Program

Ohio History Connection

Subject

Cemetery

Location

5993 Pearl Road, Parma Heights, OH 44130, USA

Lat/Long

41.398917, -81.751524

Grant Recipient

Ohio History Connection

Historic Marker

PARMA HEIGHTS CEMETERY

Inscription

PARMA HEIGHTS CEMETERY

The cemetery has been the final resting place of area residents since the 1820s. Settlers from New York and New England migrated here in the 1810s and 1820s. First called “Greenbrier,” the area took the name Parma after the township was organized in 1826. A log building at the cemetery’s north end stood from 1826 to 1841 and served as a township school, public meeting place, and church. The cemetery’s small sandstone vault was erected in 1892. After voters established Parma Heights village in 1911, the Parma Heights Cemetery Improvement Association formed to care for the grounds. (Continued on other side)

(Continued from other side) To accommodate generations of burials, the cemetery’s acreage was expanded in 1913, 1925-’27, and 1972. Laborers from the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) built the cemetery’s wall and sandstone steps around 1936. The City of Parma Heights has maintained the cemetery since 1955. The graves of local veterans are marked with small metal plaques. Decoration Day and then Memorial Day services have been held here since 1868.

WILLIAM G. POMEROY FOUNDATION
PARMA HEIGHTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY
THE OHIO HISTORY CONNECTION
2020