The historic Turner cemetery was the site of Greenbelt’s National Public Lands Day event on September 24. Staff of the Public Works Department and volunteers, including members of the Greenbelt City Council and the Community Relations Advisory Board, worked together to clear brush from the historic graves and erect a boundary marker along the perimeter of the site.
The City of Greenbelt began protecting and preserving this site following a story in the Greenbelt News Review in October 2015. The event at the cemetery allowed members of the public to participate in preserving an important part of history in our local area. Volunteer Elizabeth Thomas, a fourth-generation Greenbelter, saw a post about the event on the Greenbelters Facebook page and “thought it would be a great way to spend my Saturday.” Thomas, who is currently working on an environmental master’s degree, did her BA in archaeology. “For my bachelor’s I did some cemetery work – collecting data – and I thought it (volunteering at the Turner cemetery) would be a cool mixing of interests.” Volunteers carefully removed debris from around the historic graves, which are marked by iron stone, the natural bedrock in this area. With vegetation removed, the site began to reveal more secrets. Erin Josephitis, environmental coordinator for Public Works, found a previously hidden footstone. The initials JT were carved into one of the headstones, an exciting discovery as it was the first time in contemporary memory that people were aware any of the stones were marked. For more on this story, see the paper by clicking here: