Terry Taylor of Aspinwall trekked through weeds, shrubs and overgrown trees Thursday morning. She wasn't going on hike, but rather she was going to pay respects to her great-grandparents, who are buried on the hillside.
John and Anna Wach, who immigrated from Vienna, Austria, in the late 1800s, are only two of more than 5,000 people buried at Minersville Cemetery, a Lutheran graveyard in the Hill District. But, until this week, only a couple of hundred of the tombstones were visible from beneath the foliage. Others are tilted forward or damaged.
Now, the Minersville Cemetery is being restored after more than a year of discussion. The cemetery has tombstones from Civil War veterans and the Rev. William A. Passavant, who founded Passavant Hospital, which later became UPMC Passavant in McCandless.
"We want to bring it into pristine shape and have it be as beautiful as it should be," said Cheryl D. Naumann, deaconess at Redeemer Lutheran Church and School in Oakmont. "Death is not the end. We believe that the resurrection of the dead is the cornerstone of the Christian faith and we want that to be witness to the community at large."
Right now, ministry board members and other church officials, including Ms. Taylor, are volunteering to shovel the leaves and weeds into trash bins. But, they are hopeful that other people will come out to volunteer this weekend.
"I could not be more pleased," Ms. Taylor, the cemetery's functional director, said of the work done so far.
After several problems with past contractors, the cemetery fell into its current condition. But, the Rev. Brian Westgate, president of the Pittsburgh Area Lutheran Ministries, called the restoration much needed.
"By cleaning the place up, we want to emphasize that they will live again and that they are still precious in God's eyes," Rev. Westgate said.
Thanks to a $7,300 grant from the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, which owns the cemetery, and $2,400 of local support, the Pittsburgh Area Lutheran Ministries, who has maintained the cemetery since 1997, was able to contract Bettenissi Landscaping, a father and son team, to making all the tombstones visible once again, Ms. Naumann said.
Once phase one of the restoration is complete, Lutheran officials will form a committee on July 30 to create a plan for the ongoing maintenance of the cemetery.
They plan to contact local businesses to donate fencing for the 51/2-acre cemetery and cement to repave the roads within the premises and complete the paving that was never finished.
For Lutherans, the cemetery is another way to demonstrate their faith, Ms. Taylor said.
"We live our faith," she said.
First Published: July 26, 2013, 8:00 a.m.
