Beth Israel Cemetery

Beth Israel Cemetery

 

Locality: Roanoke City                        Temporal Period:                  20th c.

Realty Map:          713-7130112                           Cultural Affiliation:              Euro-American

USGS Map:           Roanoke                                                Landform:                              Ridge base

Grid Locus:            J-9                                           Elevation:                              980 feet

UTM Easting:       597380                                    Aspect:                                  South

UTM Northing:    4128080

 

Site Dimensions: 135 by 285 feet

 

Survey Description: Site consists of a large, active cemetery associated with the conservative Beth Israel synagogue.  The cemetery contains 255 interments most of which are marked with formal, inscribed granite or marble markers.  One grave is marked with a large piece of rose quartz and another is marked with what appears to be only a marker base.  Graves of children are clustered along the southwest edge of the cemetery.  One unmarked depression may represent a child’s burial.  Also along the southwest side are marked interments for “sacred books and objects.”  Graves are oriented to the northeast.  Site is well maintained, is covered with grass, and contains a variety of evergreen and deciduous trees and shrubs.  A stone wall marks southeast border, a wooded area lines the northwest border, a wood fence and evergreens mark the northeast border, and the southwest border abuts the northeast border of the Temple Emanuel Cemetery.  Site was field inspected, photographed, and headstone inscriptions were compared to previous site documentation.  Site size was estimated by pacing the horizontal extent of the surrounding enclosures/boundaries.

 

Surveyed By:        T. Klatka & D. Richardson

Survey Date:         10/97

 

Field Notes:           _x_Yes   ___No

Photographs:        _x_Yes   ___No

 

Reference(s):         Roanoke Valley Historical Society

                                1986        Roanoke County Graveyards Through 1920.  Privately printed, RVHS, Roanoke.

 

Additional Comments: Assigned temporal period based on death dates observed on headstones.  These dates range from 1913 through the present.  The cemetery files in the City of Roanoke Library Virginia Room contain documentation for a 1987 survey of this cemetery.  The file includes names, birth dates, and death dates transcribed from the headstones.  The RVHS (1986:  13-14) report contains biographical information transcribed from 16 grave markers which predate 1920.  During the 1997 survey no attempt was made to transcribe inscriptions on all of the grave markers.


 

Back to Cemetery Link Page



Back to HomePage