The Hollywood Cemetery

Hi, I'm Holly and I'm Hailey. Welcome to Mountain Mysteries Tales from Appalachia. Welcome back everybody. Hello.

We're in that cool time period between Thanksgiving and Christmas where it is rapidly upon us. And all of the children are hellon wheels. Yes they are. They are.

So the other day my friend's daughter, she's almost six and my son, they were playing together. And we, my friend and I were in the living room and we overheard them talking and my friend's daughter said, okay so we're gonna play and I'm gonna be the wife and you're gonna be my husband. And my son says, I'm not your husband. And I'm, and he says his name to her, which I started cracking out because I was like, look at that.

He's, he's keeping his independence. He doesn't want to be, you know, put in this marriage. He wants to be like a single man, live in his life. And so finally she said, all right, I'm gonna play your mom and you can be my son.

And that was a role he has accustomed to playing and he was like, okay. And a couple of weeks ago we were at the park. Same thing. They were out playing and she, I overheard her saying you cheated on this game.

Like the game you played, you cheated. And he came running to me and he was really upset and he looks back at her in screams, I never cheated on you. I never cheated on you. I was like, what is this?

I'm kind of so bothered. Right now. Exactly. I never cheated on you.

So yeah, well kids are fun. Kids are really fun. Oh, fun is the word out. Interesting.

Interesting case study. Yeah. My son has been, I don't know if he's just excited for Christmas or what it is, but he gets up about four times a night. We're talking about this.

I am so freaking tired. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I mean he is cute though.

He's really cute. But I, it's like we have gone back in time to newborn status where he would get up, you know, every few hours to eat. And this is not eat. This is like, I want you to go with me to the bathroom because I'm scared to go down the hall.

Okay. Cool. It is, hey mom, you want to play? Like you've got to be kidding.

Look, it's sunny outside. No, that's the light from somebody's, the neighbor's porch. What are you doing? It's the street lights.

That is the light in the street. Like no, what are you doing? So yeah, it's a lot of that stuff. He's now at that age where he has like sometimes nightmares.

So he gets scared. So he has every light in his room on, in his room on. So yeah, I'm exhausted. And I'm like, just, is this just, are we just in a phase?

Because my God, if he's going to be that kid who's like, let's party. It's 4am. I don't know if we can be friends anymore. Right.

I mean, after a time, this is mother's going to be tough. It has been, it's been awful. So here's hoping, you know, he, we sleep through the night at some point soon. That's what we'll see.

Prayers. This is Haley thinking, thank God I don't have kids. Yeah. I mean, I love your kid.

Oh, he's adorable. He's great. But I don't want that in my house full time. What that in my house?

Oh my uterus. Especially as easy as now. Like, can you imagine? Oh my gosh.

No. I know. He's ginormous. When you're carrying up the stairs, I'm like, you have got to be kidding.

He's the biggest kid for his age. He is such a big kid. He is like, yeah, I don't know. He could be a little full there.

But he is, he's funny. He's really talking about, yeah. OK. What is this episode about?

I'm nervous. So we're going to talk about a haunted cemetery. OK. In Virginia.

Nice. Huh. We're going to go to the Hollywood cemetery. OK.

In Virginia. Ooh. OK. All right.

So, and this is kind of near-ish, Roanoke, Virginia. Nice. So William. We're going to go through the history and talk about some famous people, and then some scary stuff.

OK. William Bird III. Oh, what the heck. William Bird III.

The third. They decided they needed three of those. William Bird III. He was a wealthy planter, a politician, also a military officer.

OK. However, though, he was fixing some financial difficulties, and decided to divide his estate, which was known as the Belvedere, into several 100-acre plots for sale. Yeah. When I think of my land, I typically don't think, you know what?

Let's make this a cemetery. Well, so we're going to get there. OK. The Harvey family bought several of these lots, and those became known as Harvey's Woods.

I like the idea of Hayley's Woods. Seems like a burial site also. No, it would also. It would be very shallow.

We don't go in the woods. We don't go in the woods. And by woods, I mean like three trees. Yeah, like three trees.

Yeah. Maybe a bush. Near my house, there's woods behind my house, and I never go down there. No, we can never.

And it's my wood. I mean, like, it's a strip of trees between my house and the apartment complex behind my house. Woods. Woods.

