Cemetery in Parking Lots

Posted by Alex in Travel & Places on December 23, 2008 at 3:25 pm


There’s a spot in a Lowes movie theater parking lot in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where you’ll never forget where you parked your car: the grave of Mary Ellis. Yes, a cemetery right smack in the middle of a parking lot!

Not only is the grave of Mary Ellis embedded in a parking lot, it’s also the focus of a terrific legend. Mary, who came to New Brunswick in the 1790s to live with her sister, fell in love with a sea captain who promised to marry her once he returned from his next voyage. The captain then left Mary his horse and sailed off down the Raritan River.

Every day, Mary rode her lover’s steed down to the river, hoping to meet him at the water’s edge. For years, she gazed at the river, waiting for his return. In 1813, she purchased a plot of land overlooking the river, where she maintained her vigil until her death in 1826. And there she was buried, forever waiting for her captain.

Meanwhile, commercialism swept through, establishing a series of retail businesses, including a popular flea market, all sharing space with Mary. Today, Mary’s grave is entrenched in the parking lot of a Lowes movie theater.

Wesley Treat’s Roadside Resort has more on Paved Paradise: Cemeteries in Parking Lots – via

Previously on Neatorama: 10 Most Fascinating Tombs in the World


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COMMENT

9 comments to "Cemetery in Parking Lots"

  1. Crash_171
    December 23rd, 2008 at 5:42 pm

    There are one of these in Greenville, NC. I will try to find the story.

  2. Crash_171
    December 23rd, 2008 at 5:46 pm

    Here it is:
    http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM2AGY

  3. Hal
    December 23rd, 2008 at 6:01 pm

    I used to live in New Brunswick and had parked next to that grave many-a-times when it was in the parking lot of the flea market.

    Which really isn't that exciting.. but when will i ever be able to bring that up and have it be relevant ever again?

  4. Evilbeagle
    December 23rd, 2008 at 7:03 pm

    It may not be overly exciting once you are there, but what a conversation starter. I like.

  5. planettom
    December 24th, 2008 at 10:27 am

    Here's a ground-level picture I took of that Crowley graveyard atop a little man-made mesa on the outskirts of a Wal-Mart parking lot in Decatur, Georgia.

  6. ted
    December 24th, 2008 at 5:39 pm

    Deja vu.

  7. liphttam1
    December 24th, 2008 at 9:18 pm

    Trying to find your car after a zombie movie would stink!

  8. dan.rosol
    December 24th, 2008 at 10:46 pm

    the internet can never seem to catch up to things in print that fast, 10years too late lol

  9. Frankie
    December 29th, 2008 at 4:09 pm

    I sad you left off the Cemetary in Greenville, NC. It is in the now Colonial Mall Shopping Center. Funny thing is that the grave sites have been paved over and only the head stones are left planted in the asphalt. I'm sure someone can submit some cool pics.


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