Central La State Hospital Cemetery, Rapides Parish Louisiana
Submitted by Jane Parker McManus

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Directions:  Central Louisiana State Hospital is located on Shamrock Street in 
downtown Pineville, several blocks off Main Street.  Enter the main hospital 
gate (if a guard is on duty, tell him you want to visit the cemetery).  Turn 
right immediately on Azalea Road and bear left until you approach large metal 
laundry building.  Turn right, cross over small white bridge and continue past 
picnic area.  A large white cross is visible on a hillside (corner of Cedar 
Lane & Meadow Lane), a total of 1.5 miles from the front gate.  Burial records 
are confidential, but family members are allowed access to the information from 
the medical records library.

History

In 1902, the Louisiana Legislature authorized an establishment to house and treat 
the mentally ill of our state (Act 92).  The facility operated under several names 
since its opening on 6 January 1906, but is currently known as Central Louisiana 
State Hospital (1992).

One provision of the original legislation required the hospital board to furnish 
the legislature at each session a detailed report of the annual receipts and 
expenditures, a statistical breakdown of new and current enrollment, and a list 
of those deceased during the previous period.  The first superintendent, Dr. 
George A.B. Hays, immediately set up a morgue and selected a site for a hospital 
cemetery in order to comply with these requirements.

Given the social conditions of the times, the stigma of mental illness, plus the 
difficulty of contacting relatives and arranging transportation of the bodies, it 
was not surprising that many of the deceased patients were buried on the hospital 
grounds in the cemetery.  Until such time as the hospital could obtain the services 
of a Chaplin, the superintendent or some of the staff physicians handled the burial 
services, using the simple and beautiful service of the Methodist Church.

These early funeral services were handled entirely by the hospital, with the body 
being transported to the gravesite in a wheelbarrow until 1933 when a hand-drawn 
hearse was constructed.  This hearse was used until 1950, and was pushed by 
pallbearers to the gravesite.  Deceased female patients were draped in pink or 
blue shrouds made by the workers in the sewing room, and the carpenter shop probably 
furnished coffins (although this is not reflected in their individual reports).

Hospital records indicate there are approximately 3,000 people buried in this 
cemetery, and it was last used in June 1985

A large wooden cross, constructed in the hospital's carpenter shop, was placed 
on the hill in the early 1960's.  A large white solid concrete cross has since 
replaced it.  Hospital workers poured a large concrete slab near the street for 
the placing of grave markers by relatives of the deceased.  (In October 1992, 
only two names were on the slab, but fresh flowers had been placed there recently.) 

Mr. Carol McGee, Librarian
Central State Hospital


Reflection - by Mary Parker Partain (1992)

An exhibit in the educational building of the hospital displays the burial shrouds 
in a glass cabinet.  They were pink and blue satin and lace, lovingly made by the 
ladies in the housekeeping department.  Clothing for the women residents had always 
been made in the hospital, and with the death rate so high in the early years, it 
must have keep the residents quite busy.

The burial site is beautifully kept and grass is neatly cut.  At one time, this 
area could have been totally surrounded by cedar trees.  Today several large cedar 
trees and a few pines cover the ground.

A walkway leads to the top of the hill where a large white concrete cross 
(probably 7' tall) stands as a silent sentinel overlooking several acres of 
smooth, green grass.  Although there are approximately 3,000 people buried 
here, there is not one visible stone or any indication of who the people were 
or the lives they led.  Many small stones may be deeply buried in the lush 
green grass; and it appears that the entire hillside was probably a burial 
ground.  If ever there was a potter's field in Alexandria, this is it.  At 
the base of the cross, a vase is available for those who wish to leave flowers.