For us. I thought it was. I can see the apartment complex. The roots back there.

The trees back there. But woods. So not heavily wooded, but still wood. But still woods.

Yeah. Yeah. OK. So in the spring of 1847.

Wow. Pretty cool. Wow. There were two citizens of Richmond.

This was Joshua Fry and William Haxle. These are cool names. We're visiting to Boston. They visited the Mount Auburn Cemetery while they were there.

They were impressed by this beautiful place. As you would be. I would love a cemetery. And they decided that they needed to put a cemetery, established a cemetery near their hometown of Richmond.

I think I said Roanoke. I meant Richmond. Sorry. And the heck not.

That's OK. But they needed this. All the ours. This place.

This place. This place. This place. This place.

This place. This place. Very peaceful. Very peaceful.

Yes. So it was through their efforts. And money. And money.

And the cooperation of the local citizens. That the Hollywood cemetery was created. On June 3rd of 1847. Haxle Fry.

And then there was a couple of other guys. William Mitchell Jr. So he's a second. And Isaac Davenport Sr.

With the intent of establishing a rural cemetery. OK. So they bought it with like, hey, we're going to buy this. Put a cemetery on it.

Hollywood Cemetery was designed as a garden cemetery or a park cemetery. Which was apparently the trend at the time. And was actually borrowed from the French. And an effort to provide more green space in urban areas.

In the late 1840s, William Haxle, William Mitchell, Jr. and Joshua Fry. Hired an architect. His name was John Nautman.

To design the cemetery in this kind of garden style. And it was named Hollywood due to the abundance of holly trees on the property. Hollywood's. Hey, it goes together.

And it's a lovely name. There's a ring to it. I like that. I like that.

I wouldn't go there. But I think it's really cool that they decided to make it. I think the idea of park cemeteries is kind of cool. There's a cemetery, a big one in the town that I live in now.

And I go there and walk my dog. Really? Sometimes. I want to go there.

It's kind of laid out like a bigger loop and I figure eight almost. But there's a benches and it's like, you know, it's nice. It's a nice place if you wanted to go. Because some people do that.

I don't really go visit loved ones in the cemetery. It's not really the thing for me. It doesn't really make me feel closer to them. But for some people, it's a big deal.

My grandmother goes to visit my grandfather. She visits his grave there and brings flowers and spends some time up there. But yeah, I'll take the dog and walk. I like the idea of it being so peaceful that people can go there and it just feels very calming.

That's nice. It's beautiful. Are we saying that you and I are going to open a cemetery? I think we might be.

We should. I think this is our next path. This is our second act. Great.

So there are several famous people buried there. But the one most notable one was President James Monroe. I think there's actually another President buried there. But I didn't write this name down.

Sorry. Well, he's not that important. James Monroe. So he was originally buried in New York City where he died in 1831.

However, the state of Virginia petitioned to have his remains re-buried at the Hollywood cemetery. There is a Gothic revival monument designed by Albert Leibroc Leibroc, which resembles a bird cage surrounding a simple granite cephalophagus. And that was built in the President's Circle section of the cemetery. Wow.

And it was actually all done and dedicated on July 4th in 1858. Do you think that we could get a podcast circle? Maybe. And then we would just be in that section.

I think so. Yeah. That sounds not like this bird cage thing though. I like it.

I think that maybe like a giant microphone, maybe some mirrors. I don't know. I don't know what our symbol will be. Maybe just a bloody knife.

Maybe. That works. Yeah. And people could draw their own conclusions.

Yeah. We're already doing the after- We're already doing the after- So we can get very together. That's really sweet. But you're going first, right?

Probably. Yeah. Well, I'm going to let you establish this on the other side. Gotcha.

I'll get it up and running. Yeah. Get it up and running. See, but I will have it.

It'll be a problem. So then you'll have to come in and fix it. But that's okay. I can help manage it.

Like I'm ready. We're going to do this. This is great. So this monument I was put on the National Historic Landmark list or whatever in 1971.

Or whatever. There's a building one. There's a landmark one. Okay.

So we're going to talk about also the not so fun, but there's a big old Confederate monument there, which I mean, think about where we are though Virginia. I mean, it was a very, it was a. No, it was a union state, but well, it was divided. Very much so.

