal Aviation Administration, saying the project's high cost does not meet key legal requirements to move forward because funding is not in place and financially devastated airlines would be expected to pick up much of the tab.
Also, as part of a federal lawsuit challenging the city's right to seize cemeteries, Karaganis has filed complaints against the city and a city consultant for allegedly contacting relatives of about 1,300 people interred at St. Johannes, and at smaller Rest Haven Cemetery nearby, and warning that they needed to hurry plans to move the graves.
"The conversations they had with our family members was telling people [the airport expansion] was a done deal," Karaganis said. "But it's not a done deal, and there are some serious problems and hurdles," such as approval from the FAA and his clients' lawsuit.
The consultant, O.R. Colan Associates, did not return calls. City officials deny any calls were made, either by employees or consultants. "Neither the city nor its contractors have been proactively contacting any family," said city spokesman Roderick Drew, noting the city has agreed in federal court not to acquire the cemeteries or nearby homes until the FAA rules on the city's expansion plan next year. "It would be disrespectful in our estimation to move forward with any calls to families."
Drew said one family contacted the city earlier this year to ask about relocating the graves of relatives, but has since dropped its plans. Karaganis and others say any question about the city's efforts is answered by a large sign posted near the entrance to the two cemeteries; the sign tells visitors that the cemeteries must be moved and that they should contact the city to make arrangements.
Karaganis argues that state and federal laws protect the rights of the church to refuse government efforts to take its land. The city has moved cemeteries for other public works projects, including the Eisenhower expressway and Lincoln Park, along Lake Michigan. But in those cases, the cemeteries were public and secular, Karaganis said.
Part of the cemeteries' suit charges that the state law allowing the expansion of O'Hare specifically exempted St. Johannes and Rest Haven from state laws protecting religious institutions, thus denying the cemeteries the same rights afforded other religious sites.
"If the city and the FAA were successful here," Karaganis said, "it would open the way for government acquisition of religious property willy-nilly without going through the substantial burdens that were put in place to protect the freedom of religion."
The city says the cemeteries are part of O'Hare land, but Karaganis said opponents have documents proving that St. Johannes's land belongs to St. John's United Church of Christ and that Rest Haven belongs to the Rest Haven Cemetery Association, a religious group.
Many of the graves in the cemeteries are of first-generation Germans. Some headstones bear important local names now commemorated with major streets. There are Civil War veterans, early settlers of northern Illinois, and founders and early mayors of nearby suburbs. According to Sell, many were abolitionists.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/09/20/lawsuit_over_cemeteries_delays_ohare_expansion/ |
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Taphophilia?
taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)
ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"
DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries
Quote Repository
“Some can gaze and not be sick, But I could never learn the trick. There's this to say for blood and breath, They give a man a taste for death.” A.E. Housman
Shirtless and Sculpted
The Men of Mortuaries 2008 Calendar is now available! All sale proceeds benefit KAMMCARES, a breast cancer foundation.
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