Price Hill Will Receives HER Grant to Begin Restoration Efforts of Potter's Field Cemetery

The National Park Service has awarded $34,694 in funding through a History of Equal Rights (HER) Grant to the non-profit Price Hill Will. The funds will be used in the preliminary stage of restoring Potter’s Field Cemetery in Price Hill. Michael D. Morgan, leading the Potter’s Field Initiative for Price Hill Will, applied for the competitive grant on behalf of Price Hill Will and Cincinnati Parks in December 2021; and National Parks has announced the project is one of the successful recipients. 

Potter’s Field 

From 1852 to 1981, an estimated 20,000 people were laid to rest in Price Hill’s Potter’s Field, a cemetery for the indigent or unknown. Following a dispute between Hamilton County and the City of Cincinnati over the responsibility for maintaining the site in 1981, both burials and regular maintenance ceased. In the forty-one years since, half of the original cemetery site has become an overgrown tangle of weeds and invasive species. 

The other half of the original cemetery site is part of Rapid Run Park. In 1934 the City of Cincinnati transferred half of the site to Parks, which subsequently made extensive improvements to the expanded park (called Lick Run at the time.) In the 19^th Century, burial plots were reused as many as three times, with remains buried at increasingly shallow depths. It is unknown whether portions of the site were re-used repeatedly for convenience or whether the entire cemetery grounds were used for burials, raising the possibility that people are buried under Rapid Run Park. The undulating ground contains two streams and steep hills, and some bodies were reportedly buried as shallow as eighteen inches deep. Erosion may have brought human remains to the surface of the site under dense vegetation at some locations.  

Use of Grant Funds 

The physical transformation of the site needs to start by identifying the location of human remains across the original 26.38-acre site, and money from the History of Equal Rights grant will make this possible.  

The grant project will:  

• Conduct an archeological search for covered grave markers and the presence of skeletal remains on the surface of the land and in the two streams running through. 
• Strategically clear portions of the site to use Ground Penetrating Radar, a Magnetometer, and Electromagnetic Conductivity to identify burial patterns and establish the true boundaries of the cemetery. 
• Determine whether people were buried under Rapid Run Park. 
• Complete a National Register application that will result in the site listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the official list of the nation’s historic places worthy of preservation.  

The grant funds allocated to the Potter’s Field Initiative will be managed through Price Hill Will, whose leaders will be working directly with Cincinnati Parks staff, industry experts, and the Urban Conservators Office to ensure this project is overseen in the most sensitive and protective manner. In addition, the National Parks Service HER Grant allocation sets stringent guidelines around the qualifications of the contractors hired to perform the work and detailed reporting requirements to ensure that the project follows the Secretary of Interior Standards. The project team will begin work on the project in the coming weeks and complete the physical work before the end of this summer. Historic designation is a longer process. 

“We’re excited and grateful for this collaboration. For the first time in the cemetery’s 170-year history, in conjunction with expert volunteers and the non-profit Price Hill Will, we are dedicated to developing and implementing a multi-year plan to respectfully restore the site and the remaining monuments, to honor the lives and the memories of the people laid to rest there.” Said Garrett Dienno, Land Manager, Division of Natural Resources Cincinnati Park Board.  

Long-Term Plans 

The project funded by the HER Grant is the first step in restoring Potter’s Field and transforming it into a community asset. Dunham Recreation Area, which lies to the north of Potter’s Field, was originally the site of a contagious disease hospital founded in 1878. It closed as the Hamilton County Tuberculosis Sanatorium in 1971 and was subsequently turned into a community park operated by Cincinnati Recreation Commission. Rapid Run Park lies immediately east of Potter’s Field across Guerley Road. Eventually, following extensive community engagement that will begin sometime after this project has identified burial locations, Potter’s Field will become a dignified burial ground and a connection between Dunham Recreation Area and Rapid Run Park. 

About Price Hill Will 

Price Hill Will is the nonprofit community development corporation serving the Lower, East, and West Price Hill neighborhoods since 2004. Their mission is to improve the quality of life for all residents of Price Hill using an equitable, creative, and asset-based approach to physical, civic, social, and economic development. PHW’s programs connect residents, particularly immigrants, BIPOC, and residents with lower income or lower formal education levels, to resources, programming, neighborhood engagement opportunities, and leadership development. 

About Cincinnati Parks 

Parks have a long and distinguished tradition in Cincinnati. The city is fortunate to have a robust and thriving system of parks dating back to the 1860’s with the development of Washington, Hopkins and Eden and Piatt Parks’. In 1907, George Kessler, Landscape Architect created Cincinnati’s first park master plan to lift the city out of the dirty environment created by the Industrial Revolution. As a result, many have described Cincinnati as being created as a city within a park. Today, rated by the Trust for Public Land as the 4^th best in the nation, Cincinnati’s Parks consists of 5,000-plus acres of city parklands including 5 regional parks, 70 neighborhood parks, 34 natural areas, 6 neighborhood nature centers, 30 sites managed by the Cincinnati Recreation Commission, 5 parkways, 16 scenic overlooks, 2 arboretums and 65 miles of hiking and bridle trails.