Dead Children's Playground - Huntsville, AL
By: Karl featuring photos by Tonya (@wiwcool)
Near the center of Huntsville, AL lies a near 100 acre cemetery dating back to the early 1800s. Inside this cemetery are buried six 1800 era Governors of the state of Alabama, numerous Representatives, Congressmen, and founding members of north Alabama communities.
There are many Masonic tombstones, obelisks, and monuments riddled throughout the cemetery and... oh yeah, there happens to be a playground there for dead children.
... At least that's how the story goes. Karl and Tonya from When It Was Cool traveled to Huntsville to see this for ourselves. If you believe the online stories (it even has a Facebook page, of course) then there was a rash of child abductions in the 1960s and the bodies of the children were found near this area. They say that the truth is stranger than fiction but in this case it seems to be just the opposite. There's no evidence that this ever happened.
What did happen was much more mundane. The Maple Hills cemetery, which in and of itself is well worth the visit, grew and grew from a meek two acres circa 1820 into a giant 100 acre cemetery by the 2000s. The cemetery is historic, no doubt about it. There is a Jewish section, a section of unknown Civil War veterans both from the Confederacy and the Union, statues and monuments to children, Freemasons, and political figures, and more. It also encrouched on a popular local park.
The city of Huntsville decided to level the park to make space for new grave plots but the people of the community protested and won. They even got new playground equipment out of the deal. So what you now have is a beautiful, isolated park beside a picturesque rock bluff butted up against a historic cemetery. Sorry, no dead children involved.
That's not to say that this playground isn't creepy especially at night. It is very dark and very secluded and you have a line of sight to the cemetery which is covered in massive monuments, statues, and obelisks which, I'm certain, cast very eerie shadows in the night.
Imagine Little Johnny playing under this around dusk.
Or looking up at this while playing on a swingset.
Is this the spirit of Mr. Patterson hanging out with us?
Maybe you can have a picnic under this lady.
But don't trip over that thing.
Some of these monuments would likely cost tens of thousands of dollars in today's money.
At least there are some good guys here too.
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