Invisible gnats swarmed as weed whackers sliced away years of overgrown vegetation covering the resting place for hundreds of people of African descent in Charleston’s Monrovia Union Cemetery.
Monrovia no longer looks like a neglected stepchild after employees of two commercial landscaping companies swatted “no-see-ums” to clean up the 153-year-old burial grounds in Charleston’s Neck area.
To ensure the cemetery does not slip back into dishevelment, Houston-based Highland Resources has agreed to pay for regular clean-ups in the 3.7-acre cemetery crammed with headstones, said Clark Davis, the company’s CEO.
Highland also donated an acre to Monrovia about four years ago to give it room to grow physically and financially, Davis recently told the Charleston City Paper.
A rusty chain link fence and a shallow ditch divides Monrovia from Highland’s Magnolia Landing, a $1 billion high-rise, mixed-use community that, when completed in about two decades, could have up to 4,000 homes on 190 acres of formerly polluted industrial property. In 2018, Highland took ownership of the Magnolia project from three previous owners.
Ernest Reyes, Joseph Denly and Andrew Knox of the Russell Landscape Group recently spent two days propping up overturned headstones and removing tall weeds and grass in Monrovia Union Cemetery. Employees of Houston-based Highland Resources, the developers of the planned Magnolia Landing, also pitched in to remove litter from the burial ground, the company said.Monrovia’s needs are not fully understood, “but we have committed to getting this cemetery cleaned up, continually having it landscaped and maintained correctly along with replacing fencing,” Davis said. “How much that will cost, we don’t know yet, but we are committed to doing that.”
‘A blessing’
Charleston resident Sabrena Sheppard, secretary of the Monrovia Union board of directors, said Magnolia’s offer “is a blessing because they have donated this beautiful gift to the grave owners.
“I hope this will bring some solace to the people in the community who don’t know what is going on” with the cemetery that drew media coverage when heavy rains flooded Monrovia.
The media coverage, she said, sparked speculation on social media that attempts were being made to steal the cemetery or take advantage of people who own burial plots.
“That is not what we are doing,” Sheppard insisted. “Those of us who are grave owners won’t sit by and let something like that happen.”
Stuart Coleman, Highland’s development consultant in Charleston, said the company asked the late Charleston County Circuit Court Judge Richard Fields what Magnolia could do to help Monrovia. Fields was Monrovia’s attorney.
“At that time, he said ‘really what they need is more land.’ So we donated an acre … to Monrovia just before the judge died,” Coleman said. Fields died in March 2023 at age 103.
“Then we heard the cemetery was not being maintained, and it was in disarray.” Coleman said.
After reading the City Paper’s coverage of the neglected cemetery last summer, Magnolia decided to help, Davis said.
“They did not have the money and personnel to even take care of the cemetery,” he said. “There are a lot of families … and history there so we decided to take over the maintenance of the cemetery, including some very much needed repairs so we can bring back” the cemetery’s respect, honor and integrity.
The additional land could help Monrovia become a perpetual care burial ground, Davis explained. “They could sell the plots and start escrowing money and get to a point that they could handle the maintenance themselves.
“We are going to try to handle the funding of all of this until they are able to become self-sufficient,” he added.
Stuart said that Brockington and Associates, a Mount Pleasant environmental consulting company, will survey Monrovia to determine where plots are located and who is in them.
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