Group, There is, at least today, no city of Roselawn, it is a neighborhood of Cincinnati. Although in fact most of these neighborhoods were separate villages in the 1800's and in some cases early 1900's. Longview is bordered on the west by Interstate 75 which is the boundary with the village of Elmwood Place, on the south by Elm Park Drive in the Cincinnati neighborhood of Bond Hill on the west side of Paddock Rd and by Maketewah country club on the east side of Paddock Rd., on the north by Section Rd which crosses Paddock Rd. in an east west direction. A part of the institution lay north of Section Rd which is considered to be the boundary between the neighborhood of Bond Hill and the neighborhood of Roselawn on the east side of Paddock Rd. On the west side of Paddock Rd is the Cincinnati neighborhood of Carthage. Today part of the old grounds has been sold off and has been commercially developed. At one time there was a children's unit as well as facilities for adluts. The local Kiwanis club provided toys etc. for these children. Herman Kleine -----Original Message----- From: Clark452@aol.com <Clark452@aol.com> To: OHCLERMO-L@rootsweb.com <OHCLERMO-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Monday, April 24, 2000 3:37 PM Subject: Re: Longview Hospital >Longview Hospital, City of Roselawn, (a northern Cincinnati suburb) in >Hamilton County, Ohio. This article is from the Cincinnati Post; published >11-06-98; written by Laurie Petrie, Post staff reporter. If you would rather >read the article onlinet, below is the URL and link to the Post newspaper >article: ><A HREF="http://www.cincypost.com/news/1998/cem110698.html"> >Click here: cem110698</A> >www.cincypost.com/news/1998/cem110698.html > >A new diginity for old cemetery, forgotten lives? >By Laurie Petrie, Post staff reporter > >Tucked between an apartment complex and an industrial park in Roselawn, a >neglected cemetery - a remnant of the old Longview State Mental Hospital - >lies hidden by brush and weeds. > >Few people - other than neighborhood vandals - know how to get in because the >main entry is all but grown over. There is little to see now, except for a >cement obelisk with a granite marker at its base. A poem carved in the marker >says God has not forgotten those buried there. > >Nearly everyone else has, though. Though no one necessarily intended for the >cemetery to be neglected, its near-abandonment has seemed a further insult to >mental patients who were shut away in life and forgotten in death. > >Recently, the cemetery has been rediscovered and an effort is underway to >resore it. On Veterans Day, Nov. 11, several officials and consumers of >mental health services will rededicate the cemetery. Speakers will include >John Gilligan, who visited all the mental hospitals in Ohio when he was >governor in the 1970s. Arrangements also are being made for a Disabled >American Veterans color guard. > >The project to restore the old Longview cemetery started earlier this year >when Mike Fontana, president of the Mental Health Association of the >Cincinnati Area, heard about cemetery restoration projects on the grounds of >mental hospitals in Georgia and Massachusetts. > >The projects have been initiated and led by former and current mental health >patients who today call themselves ''consumers'' and ''survivors.'' > >''In another era, I and the many consumers I work with . . . may have wound >up in such a grave,'' said Fontana, who was a patient in the former Central >Ohio Psychiatric Hospital in Columbus in the early 1980s. > >Fontana researched the history of the old Longview cemetery, tried to find >the names of those buried there and organized the dedication ceremony. He's >been working with officials of the Pauline Warfield Lewis Center, the state >mental hospital that took over when Longview closed after 1981. > >''This isn't a project just about the dead. It's about the present, about >ex-patients reclaiming our dignity,'' said Pat Deegan, a founder of the >National Empowerment Center, an advocacy group, and leader of the >Massachusetts restoration ef forts at several state mental hospitals. > >For Cincinnatian Jim Birch, the old Longview cemetery is even more than a >cause and a symbol - it's part of his family history. Birch discovered that >his great-grandmother died as a Longview patient on May 18, 1922, and, >according to her death certificate, was buried in the hospital cemetery. > >A German immigrant to Cincinnati, Eva Rinner led a tragic life. She was >admitted to Longview in 1911 and died of inflammation of the kidneys. A >record from the Children's Home of Cincinnati, where one of her sons was >placed, said Eva Rinner ''was made insane by fright. Two Hungarian women >started to beat her.'' > >This week, Birch visited the old cemetery for the first time. It was more >overgrown and secluded than he had expected. > >''I think a person who is buried at Longview Cemetery would deserve the same >respect as a person buried at Spring Grove,'' he said. > >Birch does not know which grave is his great-grandmother's. He may never >know. All but a few of the markers have sunk into the ground and are not >visible. > >But even if the markers are found, they are nothing more than small square >cement blocks bearing numbers. There are no names or dates. Ohio's mental >hospitals kept lists of grave numbers with names, but in the case of >Longview, the record is missing. > >The map shows 1,160 grave plots, but it is unclear how many people are buried >there. The final grave marker is number 870. The last burial was Aug. 4, >1967. Those buried in state mental hospital cemeteries were indigent or had >no one to claim their bodies. > >Most of Ohio's state mental hospitals did not have cemeteries. Of the five >that did, all have been closed, but only Longview is in poor condition. The >neglect began after Longview closed and most of the land was sold to the >Institute of Advanced Manufacturing Sciences, Inc. for development as an >industrial park. The cemetery, which is still owned by the state of Ohio, >became landlocked and all-but-forgotten. > >Over the years, however, the Rev. Ray Menchhofer, chaplain at the Lewis >Center, kept his eye on the place and struggled to protect it from vandals. > >''If this is something people can feel good about, getting involved restoring >something, I wholeheartedly support it,'' Menchhofer said. > >The Ohio Department of Mental Health favors the restoration project and will >give some money, said spokesman Sam Hibbs. The Mental Health Association of >the Cincinnati Area plans to accept donations to help restore the cemetery. > > >Publication date: 11-06-98 > >______________________________