On any given day, you will find that Fairmount Memorial Park is used for much more than the interment of the dead. Located at the end of a neighborhood drive, the Park is used for ... well, a park. In fact, historically, cemeteries were often a…

Greek Orthodox heritage in Spokane: Father Nicholas J. Velis was instrumental in fostering its growth and longevity. He was also the one who pushed for an eternal resting ground for the community of believers - the Holy Trinity Lawn at Riverside…

Spokane: Another statistic of the 1918 influenza pandemic. In fact, Spokane's mortality rate was nearly three times the national average, 6%. The Spanish flu, as it was commonly called, first appeared in the community sometime between late…

Clustered together in the Catholic section of Fairmount Memorial Park are 8 graves from the early 1900s that belong to the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia. Each grave was once marked with a white marble headstone, but were falling apart and…

There are 15 unmarked graves at Greenwood Memorial Terrace that belong to railroad workers who were blown to smithereens on 06 September 1890. A crew, of at least 24 men, was working that day to clear rock to make way for the Northern Pacific…

Where lays Charles Brooks? Who was he? Why is he in an unmarked grave? Mr. Brooks has the unfortunate fame of being the first legally hanged man in Spokane. The 1891 Brooks case was quite the scandal for Spokane. Brooks, 62, was charged…

Faith healer, John Graham Lake, was a prominent evangelical preacher and contributor to the founding of the American Pentecostal movement in the early 1900s. He began the first healing rooms in Spokane in 1915, and many people, Christians and…

The land where Riverside Memorial Park lies was originally a recreational municipal park, which opened in 1907 when John Aylard Finch spearheaded the organization of the Riverside Park Company. It wasn't until November 1914 that the grounds…

Would you believe there's a tunnel that runs through the cemetery grounds at Greenwood Memorial Terrace? It's true. The 1889 plat for the cemetery indicates a proposed railroad terminal in the middle of the western perimeter. Originally,…

Dr. Mary Archard Latham, Spokane's pioneer female physician, is one of early Spokane's most colorful and controversial characters. Latham graduated from medical school in 1886, at the age of 42, then moved to Spokane in 1887 to practice…

As Spokane outgrew its frontier beginnings, its old church graveyards were at risk of overflowing, and the small pioneer cemeteries got in the way of land development. In order to solve both issues, A. M. Cannon and other prominent businessmen…

The most recent change in burial practices is the increasing use of cremation. According to the Cremation Association of North America, nearly 26% of U. S. deaths in the year 2000 resulted in cremations rather than traditional burials. And they…

Some of Spokane's earliest residents lived, or at least died, in anonymity. The Washington State Archives has 71 death records of unidentified persons found in Spokane during the period 1891-1907. The majority of these unknowns were buried at…

Section 90 at Fairmount Memorial Park is known as a Potter's Field. This portion of the cemetery was donated, in 1897, by Spokane County for the purpose of burying the indigent and/or unknown persons from the city and county. It is in this…

Fairmount, like Greenwood and Riverside, is the final resting place for many of the community's early pioneers and city developers - people from the mining, lumbering, railroading, banking, city development, and governing arenas. But these…

Clarence Cleveland Dill, commonly referred to as C. C., was instrumental in pushing Congress in the early 1930s to fund a study of the Columbia and Snake Rivers to determine the possibility of building dams for irrigation and electricity in the…

In the aftermath of the American Civil War, veterans of the Union Army formed the fraternal organization, Grand Army of the Republic, in 1866. The initial purpose for the group was simply friendship and fellowship. However, based on their tenets…

At the end of the 19th Century, membership in fraternal organizations and social clubs was at a peak - when it was common for ladies and gentlemen to be enrolled in several groups at a time. Women's groups usually focused on self-improvement,…

Here at the haunted stairs, also known at the thousand steps, lies a great mystery full of tales of yester-years, tunnels, and ghosts. One such fable presumes the stairs were the original entrance to the cemetery, where the trolley-train would…

As you tour Greenwood Memorial Terrace, starting from the main entrance on the first level and working your way through the second terrace, and up to the third, here's a bit of history to help you understand the different types of landscape…