Virginia was the last state to secede from the union because there were a lot of union support. So Virginia was really divided between Confederate and Union. But the thing was, if you seceded from the union, you were with the Confederacy period. Yeah.

So once they seceded, which they were last in 1861, you're welcome for your history lesson. They had to be Confederate. Yeah. Sorry.

You're welcome. So we'll talk about this because it is a big thing there, but just know that I'm not trying to like promote Confederacy or so. Well, everything is. But we're going to talk about it.

Okay. So in 1869, there was a 90 foot granite pyramid structure designed by Charles Demok. And it was built as a memorial to more than 18,000 enlisted men of the Confederate army. And they're buried all in that cemetery.

There's over 18,000 Confederate soldiers buried there. Wow. Crazy number. Yeah.

So there was a group of women who were the Hollywood Ladies' Memorial Association. And this was a group of Southern women dedicated to honoring and caring for the burial sites of fallen Confederate soldiers. Interesting. So very interesting.

The placing of the top of this pyramid. Which sounds like an Illuminati or something. Very much so. It sounds shady.

So placing the final piece up there at the top, it's kind of been a source of legend for people in Richmond. So legend states that as it was nearing completion, no one could determine how to place that final stone atop the 90 foot pyramid. It's a little higher than here. Thomas Stanley, who was a criminal in the work gang, I say with quotations, slave labor, building the pyramid, proposed and executed the solution.

The solution involved a dangerous climb to the top. In retellings of this story, locals say that Stanley was actually freed due to his heroic contribution. However, the only evidence that there is actually happened is a note reading transferred added to the release box of Stanley's prison schedule. So it's possible that this was, they put that on there to kind of hide the fact that they had released him from it.

Or they put it on there and he was actually transferred to an organism. I mean it could have been like, yeah, we're going to release you, but actually no, we're just going to send you to another place. It's not as that is this. I don't know.

Yeah. So I thought it was pretty interesting. Yeah. The pyramid became a symbol of the Hollywood Memorial Association and it appeared on its stationary as well as on the front of a pamphlet of buried soldiers.

Illuminati. Which was the register of the Confederate dead. Luminoid. Luminoid.

Yeah. Oh my gosh. What a time. In 1876, the Gothic Revival Stone Structure designed to look like a ruined medieval tower was built at the entrance to the house, which housed the chapel office and the receiving vault.

In 1915, the original entrance was closed and there was a newer one opened to better facilitate cars coming in and out. Yes. So people couldn't come in. I want to make sure my model T can fit through there.

The Palmer Chapel Mausoleum was built in 1992 and this added 730 crips for caskets and 160 cremation niches niches niches. Little places to book cremated remains. Nice. Terralized Haley in that jar.

Yup. Right in the jar. I can't afford an urge. I'm just put it in a jar.

I can shake it up every once in a while. I like that though. Maybe put some like sparkles in there. Yeah.

Add some water and make a snow boat. Oh, that would be beautiful. So I'm like gosh. I'm like gosh.

I'm like stop. I'm getting nauseous because I do have terrible. I'm getting nauseous because I do have terrible motions to go. So Olive and Cemetery is one of Richmond's most major chores of directions.

Which I kind of love. I do think when I was in Richmond, that's a bummer. There are many local legends surrounding certain tombs and gravesites in the cemetery. We're going to talk about some of those later on.

Bummer, holly went to the Marriott. It is a place that is super rich in history, legend, gothic landscape and it's frequented often by many students attending the Virginia Commonwealth University. All right. So we're going to talk a little bit about some ghosts.

One of the most iconic ghosts of Hollywood Cemetery is that of a phantom dog, a ghost dog. Have we ever talked about a ghost dog before? I think we have or ghost cat. I think we talked about ghost cat.

I think this is the first time in a hundred and sixty seven episodes. I like it. Here we go. In February of 1862, a two year old girl named Florence Reese died of Scarlet Beaver.

So this was unfortunately a really common thing that was happening in the 19th century. Scarlet Beaver was taking a lot of people out. So there was no antibiotics to help with this. So everything was pretty much lethal back then.

Yeah. So you could get a cold sore. Cold sore. And that was it.

Diaphsy section. Yeah. Yeah. That's right.

