Sounds like a tempting offer, but on second thought…
Rounding the corner of Broadway Street and Seventh Avenue in Albany on the bike Saturday, I came across this “for rent” sign.
It seems to invite what is clearly the wrong conclusion.
No, in case you were wondering, you can’t rent a grave in the Riverside Cemetery. Even if you think you’ll need it only until Judgment Day.
The rent sign is there because right next to the cemetery there is the driveway to the Riverbend Apartments, a complex of 10 units.
In fact the driveway is flanked by two historic graveyards, the Masonic and Riverside cemeteries.
Albany pioneers are buried in both.
These pioneers include Ben and Amanda Johnson, whose story I touched on in October 2020. (Click the link to refresh your memory, if you like.)
On a stroll through the Masonic cemetery on Feb. 27, I noticed the Johnsons’ modest gravestones appeared to have been cleaned since I last saw them five years ago.
And someone had placed flowers between the graves of husband and wife.
I’m glad that someone is remembering these remarkable people, who should be far more widely known than they are. (hh)
The grave markers of Ben and Amanda Johnson in the Albany Masonic cemetery, photographed on Feb. 27, 2025.
I live out by the Oakville Cemetery west of Tangent. It’s a beautiful cemetery surrounded by tall firs and very peaceful. My wife and I were walking through it one day and came across a tiny headstone, hardly legible, but we could make out the birth year was 1803. They were probably born somewhere else and came out west. But then it dawned on me that was one year before the Lewis and Clark Expedition even started.
My wife and I live near these two cemeteries. The jokes they invite are endless… the neighborhood being dead quiet…. the neighbors never complain… it’s such a great neighborhood people are dying to get in… and on and on…
Joking aside, we’re fairly new to Albany. Strolling through the cemeteries, reading the names, and descriptions, and pausing to reflect on the years shared on the stones (early- and mid-1800s) lets us feel more connected to the people who came before us.
Thanks for the story on the Johnsons. Next time we walk through we’ll look for their graves and pay our respects.
Thank you HH for this great post, have you already done an article about these interesting people?
The link in the story should take you to one of the stories about them.
They do look cleaner/less mottled than when I photographed them 12 years ago. They had a much more restrictive file size limit back then, thus not the best resolution.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/28786381/benjamin-johnson