Trolleyology: Cemetery Transit: A History of Death Riding the Rails

Cemetery Transit: A History of Death Riding the Rails
Presented by Allison C. Meier
October 10, 2023
Transportation and the cemetery have been linked for centuries, from 19th-century ferries carrying the dead in New York City to early 20th-century funerary street cars in Mexico City. Every city had to find a way to move its departed citizens to their final stop, such as Pittsburgh's Citizens Passenger Railway Horsecar, which in 1859 established a route between Fifth Avenue and a cemetery. This online talk led by Allison Meier, the author of Grave (Bloomsbury, 2023) and a cemetery tour guide, will chronicle these surprising connections between the dead and transit both in the United States and around the world, including a look at some historic curios like the London Necropolis Railway and presidential funeral trains.
Allison C. Meier is a Brooklyn-based writer, editor, and researcher focused on visual culture, architecture, and overlooked history. Her book Grave was published this year by Bloomsbury as part of the Object Lessons book series. She's also the author of the Great Trees of New York Map, Art Deco New York Map, and Concrete New York Map from Blue Crow Media. She is currently the editor of Fine Books & Collections magazine and has bylines in the New York Times, CityLab, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and other publications. She moonlights as a cemetery tour guide.  
00:00 Intro
07:02 Cemetery Transit presentation

[@paulschumann9746]

Very interesting! Thanks.

[@fredschroyer584]

Wonderfully articulate presentation! I had no idea there was such an historic connection between cemeteries and public transport!

[@paulschumann9746]

Very interesting!

[@chicagolandrailroader]

Super interesting stuff. Thank you!

[@Jeff-uj8xi]

Philadelphia's funeral car was the Hillside, not Hillsdale. In the chat at the end of the program, I later saw where George Gula mentioned that fact.
The Atlantic City and Shore Railroad Company had a funeral car called the Absequam, built by the John Stephenson Works in Elizabeth, New Jersey in 1906. The car had a compartment for the casket and the upper windows were stained glass. It was numbered 120 and unlike the other cars which were originally painted Tuscan Red and later orange and cream, it was painted green and cream. In 1924, when funeral car service ended on the "Shore Fast Line", the car was rebuilt as a parlor car. During WWII, it was converted to a straight coach. The car was burned and scrapped in 1948 when buses replaced trolleys on the Atlantic City - Ocean City trolley line. I have photos of the car, promotional leaflets and newspaper ads advertising funeral car and later parlor car service.
By the way, doesn't Boston's Mattapan - Ashmont trolley line go through a cemetery? Also, was Allison Meier expecting a blizzard? What was with those ear muffs?

[@trolleytravels]

It's one thing to clarify points of information or add other useful information to a presentation. It's a completely different matter to mock the presenter and her choice of headset.