By Esteban Fernandez
Times West Virginian
FAIRMONT — Woodlawn Cemetery will expand its role in cultural tourism next year by adding a museum.
“We’re in the last phase of renovating the superintendent’s house,” Woodlawn Board President Raymond Alvarez said. “We’re trying to create a museum for the history of Fairmont and West Virginia and the nation, based on the people that are buried here.”
Alvarez also serves as historian for both Marion County and the City of Fairmont. In that role, he has researched and written about the city’s history, as well s the lives of those interred at the historic burial place.
The first burial at Woodlawn took place in 1875 when teenager Joseph Hamilton was laid to rest after accidentally shooting himself with his firearm. Today, the cemetery is the final resting place for over 11,000 people, many of which have connections to the region’s history.
Alvarez said the plan is to turn Woodlawn into a center for cultural tourism, since the cemetery is a heritage site. Alvarez and the board of directors plan to develop a museum whose focus would be early medical history.
“The history of medicine in Northern West Virginia, it all started here,” he said. “The medical society was founded here in the 1850s. We had Civil War doctors. The coal mining industry really brought in great physicians and they built a great hospital system, nursing schools, things like that.”
The museum will also contain artifacts connected to the expansion of Fairmont. Cultivate WV, a program run by The Hub, a community development organization, provided grant money to Woodlawn through the City of Fairmont for the project. The Hub is probably most known for the over 20 community development projects it funded through its Cultivate program led by city residents.
Alvarez said the cemetery used the money to purchase and install 17 signs to guide visitors on the cemetery’s driving/walking trail. Alvarez said he wants to create more installations that provide information to tourists like storyboards.
Connecting with family roots is a major activity for people these days, Alvarez said.
“I had a young woman from Arizona, who got in touch with me and said, ‘I think my great-grandmother is buried at Woodlawn,” he said. “’We’re not sure but I think this was her name. She may have been killed.’ So we researched that and yes, a woman was shot by her ex-husband. We had the location, her burial name, and we had it marked for them. They found the place and they spent some time here recreating her great-grandmother’s steps. And when they went back to Arizona, she sent us a check for $300 and said keep up the good work.”
Woodlawn isn’t alone in building a bridge to Fairmont’s past. They’re working in concert with the Marion County Convention and Visitors Bureau, which provides visitors with a genealogy brochure that connects them to the Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center at Fairmont State University, as well as the Marion County Historical Society which is doing its own work to promote the region’s history.
“I think with like, finding your roots, people are into family trees and genealogy today, Alvarez said. “It’s at an all time high.”
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