Funds will go to repair damage to cemetery
Flooded out in 2015, graveyard at historic Asbury Broadneck United Methodist Church in Annapolis gets $500,000 in state grant
It was June 2015 when Robert Brown visited Asbury Broadneck United Methodist Church cemetery in Annapolis during a heavy rain.
Rainwater flowing from a park uphill from the historic African-American cemetery had turned it into a pond — flooding over graves and tombs and even causing a casket to rise from the ground.
Brown, a trustee with the church, got videos of tombstones bobbing up and down under his feet.
“That was when everything began,” said Mattie Wallace, chair of archives for the historic church.
“We had a meeting with the county and they sent someone to put rocks down on the road — which of course didn’t help the problem,” said Wallace.
“The bottom line was we had to fix the problem ourselves,” she said.
Two years later, the church is doing so — with the help of a $500,000 grant from the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
Work being done, through the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay,will involve fixing a pipe system running through the cemetery that isn’t doing its job, and also installing bio-retention features to collect water as a grass buffer, like a rain garden.
Asbury Broadneck UMC has housed the graves of African-American community members for more than 150 years, including former slaves and their descendants as well as Harriet Tubman’s descendants.
The records of who exactly rests there were lost in a fire during the 1950s. Wallace said the church was in the process of collecting data to find the lost names of the deceased when the flooding started.
Members of the Asbury Broadneck UMC congregation are also participating in the Anne Arundel County Watershed Stewards Academy, learning to become master watershed stewards through the RiverWise Congregations program.
They plan to perform cemetery maintenance and implement stormwater best management practices to help keep flooding at bay.
Two members have become master watershed stewards so far — Kimberly Hickey and Randy Rowel—and Brownwill graduate from the program later this year.
They’ll be responsible for maintaining vegetation and repairing exposed graves.
Twenty-three members of the church are also working through a Stormwater Disciples program, educating the church community on environmental issues.
“This is a community issue being solved by the community,” Rowel said.
RiverWise Congregations has worked to curb nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment along 27.5 acres of drainage area through stewardship and cooperation of 25 houses of worship from Glen Burnie to Galesville.
The Asbury Broadneck UMC project promises to add to that overall impact — and raise awareness as well.
“We get to fix this problem and educate our community about watershed, as well as get young black people interested in helping the environment, so it’s a win-winwin-win-win situation,” Rowel said. ssanfelice@capgaznews.com
Rainwater flowing from a park uphill from the historic African-American cemetery had turned it into a pond — flooding over graves and tombs and even causing a casket to rise from the ground.
Brown, a trustee with the church, got videos of tombstones bobbing up and down under his feet.
“That was when everything began,” said Mattie Wallace, chair of archives for the historic church.
“We had a meeting with the county and they sent someone to put rocks down on the road — which of course didn’t help the problem,” said Wallace.
“The bottom line was we had to fix the problem ourselves,” she said.
Two years later, the church is doing so — with the help of a $500,000 grant from the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
Work being done, through the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay,will involve fixing a pipe system running through the cemetery that isn’t doing its job, and also installing bio-retention features to collect water as a grass buffer, like a rain garden.
Asbury Broadneck UMC has housed the graves of African-American community members for more than 150 years, including former slaves and their descendants as well as Harriet Tubman’s descendants.
The records of who exactly rests there were lost in a fire during the 1950s. Wallace said the church was in the process of collecting data to find the lost names of the deceased when the flooding started.
Members of the Asbury Broadneck UMC congregation are also participating in the Anne Arundel County Watershed Stewards Academy, learning to become master watershed stewards through the RiverWise Congregations program.
They plan to perform cemetery maintenance and implement stormwater best management practices to help keep flooding at bay.
Two members have become master watershed stewards so far — Kimberly Hickey and Randy Rowel—and Brownwill graduate from the program later this year.
They’ll be responsible for maintaining vegetation and repairing exposed graves.
Twenty-three members of the church are also working through a Stormwater Disciples program, educating the church community on environmental issues.
“This is a community issue being solved by the community,” Rowel said.
RiverWise Congregations has worked to curb nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment along 27.5 acres of drainage area through stewardship and cooperation of 25 houses of worship from Glen Burnie to Galesville.
The Asbury Broadneck UMC project promises to add to that overall impact — and raise awareness as well.
“We get to fix this problem and educate our community about watershed, as well as get young black people interested in helping the environment, so it’s a win-winwin-win-win situation,” Rowel said. ssanfelice@capgaznews.com
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