I went into downtown York yesterday. Not something I often do, as I don’t like driving into downtown, though it’s become better in the last several years, ever since they repaved George Street.
I wanted to go to a used book store to look for some research material for a writing project I intend to embark upon. I intended go to the York Emporium, but they closed up last year, so I went to the new used book store, which I believe bought the York Emporium’s stock, In Between Pages, on Duke Street. And, as is my wont, I parked on the top deck of the parking garage. When you can park on the top, park on the top.
There’s an old and derelict church on Duke Street — I wrote about it almost five years ago — Zion Lutheran. It was surrounded by fencing then, and all I could do was take pictures from the street.
Yesterday I was able to take a closer look.
Something I noticed right off, which I did not see — and may not have been there — in 2021 was the row of headstones leaned up against the side of the building.
I photographed a few of them. No idea where the bodies they belong to are. They were mostly unreadable, though I was able to make out that some were in English and others were in German.
For instance, the three stones here in the center. The one on the left is for Maria Magdalen Haller (1752-1823), and her stone is in English. The two to its right — a name I cannot make out (center, death 1812) and Ana Catharina (right, death 1817) — are in German.
I wrote five years ago that “there’s a little cemetery on the belltower side,” and I was able to get a look at it. It was a fenced off and packed rather tight. I couldn’t read anything from a distance.
There was a sign on the side of the church explaining the cemetery plot.
My conclusion, based on this, is that the graves now here were originally located on the north side of the church, where there are now the rows of stones leaned up against the building, to facilitate the work done on the hotel.
Apparently, the current plan is to redevelop the building into a community event space.
I wish I had the money. I’d buy it myself. I don’t know what I’d do with it. A building that gorgeous shouldn’t go to waste.
As for the used book store, I found nothing that I was looking for. It didn’t even have a section where what I was looking for would go. They were heavy on sci-fi, with smatterings of other things.
I did find an autographed book from an author in the gaggle that attends Shore Leave every year. someone I’ve been on panels with. I found a few things I wanted, but nothing I needed, and so I refrained.