The Warren State Hospital Cemetery at one time was neglected, abandoned and sat not to far away from the asylum. Recently it was cleared of its brush and sits behind the only Lowe's up in Warren PA. Normally I do not give out locations but due to time limitations I was really not able to do a night investigation of the grounds therefore you are not going to see any ghost photos from this place.

But since this cemetery is a landmark in the Warren area you cannot possibly visit the area without at least touring the cemetery. You can easily tell their are alot of unmarked burials the place is more like a potters field. Actually if you want honest statistics let me give it to you there is 900 unmarked burials and only 8 to 9 visible stones all crammed on a few acres. So its pretty possible that bodies upon bodies are within inches of one another. 

It was obvious that many years ago when people died in the hospital that they were buried here first burial being 1881. Rumor has it the state hospital had a couple cemeteries in the area. Just knowing this was a state hospital sort of gives you a curiosity of what sort of ghost would haunted a place like this.

I mean honestly 900 unmarked burials here on a hill you know that the unseen wander the hillside still waiting for their stone!

I was pretty excited to visit this cemetery cause it was my first investigation in a few years in the Warren area. Jim wanted to show it to me and I am glad he did cause this is not just your typical cemetery this is a place with years of Asylum history.

© By

AngelOfThyNight-Lord Rick

Group plans to restore WSH cemetery

By CHUCK HAYES Staff Writer

12/15/2006 - Numbered markers were placed on the graves.

They are still there, but over the past century most of them have been overgrown and buried.

It looks like one of the many other small cemeteries scattered throughout Warren County.

But, in fact, 954 people are buried at the cemetery along Jackson Run Rd., overlooking Warren State Hospital and now Warren Commons.

The first burial at the Warren State Hospital cemetery took place in 1881.

Most of the people buried there “are people who we served,” said David Kucherawy, chief of social and rehabilitative services at the state hospital.

There are also two infants buried at the cemetery, probably the children of people buried at the cemetery.

Perhaps ten of the 954 grave sites have “an appropriate marking,” said Kucherawy.

A group of Warren State Hospital employees is now planning to restore the cemetery.

“We want to make it a place of dignity and respect,” said Kucherawy.

“We’re very interested in how it looked,” he said, but so far the volunteers have been unable to locate any photos of the cemetery to work from.

The volunteers have located burial records for the cemetery.

“We know their names and now we have to check the records for days of birth and death,” said Kucherawy. “Our goal is to uncover the markers and place a headstone with each person’s name, birth date and date of death.”

“We’re hearing that the markers stood six inches above the ground,” said Kucherawy, but so far no photos have been found to confirm that.

State hospital archives have been searched for photographs without success.

The volunteers are also planning to reconstruct pathways, entrances and landscape the cemetery to as near their original appearance as possible.

Like the grave markers, the pathways have been obscured by time.

There are two large stone markers, which may have been an entrance gate, near the site, but the volunteers are not certain if the markers were in fact the entrance to the cemetery.

Kucherawy said the state hospital still receives occasional inquiries from people interested in the cemetery and exactly where a relative may be buried.

Two Eagle Scouts have proposed helping the state hospital volunteers in the restoration effort, said Kucherawy.

Eventually, he said, the volunteers will have to solicit some funds to restore the cemetery and headstones, but what the group needs most now is information about the cemetery and its original appearance.

Anyone who may have photographs, newspaper articles or other information regarding the Warren State Hospital cemetery is asked to contact Cathy Swanson, 726-4585, or by e-mail at cswanson@state.pa.us.