Maple Park Cemetery is a privately owned association and is the final resting place of many prominent Springfieldians. The cemetery association was organized in 1876.
Maple Park was added to the Springfield Historical Site Register in 1974 and is a lovely and interesting place to visit. However, on a recent visit I was disturbed to find several of the stones broken and in need of repair.
Most of these are older stones, and I doubt back then there were perpetual care funds set up to maintain the sites. Maybe it’s a non-endowed cemetery? Missouri law requires that signs to be posted to that effect. Actually, many of these stones have been in disrepair for a long time. Just seems like as expensive as burials are today that some of the funds could be used to maintain existing grave sites. However, this may be the real reason why these broken headstones have not been touched.
During the ice storm in 2007 this cemetery had extensive damage from tree limbs and debris, I’m sure it cost a small fortune to clean up. On a recent walk on the grounds, several shrubs and large trees were overgrown and in some cases completely covering some of the stones.
What’s the answer?