Date visited: June 1, 2024
Address: 265-299 E. Liberty Street, Medina, OH
Medina’s Old Town Cemetery appears to be the quintessential church graveyard, as it is a small and quiet field of graves nestled between two churches, the Congregational Church to the west or the Episcopal Church. However, it has never had any connection to either church and it is over 70 years older than both of them. The first internment was in 1810 and the last was in 1946. Buried here are veterans from the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Spanish American War, and World War II.
Medina’s second cemetery, Spring Grove Cemetery, was built in 1883 and after it was built, many came to consider Old Town Cemetery as dreary and old-fashioned. However, I found it peaceful and sweet when my daughter and I visited it. The cemetery is well-kept and there were flags on the graves of veterans the day we visited as it was right after Memorial Day. It was hot the day that we visited, but the huge old trees kept us cool and protected us as we wandered around the graves of some of Medina’s first settlers.
The tombstones were beautiful, and some of them looked as if they had been carved by hand. Sadly, some of them were toppled and broken due to age. The words carved, in some cases 200 years ago, were hard to read on others. However, unlike some older cemeteries, there was no sense of neglect. The most startling moment in this little cemetery came when I came up to a gravestone and startled a fawn. (S)he ran away faster than I could pull out my camera, but it was a sweet moment that reminded me that cemeteries can be homes for the dead and the living.
