Orthos Image from 1954, showing the Moore's Lane Potters' Field shortly before it was "moved" to Boulden Blvd. The cemetery is the slightly-tilted-to-the-right square in the center of the image, with an indentation in its eastern border, and Moore's Farm buildings/trees along the southern border. The indentation today is where Boulden Blvd. dead-ends at the Castle Hills Development, which was built in the early 1960s, and is marked by the yellow plat outlines on the image, just to the right of the indentation.
History of the Moore's Lane Potter's Field and its removal to the Boulden Blvd. site in the 1960s
mooreslanebouldenblvdpottersfieldsthroughtheyears6192014.docx | |
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Click on the link above to open a Word file from June 2014 which shows the history of the Moore's Lane/Boulden Blvd. Potters' Field Through the Years -- using aerial photography. The Moore's Lane Potters' Field was most likely opened when the New Castle County Almshouse/Hospital Potter's Field (the "Cemetery in the Woods at Farnhurst) was closed, in 1933, although its first use isn't clearly documented. It was in use until the early 1960s for both indigent known individuals and unidentified corpses from the Medical Examiner's Office. In the early 1960s, the "Delaware Turnpike" and the I-295 Farnhurst Interchange to the Delaware Memorial Bridge were being built and a source of dirt was needed to construct the highway. Doherty Brothers Funeral Home was awarded a contract to move the bodies from the Moore's Lane Potters' Field to the Boulden Blvd. site. The granite markers were left behind. There are unconfirmed stories from people who worked on the construction of the highway that occasionally human bones would turn up in the fill from Moore's Lane. It isn't clear what happened to the bodies/caskets once they got to Boulden Blvd. -- they may have been re-interred individually, or they may have been placed together in one large pit. No one seems to know, or if they know, they aren't saying. Apparently there was never a record kept of who was placed where when the bodies were moved, and the granite markers were left behind. Doherty Brothers Funeral Home claims to have no records or institutional memory from this time period.
The Boulden Blvd. Potter's Field was used until the opening of the Baylor's Potter's Field.
The excavations for the construction of the Delaware Turnpike and I-295 were massive and encompassed not only the original Moore's Lane Potters' Field, but many many many acres around the original cemetery, including the original Moore's Farm. Today there is a huge "pit" at this site, larger than several football fields, and it is now the site of two giant industrial parks, as can be clearly seen from the Orthos Maps of recent years.
Orthos maps obtained from the University of Delaware Library.
The Boulden Blvd. Potter's Field was used until the opening of the Baylor's Potter's Field.
The excavations for the construction of the Delaware Turnpike and I-295 were massive and encompassed not only the original Moore's Lane Potters' Field, but many many many acres around the original cemetery, including the original Moore's Farm. Today there is a huge "pit" at this site, larger than several football fields, and it is now the site of two giant industrial parks, as can be clearly seen from the Orthos Maps of recent years.
Orthos maps obtained from the University of Delaware Library.
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Newspaper article from April 26, 1953 about the Moore's Lane Potter's Field, with photographs -- "They Rest in Lonely Peace." With thanks to Hal Brown for re-finding this article for me!
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Three newspaper articles, two from 1954 and 1962 about the Moore's Lane Potter's Field, and one from 1965 about the Boulden Blvd. Potter's Field.
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Newspaper article from March 5, 1981 about both the Moore's Lane Potter's Field and the Boulden Blvd. Potter's Field (the author conflates the two sites), with comments from Kathy Dettwyler, July 2016, hopefully clarifying things.
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