Street Level: The Dead of Holy Rood Preside Over Georgetown

High on Wisconsin Avenue, as Georgetown merges into Glover Park, there is a beautiful piece of land with a story. Holy Rood Cemetery stands on the west side of Wisconsin Avenue above Hardy Middle School, across from The CW station offices.  It is a lovely, quiet place that is also sad and even a bit frightening. But it is spectacular.

Holy Rood Cemetery is owned by but historically has been the cemetery for in Georgetown on 36th Street in the West Village.  It was identified by the parish as a cemetery as land directly around the church began to be developed. It served as the parish graveyard throughout the 1880's and even into the 1900's and beyond. It is not a place to find the graves of D.C. celebrities or well-known players in Georgetown history and society.  It is the final resting place for the merchants, parents, teachers and working population of busy Georgetown.  It also houses or has housed, the graves of close to 1,000 of Georgetown's freed men and slaves. 

Holy Rood is a serene spot where the working people of Georgetown could care for their own. But it has been forgotten. At least until recently.

Holy Trinity Catholic Church has been asking its parishioners about the feasibility of negotiating with Georgetown University to have the cemetery returned and to begin improvements. The cemetery is long neglected and is a sad jumble of gravestones that have been tipped over, crowded by creeping vines out of control.  But it also has a view from Georgetown to the Potomac river to Rosslyn and beyond.   

By reading the worn tombstones scattered on the ground, you get a glimpse of the working Georgetown of the 1800ss with references to firefighters, mothers and relatives. There are even signs of recent internments. It is an intimate place that helps the visitor to imagine Georgetown with a busy harbor and brisk trade and ambitious merchants and laborers.

It is a quiet place for the folks who tromped Georgetown's busy streets.