The historic Mount Vernon Cemetery was recently listed for sale for at least $1 million, a move alarming many preservationists, writes Kristen Mosbrucker-Garza for WHYY.

While the 27-acre cemetery — founded in 1856 — currently looks more like a wildly overgrown forest, there are around 33,000 people buried there.

“This has, at least in recent memory, been functioning more as a green space than it has a cemetery,” said Brandon Zimmerman, a local historian and a volunteer with the Friends of Mount Vernon Cemetery.

The online real estate listing spooked many of the volunteers taking care of the property.

For a long time, it was owned by attorney Joseph Murphy before he lost control of it when he was taken to court by preservationists, who used Act 135 to protect the land. The law enables conservators to save abandoned and blighted properties.

Now it is on a judge to decide on the next owner. There is a community-led group that wants to take over the cemetery, but they have been unable to raise enough money for even minimal operational costs.

However, Zimmerman is not worried about it being sold to another for-profit owner.

“Even if [the court] sold this place for a dollar, you’d never make your money back,” he said.

Read more about the Mount Vernon Cemetery and its situation in WHYY.

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