So this doesn't like nowadays if you hear of a two year old dying of Scarlet Fever that like makes the news. Absolutely. Back then it was like, it's hard for the course. Okay.

Oh, that's so sad. Especially for the family. It's horrible. You know, they also had a lot of kids.

So it was kind of like, well, Rita has passed. I'm pregnant again. Yeah. I'm a little bit of a mother of an only child that would be devastated.

But yeah, I guess because we don't expect that nowadays. If you hear a young child has died, period, you're like, oh my God. No, it's awful. Yeah.

Yeah, terrible. So what's kind of weird about Florence's death isn't really how she died, but more about how she was buried. So Florence is the only little girl in the cemetery and possibly in the whole United States with a distinct statue keeping watch over her grave. So she has a guardian dog statue.

It's a life-sized black cast iron Newfoundland dog. Those are big. Those things are huge. Yep.

So there are people from all over the world that flock to this grave just to take a picture of the dog, of this huge dog. So I mean, clearly the parents were devastated by this to put a giant dog to watch her. So this is why she has the dog. So there's two theories really.

The first one is that there was an unnamed merchant who just really adored Florence and Florence loved his dog. And he chose to grant the statue and make the statue as a proof to Florence's kind heart and give her this watch dog. Sweet. Another theory is that Florence's father Thomas was a radical pacifist and he placed the dog statue at his daughter's grave to deter war.

Okay. Because iron was in short supply during the Civil War. And the man knew that what he had was like he had all this iron so it was, you know, precious. People wanted it just like his daughter.

Yeah. And unfortunately, you know, if people knew that he had all that, it would end up in a struggle. And he hated like fights. He hated who was a pacifist.

He hated all that. So Thomas felt that no one would dare disrespect the memory of a child. And so he put the slab of iron in the Hollywood cemetery. Interesting.

I kind of like the merchant one better. I think so. It sounds a little nicer. This one sounds like...

I'm gonna fight over this iron so I put it in my dick. My iron. Child's grave. Yeah.

My iron. And I shoot it like a dog. And then that speaks to like I'm a pacifist. No.

I'm anti-war. It's my iron. You can't have it. You can't have it.

It's gonna watch over my dead daughter. Yeah. It's weird. I don't like that.

I like the first one. Let's go with the Netherlands merchant. I like that one. So there are lots of stories out there about this dog and those who come to pay their respects profess that they hear straight marking near Florence's grave.

Meanwhile, those that come with dark motivations and ill-intense swear to her deep guttural growling coming from somewhere and warning them to stay away. But what would the ill-intense be stealing the iron? Stealing the iron or defacing. Yeah.

Yeah. Something. And some people say the dog's position is known to change and like sometimes it'll be facing different directions. Huh.

I like that. I think that's pretty cool. What would you have watching your grave? Mothman.

Either Mothman or... Yeah. Oh, Bigfoot. Bigfoot.

Like a possum. Raccoon. That's a really true joke. That's a trash animal.

What? It's just... It's crazy. It's like eating garbage.

It feels great. It feels great. Nice hot garbage feels great. And when you come near it, you can smell the stench of the garbage and the raccoon.

The raccoon feels... The raccoon feels like the raccoon is adorable. Kinda lets out its stench and you're like, it sprays you if you get to the close. Oh, not a raccoon.

Whatever. I don't know my... Woodland creatures? I do.

Woodland creatures is a little... What else would you call a raccoon other than a woodland creature? Somebody you're probably going to run over with with my car. I mean, probably.

I mean, that's... I would use a raccoon. Interesting. I really get...

Yeah. There's also, you know, just several... There's some people buried there that there's all kinds of ghosts spotted all over the place. Ghost haunt many, many, many of the mausoleums.

And there's one that is super well known and it's the legend of the Richmond vampire. We have to do this story. We are going to do this story. Okay.

It's going to be my next story that I do. Okay. So that's the one who's going to suck away into it. Yeah.

We'll do it next week. We'll do it next week. Oh, great. You make me wait.

But I'm going to make you wait. And we're going to talk about the Richmond vampire and kind of where that story comes from. You're not getting the raccoon. It says you.

You have made me wait. You're dying before I will. Just wait. Those raccoons will come for you.

They'll fight you. They will not. They'll be ready for them. Your car?

