Now owned by the City of Belleville, Mount Hope Cemetery is a perfect example of how Protestant burial grounds owned by Lutheran or Evangelical congregations were not part of a larger entity such as a Roman Catholic diocese, so when the church associated with the cemetery folded, the accompanying graveyard suffered as well.

In this case, it was the Immanuel Evangelical Church of East St. Louis (you couldn’t bury anyone in the floodplains of the American Bottoms with its high water table!)that founded it in 1897 and the cemetery was “up the hill” on the bluffs.

The Spivey Family, which I suspect built the eponymous skyscraper in downtown East St. Louis, is buried here. We visited because we were interested in the recent ongoing controversy surrounding the proposed solar panel farm the City of Belleville is considering building to raise money for maintaining the cemetery. We will see what happens. Opponents believe it will destroy the natural surroundings that neighbor the cemetery.