Community Congress News
Volunteers dig in to restore historic St. Patrick’s Cemetery
(Originally Printed in The RI Catholic, July 3rd, 2008)
BY BRIAN J. LOWNEY, Assistant Editor
PROVIDENCE - Historic St. Patrick Cemetery on Smith Hill is being restored to its original beauty, thanks to the efforts of a dedicated group of neighborhood residents, AmeriCorps volunteers from the Feinstein Institute at Providence College and workers from the Catholic Cemeteries Office.
The residents are part of Community Congress, a coalition comprised of representatives of several local grassroots organizations.
The three groups recently joined forces and planted bright red geraniums and cosmos, a flowering perennial, forming a colorful border inside the cemetery’s 700-foot front wall. It took the volunteers about six hours to complete the project. The plants, which cost $800, were purchased with funds from the Feinstein Institute.
According to Arthur Lurgio, associate director of the diocesan cemeteries office, St. Patrick, located at the corner of Douglas Avenue and Chad Brown Street, is the oldest Catholic cemetery in Providence. The gravesites are maintained by cemetery workers, who cut the grass every two weeks and pick up trash and fallen limbs.
Lurgio said the last person interred in the cemetery was laid to rest in the 1990s. He added that most of the people buried there are Irish immigrants who settled in Smith Hill, or their descendants.
“It’s part of the fabric and history of Providence,” said Lurgio. “It may be an old cemetery, but it has a lot of character.”
According to Edmund Eddings, a community organizer in the Rhode Island Campus Compact AmeriCorps VISTA program at Providence College, the plan to beautify the historic cemetery was the idea of Griffin Rouse, a Smith Hill resident and organizer who was alarmed by the amount of trash discarded outside the cemetery along Chad Brown Street and the declining condition of the cemetery wall along Douglas Avenue.
Last November, Rouse and other members of Community Congress approached Lurgio and the Feinstein Institute, who lent their support of the project.
Eddings approached Frey’s Florists in Providence, who acted as consultants, offering advice about plant selection and care. The well-known horticulturists also procured the geraniums and cosmos from two other local wholesale garden centers - Amato’s Greenhouse in Cranston and Ricci’s Greenhouse in Johnston.
Members of Community Congress will be responsible for watering and weeding the plants.
“We plan on coming back in the fall to plant English ivy along the wall,” Eddings said, adding that he hopes to gain the support of local students to assist in the beautification project. “We would appreciate donations of ivy plants or workers who want to help us plant in the fall.”
Lurgio noted that faculty and students from Bishop Hendricken High School, Warwick, clean the cemetery every November as part of a service project. He added that the cemeteries office, led by Father Anthony W. Verdelotti, will be exploring additional ways to renovate the historic cemetery in the future.
For more information, call Eddings at 865-2329 or contact him by e-mail at: pspvista@providence.edu.