Absolutely. Four raccoons. I got you four tires. Oh, God.

It's so mean. Nope. If they are coming to hurt me and give me rabies or god knows what else they're carrying. Goodbye.

That's what I was saying. What's a groundhog? I love a groundhog. They're so cute.

What is it? For someone who really doesn't like the woods. You sure pick the wooden creatures? The wooden creatures?

The wooden creatures are so small. I'm not feeling this long. A bird. I like birds.

Sure. I like the Great Raven. Never mall. Never mall.

The Rebusen. Ok, we're off track. We're done with the story. We're done with the stories.

So if you need to click off, I'm talking about the birds for a minute. The other day, I was sitting by. I was sitting by my blue-groom window and I looked out and I saw a Red-winged Blackbird. That's really rare.

So I've seen them every once in a while around my house because I have some bird feeders out front. Because I'm an old lady and I have a book about birds that I sit there and I look at and identify my birds. So I was sitting there and I saw this bird and I was like wow how cool red and black bird turn around. There was a whole flock of them that landed in my yard.

There were over 20 red winged blackbirds that swarmed my yard. Have you ever seen the birds by a bird? I have. It felt like that.

But they were so they just kept coming into my yard and I was watching them and they're beautiful birds and they're pretty small. Yeah. But they have this gorgeous red wing like underneath of their wing is red and like there's a little piece that pokes out and when they fly you can see the red and orange and yellow underneath their wings. So gorgeous birds love this bird.

But there were 20 over 20 of them in my yard and a big truck went by and they all flew up. So again beautiful to see them fly but I wanted them to come back so I ran outside real quick and I put some bird seed out some more so extra like on the ground and they came back. But I haven't seen them since. If you feed them they will come.

So I think they're like migrating right now. So they've landed in my yard and they took off. But super cool. So I feel like this bird would be appropriate to have garch a red bird.

Yes. What would you have for me? For you I would have nothing. I mean a goat.

As my son would say what the fire truck? A goat. A goat. But like it would keep the area clean.

Disgusted. And well-mannered. I was thinking everything you would eat my gravestone. It would add your gravestone.

Probably but they're stupid animals. Okay so I'm not a goat my bad. What about a porcupine? Well that sounds prickly.

Percly but that is fun. It's a good garden. That's true. I was thinking a lion.

Oh okay. Some form of cat. That's fine. I don't want a goat.

I don't want a goat. I don't want a goat. That's pretty cool. I don't want a cutie.

I don't want like a whole lot of cute. No. I want mess with her grave. And you're going to get a brush top.

Crocodile. Crocodile. Crocodile is care that Avrilum crap out of me. Well they are.

Terrified. Especially when you see like somebody in Florida and they've had a large dorm and they find one in their pool. Yeah no I don't like that. I don't care for that.

Alligator crocodile either one. Hate it. Wow. So much so much here to process.

Think about it. I just can't wait until you know I finally am able to check in. Ding ding ding. To the other side.

Yeah. And there you are. There you are. There you are.

And where we united it will feel so good. Well. And I'll say gosh it's been so many years. Well.

Well. Well that's being hypothetically. I mean we're 13 years apart. If I die at 86.

I don't think I'll make it past 75. Well then I would be dead anyway. Yeah. That'll be fine.

I thought you were going to die young. 75 is young. Well I mean younger. I can die 50 if you prefer.

I didn't say I prefer you die 50. But hypothetically. Okay. Yeah.

Okay. I mean. Sure. You take more risks than I do.

I do. You know. There are bears downtown. So listen.

Next episode I'm going to tell you a story that's going to make you real upset. But you have to wait for that next week too. Hi. Why are you doing this to me?

Is it because I said bad things about your woodland creatures and that's why you're being mean to me? Okay. If you want us to know an email. Sure.

Are woodland creatures or where plans for what would guard your cast? Oh yeah. What would guard your grave? Yes.

And send us an email to mountainistaries.abolatchin.com. You can find us on our Facebook, Mountainistaries Tales from Appalachia. Find us on Instagram, Mountainistaries.doc.abolatchin.com. And check us out on Patreon for some bonus content.

And I will give a shout out to Irvine, California. Irvine, California. Oh see. Thanks for listening.

All right. We'll see you next week. Bye.