Albuquerque cemetery could be added to the city’s landmark list

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – It’s a cemetery in southeast Albuquerque, with many styles of headstones and tombs and with names you might recognize from downtown street signs. It’s where city founders, governors, and rough riders, to name a few, were laid to rest.

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“This is an important place for the city of Albuquerque and the history of the city of Albuquerque,” said Leslie Naji, Historic Preservation Planner, City of Albuquerque.

The Historic Fairview Cemetery is home to around 12,000 members of the Albuquerque community, dating back to 1881. The city’s Historic Preservation Department and President of the Historic Fairview Cemetery are working together to get the grounds the recognition they say it deserves.

“I think our efforts with getting a landmark status and a designation there, is that it puts out there and draws attention to people that this is a historic site,” said Naji.

A formal request submitted to the city council said this part of the cemetery meets key criteria to become a landmark. That’s because it’s associated with people who significantly contributed to the city, contains a style from the historic time period, and is also a recorded site.

Susan Schwartz has been the Historian at the Cemetery for 21 years. With a variety of materials and finishes, in addition to the individuals they honor, Schwartz said each headstone tells a unique story, “You know the woodmen of the world have the headstones that look like trees.”

She went on to share their stories, “They lived in Corrales, and they had a lot of tragedy in the family. Five of their eight children died young.” Going on to explain how it all started she said, “There was a newspaper article that said, ‘Oh my goodness they’re burying people in the sandhills in Albuquerque, what are we going to do about this? And what they said they were going to do is make it a cemetery that mimicked the ones out east that people used for picnics and visiting their loved ones.”

The Historic Fairview Cemetery holds regular cleanups and is always looking for more volunteers to maintain the grounds. A link to more information can be found here .

“For families who are native to Albuquerque who have lived here for generations can go through and find pieces of themselves there,” said Naji.

This request is set to be presented to Albuquerque City Council for approval on Wednesday.

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