Lane Street Cemetery

Lane Street Project: Odd Fellows in spring.

You can barely see them, which is my point. For the first time in decades of springs, wisteria does not choke the treetops of Odd Fellows Cemetery. (There are also many fewer treetops.) The war is not over, but many battles have been won, and I thank every volunteer who has helped Lane Street Project get this far.

With the Vick family plot cleared, family members have been able to leave flowers and other tokens at their loved ones’ graves.

Ignore for the moment that power pole desecrating Rountree Cemetery. Focus instead on the iconic headstones of Della Hines Barnes and Dave Barnes, gleaming in the March sun.

The bright interior of Odd Fellows, where we are focusing our attention this season. Won’t you help?

Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, March 2024.

Lane Street Project: 2003 aerial.

This 2003 aerial image of the Lane Street Project cemeteries shows how much changed in the 17 years before we began our cleanups.

(1) Vick Cemetery; (2) Odd Fellows Cemetery; (3) Rountree Cemetery.

Vick Cemetery. (1) The central monument (before the pad was bricked?) and the one odd tree alongside; (2) the little white dash is the one concrete vault top remaining in the cemetery; (3) no walkway! I’d always wondered why it matched up with the monument’s pad so poorly. It was installed years later!

Odd Fellows Cemetery. (1) Maybe if someone had done a proper survey with map of the property lines, the Vick Cemetery parking lot and driveway apron wouldn’t sprawl across the line into Odd Fellows; (2) fairly heavy overgrowth in this corner; (3) the Della and Dave Barnes headstones; (4) the old entrance; (5) the interior was fairly open in 2003 and in January 2024 was cleared anew.

Rountree Cemetery: Surprisingly open twenty years ago. There is little sunlight anywhere within Rountree now.

Images courtesy of Wilson County NC GIS website.