Ever since he was somewhat child using within the again seat of his household’s automobile down Harlem Avenue, Jimmy Sullivan was interested in an deserted cemetery.
He requested his father, Michael Sullivan, about it.
“When he informed me it was a cemetery, I used to be shocked,” Jimmy stated. “All the cemeteries I’ve seen earlier than had been good. They had been upkept. There have been a number of headstones.
“So, it actually shocked me that there was even a cemetery right here to start with. It doesn’t have any signage. There isn’t a good entrance.”
Years later, the Sandburg sophomore remains to be fascinated by the place at Harlem AVenue and 153rd Avenue often called the Previous German Methodist Cemetery.
It’s simple to go by the property with out understanding it’s a cemetery and residential to some Orland Park historical past. And people who do realize it’s a cemetery in all probability shake their head due to how run-down it’s.
Sullivan might be making an attempt to earn an Eagle Scout rank by cleansing up the place and making it a sexy place for folks to go to.
Except Orland Park village workers slicing the grass, Sullivan stated the final actual landscaping was executed on the property within the Nineteen Seventies. The gravestones are historic with the newest being positioned in 1917.
“There’s a variety of work that I want to put into the cemetery,” Sullivan stated. “One of many main issues is to take away the overgrowth. There could possibly be headstones buried underneath the comb. There are useless timber. There are some stones that there isn’t any approach you will get to.
“There are some graves that you may’t even see as a result of they’re flat. I wish to make all graves accessible.”
He additionally desires so as to add a path to get to the doorway, add signage folks can see from Harlem and add historic indicators contained in the cemetery.
Sullivan has been elevating cash for the venture and is in search of out arborist firms to take away massive useless timber, together with volunteers for cleanup. So far, he has raised near $10,000 on his gofundme web page and is in search of $5,000 extra.
The Orland Park Troop 318 member additionally did a variety of legwork to seek out out the title of the property, and who owned it. Then he needed to reduce by means of some pink tape to get this venture began.
And that doesn’t embrace all of the analysis he has executed looking for who’s buried there. With the assistance of space historians Brad Bettenhausen and Libby Paulson, he found Orland Park’s second mayor, Carl Burkhardt, is buried there alongside together with his spouse, Louisa. Louisa died in 1917 and was the final individual to be interred there.
“I’m nonetheless researching this, however there’s a likelihood Carl could be a Civil Struggle veteran,” Sullivan stated. “It’s very exhausting to seek out these information.”
Michael Sullivan, an architect who helps with the preliminary plans for the venture, is happy with his son tackling such a big enterprise.
“I stated wow that’s an enormous venture,’’ Michael stated. “However understanding Jimmy, if anybody was going to take it on, he can take it on. He’s executed an superior job of planning.”
The plan is to wrap issues up with a grand opening in April so he can get his Eagle standing.
However he isn’t going to hurry issues. He desires to get all the pieces proper.
“I’ve till I’m 18 to get it and I’m turning 16 so I’m not in an enormous rush,” he stated.
Except for this venture, Sullivan is a member of the Sandburg Marching Band and began his yr off on a enjoyable word because the band marched within the New Yr’s Day Parade in London, which organizers referred to as “the best occasion within the biggest metropolis on the planet.”
Sullivan had a good time on the occasion.
“It’s loopy to me how actually comfortable they had been to see us,” he stated.
Jeff Vorva is a contract reporter for the Day by day Southtown.
