LOUISVILLE Ky. — Cave Hill Cemetery is filled with history and attracts approximately 350,000 visitors each year. That number grew during the pandemic.
“For many years you could set your watch, and at 10 o'clock, Mrs. Smith would come out or at nine o'clock Mr. Jones would come out,” says Cave Hill Heritage manager Michael Higgs. “But as COVID began to change the way we live, people began to identify the cemetery in a very different way because they began to embrace the green space that we provide here, they began to embrace the history that is represented on the memorials here. It really was an eye opening time, and the community truly embraced us as a part of the central fabric of living.”
The site where years of history is collected was chartered in 1848. Higgs says the non-denominational cemetery was designed to be a safe haven to stand the test of time.
“We are a living history museum, not only our city's evolutionary history, from 1848 even before then, looking back to revolutionary war soldiers and early settlers of Kentucky and Louisville resting here that were removed from other cemeteries,” says Higgs.
About 138,000 people have been laid to rest in the 296 acre cemetery including well recognized names from multiple generations like KFC’s Colonel Harland Sanders and boxing legend Muhammad Ali.
“He lived each day, like it was his last, he reached out to people, and he made a difference in life, and his story and his legacy rest here at Cave Hill Cemetery,” Higgs said about Ali.
Beside the legends are graves of people who made up everyday life. Together they form the fabric and story of the community.
“It's so important as a community, to have every story told. When a person's name is not remembered then, a person is too easily forgotten. When a name is spoken, you're permanently remembered when you see that name etched in stone, you’re remembered for eternity. So it's very important that we keep those stories alive,” says Higgs.
After 21 years in the business, Higgs uses every story of love, wealth, and tragedy as a reminder to appreciate life.
“They've not gone on, their stories still lives on and it's so important to live each day and live with the long term in mind,” said Higgs.
Higgs said his team is dedicated to preserving and growing the history of the cemetery.
“Families will be different, needs will be different, but our mission still remains the same as it has been for 173 years,” said Higgs.
Mary Louise Evans of Philadelphia stopped the cemetery during a road trip.
She stopped by the graves of some of the most recognizable names.
“I'm going to put money on the grave side of Colonel Sanders,” she said as she took part in a tradition of hers that started when she found a half dollar on her mother’s grave.
“That half dollar for five years is still there, and then every time we go there's pennies quarters, nickels, dimes, whatever the person has,” says Evans.
So Colonel Sanders, in honor of my mom and dad here’s a penny.”
It’s her way to honor lives like others have done for her parents’.
“I know my mom and dad are watching me because sometime on this trip, I will find money that they have left someplace for me,” says Evans.
You can learn more about the stories and history of the cemetery through Cave Hill Heritage Foundation programs held throughout the year.