CINCINNATI — Efforts are underway to reclaim a 26-acre plot of land that was used as a graveyard for more than a century. 

What You Need To Know

  • Potter’s Field is a former cemetery owned by the City of Cincinnati that was defunded and abandoned in 1981

  • For 40 years, the land has been unmanaged, leading to overgrowth across the landscape

  • Now the Potter’s Field Initiative is working to reclaim and restore the cemetery

  • National Park Service awarded Price Hill Will and Cincinnati Parks close to $35K for the project

An overgrown hillside that looks like no-man's-land is not the case at all when examined up close.

“As we walk through this space in late spring, it’s difficult for me to even find these markers,” Michael Morgan said. 

Morgan is the project manager for the Potter’s Field Initiative, an effort to reclaim and restore the West Price Hill cemetery where Morgan estimated 20,000 people are buried.

“This is disrespectful to the dead,” he said. “This is disrespectful to the people who were here, who lived full lives, and had friends and family and people that loved them.

“Obviously, by the time most of these people ended life, they didn’t have family that had money to bury them. But it doesn’t mean this is a collection of people who were unloved and unwanted. There’s a lot of different reasons the people wound up in potter’s field. I think they deserve better.”

Michael Morgan at Potter's Field cemetery, where the few marked graves are becoming overgrown with weeds and invasive species of plant life. (Tino Bovenzi/Spectrum News 1)

Potter’s Field cemetery was first used in 1852, and its last burial was in 1981 when the city of Cincinnati stopped operation due to budgeting issues. 

It’s been unmanaged since and now Mother Nature has taken over, with overgrowth so thick it makes it nearly impossible to see the few grave markers. Those marked graves are only a small portion of those who are buried.

“Not only do we not know where specific people are buried, we don’t even know where the bodies are,” Morgan said. “There’s somewhere around about 20,000 people buried in this Potter’s Field. But we don’t know whether or not part of them are buried under what’s now Rapid Run Park. Are their bodies under a playground? Maybe.”

The National Park Service awarded Price Hill Will and Cincinnati Parks close to $35,000 in funding to restore Potter’s Field, but with 26 acres to clear and investigate, more funding will be needed.

“We also have a GoFundMe page,” he said. “All private donations go through Price Hill Will they are going to be responsibly allocated and spend. Anybody out there who wants to help Potter’s Field, you can do it right now.”

The preliminary clearing and identifying will begin in late May or early June. Morgan said that is only the first step in a multi-year plan to revive Potter’s Field.

Eventually, the historic site will be transformed into a community asset connecting Dunham Recreation Area to Rapid Run Park.