Dec 2, 2014

Memorial Mound


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39 comments:

  1. Hey Naaman, It is Burt from "Decay is headed your way!" I was curious as to if you got my email the other week. Beautiful photos man, really great! I was curious as to when you explored this funeral home? Do you have any insight as to how to get in to the Masonic Temple? Thanks man. Email is BurtDIHYW@gmail.com

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  2. If You Think About It It's Really sad. To bad Noone has purchased and fixed for the souls that are there

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  3. Could someone say where this place is? I would love to go see it

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    1. Bessemer Alabama. From what I understand a really bad part of Bessemer.

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    2. yes, it is in a location near two housing projects, where Lipscomb ends and Bessemer begins. I know the area and not that I am paranoid but these days would not want to spend much time there unless well armed and with several equally armed companions.

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    3. They won't let you in. It's finally all boarded up now & has no trespassing signs. And the dead within were all moved out so there's nothing left to see.

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  4. Is this place locked up & you were granted access? I can't believe people are interred IN it and with remains visible like that and it's not monitored somehow by someone! Your work, however, is amazing.

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  5. It's in s bad area. You don't want to go there! High murder and drug rate!

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    1. Really? This is about an abandoned property not murder and drug rate! I live here! We all know well what goes on here, and we have the same type of criminals your town has! We so do not need your slander,our town is deteriorating ans yes we have crime and poverty just like every other town! This is about the owner of an abandoned memorial building with possible remains not of drugs !

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    2. Bessemer is not a bad place nor is it anymore crime infested than any other city. It is sad about the mausoleum and someone need to be held accountable

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  6. Follow-up:

    http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2015/01/at_memorial_mound_in_bessemer.html

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  7. That last picture is tacky. I guess you have no respect for the dead. That is someone's father, mother, etc. I hope a relative of the dead person does not see your picture, it would break their heart.

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    1. If this is someone's relative, how is it that the relatives left the body in this awful place? Has no one been into the mausoleum lately (besides grave robbers, that is)? How did it get into this state without someone knowing about it before now?

      I grew up in Midfield, and a lot of my relatives are buried in Valhalla cemetery. I don't get up there often anymore, but there are plenty of cousins and my parents who do check on it occasionally. My grandmother's sister was the most recently-interred relative there (a couple of years ago), and the cemetery is still well-kept.

      Memorial Mound isn't the only abandoned cemetery or mausoleum, either. It's just sad that people can be forgotten like this.

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    2. The owner closed up & took off. People were trying to go visit family & couldn't. This place was reported several times to several people but it took people posting on the net to finally get anybody to do anything about it.

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    3. Photo of remains should not been posted. Give respect to the deceased and the family of that individual, even if they are unknown.

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  8. Is it tacky? Probably. The underlying sadness lies with the owner who left this place to decay and the subsequent atrocities of people breaking into the facility and robbing the dead

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    1. You have made a valid point that I did not consider. It made me upset to see the last pic. But one has to think, where is the family members of this deceased person.

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    2. actually, the owner only 'left' the place because he died; he should indeed have made plans to have it operated after his demise, as we all reach the end of that road. Personally I know that area and never understood why he chose that for his mound. Maybe the property was inexpensive, but I would imagine that the neighborhood itself had a lot to do with why no one came to visit often.

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    3. He left the place at least 7 years before he died. Funeral homes quit referring people to him so from opening to close 9 people were placed here. Not enough to keep the biz going.

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  9. I am glad my photography has led to this place being locked down and given the security that is needed. I have no respect for the integrity of this abandonment. It's been pillaged and looted. I took photos of things which I found. I never said it was cool or awesome or fun. It was upsetting.

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    1. You did excellent work uncovering this tragic situation. As a fellow photographer I commend you on your skills, your work and your help to bring justice to these neglected souls. Be blessed always.

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    2. you did a very good job, and are to be commended.

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  10. People paid hard-earned money for so much more than what time has given them. I realize that some things can't be helped and circumstances arise that no one anticipates, but to have bodies secured by some low-rent locked doors fifty feet from a major road...

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  11. I really wish we could resolve the question of who and what happen to the owner of this place and why it has been left in this condition with no maintenance, because i live in this town and i know its dubbed as a bad area but we do not need slander from people who have never been here. We were once a flourishing town now we are deteriorating and it is not all about crime, or drugs. We just arent as lavish as before. So get of the drug stance we all have criminals in our town geezzzz

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    1. Yeah, people don't realize that criminals are mobile... some areas are indeed more dangerous than others, though. When Midfield started getting rough, my dad starting talking about moving. It took one of our neighbors being mugged in broad daylight at the corner of our block to get him to put the house on the market. When my grandmother died in 2005, her funeral was at her church in Lipscomb, and she was buried at Valhalla. My cousins from out-of-state asked if I remembered my way around, so I gave them the grand tour (we moved to Shelby County in the late 70s). My brother kept saying, "We'll be out of here before dark, right?" It's sad, because when I was a kid, the Midfield area was one of the best places to raise a family. Good schools, plenty for kids to do to stay busy... not so much now. I was horrified to see that the pool was gone. Plenty of good memories there.

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    2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    3. The owner is dead, yo. Since '09. If you squint and read the brochure the lovely photographer shot so well, you'll find that his son died very young. It's likely that he did not have any other heirs, and employees cannot be trusted. If property tax is still being paid, the fault you want to find lies there. Otherwise, it is the fault of the city.

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    4. and no one is slandering Bessemer; the article is not about Bessemer. The area that IS at the center of this is a bad area- whenever a housing project has razor wire over chain link fences, and drug deals god won in open daylight, that means 'bad neighborhood', wherever it is. Some parts of Bessemer are safe to walk through any time, day or night. Other parts are not, unless you have a desire for adrenaline rush or a death wish.

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    5. Yeah pretty much this is close to me and its a horrible part of town

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  12. They have cameras or something set up here now from what I have heard the body's have been removed also the funeral home went out of business and they just left it all how it was

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  13. Somebody should do a documentary about Clyde Booth, is customers, and the brats who broke into the place.

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    1. AL.com is working on a piece right now as a matter of fact

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  14. This is an amazing piece of work!! I know its hard to read, or watch, but great discovery. where can i find more info, video, on this place or any updated information? I cant believe this man had caskets on metal racks? Isnt that illegal? In 1952,it was made law that you had to have a casket in a concrete vault.. so im wondering.

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  15. This is an amazing piece of work!! I know its hard to read, or watch, but great discovery. where can i find more info, video, on this place or any updated information? I cant believe this man had caskets on metal racks? Isnt that illegal? In 1952,it was made law that you had to have a casket in a concrete vault.. so im wondering.

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  16. Hi! I recently came across this and have been trying and trying to see your original footage of the exploration. All I can seem to find are montages of it. Maybe that is purposful but if anyone knows where to find it it would be fascinating to watch. Ninjettelotus@gmail.com

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  17. Hi! I love your post. I've spent a couple years studying ol Clyde with the intent of someday publishing his story and the real story, the sad circumstances of those interred here and forgotten. My own feeling is Clyde started out with good intentions. He ran a cremation service and spoke passionately about better, cheaper funeral services that gave families more access to their loved one. Unfortunately, he had no real sense of how to do this or what he really wanted; he managed to skirt around licensing issues because he wasn't technically operating a funeral home and thus, Memorial Mound was not regulated and inspected nor held to the standards a good cemetery would be expected to uphold. Many of the local funeral homes and directors ( a few of whom were gracious enough to speak to me and remembered Clyde ) saw the writing on the wall: this was a bad idea and they *may* have deterred business away from MM. Without new 'customers' coming in, the MM floundered. Clyde's plans never were expanded and he grew disillusioned and, as cash dried up, he basically walked off. Please do not mistake this as defending him, not at all. He may have meant well but he was in over his head and then left those bodies entrusted to his care abandoned. There's no indication I've found that he had any plans or interest in the future of MM after it failed him.

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