Columbia Memorial Park: The 22-Year Gap Between Planning and Opening

James Rouse, the developer who founded Columbia in 1967, designed the community around the concept of a garden for people to live in but omitted a place for them to die. This oversight required nearly two decades of advocacy, fundraising, and land acquisition before a solution was realized. The result is Columbia Memorial Park, a 38-acre cemetery that opened in 1989 off Clarksville Road.

The initial push for a burial ground began in the late 1960s when members of the Columbia Cooperative Ministry approached Rouse about the missing infrastructure. Suzanne Waller, a ministry member and friend of Rouse, recalled that he was startled when told no one had considered death. In her essay for the book “Creative Tension: Memories of Early Interfaith Experiences in Columbia, Maryland,” Waller wrote that Rouse responded, “You’re right!” The ministry subsequently formed the Howard County Memorial Foundation in the early 1970s to explore affordable, multi-faith burial options.

Securing the right location took until March 1978, when Howard Research and Development Corp., a subsidiary of The Rouse Company, identified available land off Clarksville Pike. Michael D. Spear, the executive vice president for the subsidiary, wrote in a letter that the company was excited by plans for a cemetery set in a natural environment that would preserve local wildlife. Spear noted in the March 8, 1978, correspondence that Columbia was in real need of a cemetery and expressed hope for continued collaboration in the months ahead.

Those months stretched into nearly 11 years. In 1988, the Howard Hughes Corp. sold the 10-acre site adjacent to Clarksville Elementary School to the cemetery organization for $200,000. The Rouse Company selected Harvey Geller, a Bethesda resident who operated cemeteries in Virginia and Pennsylvania, to develop the site. Geller viewed the project as a chance to build a cemetery from scratch. The park opened the following year in 1989.

The design of Columbia Memorial Park reflects the interfaith and naturalistic goals of its founders. The grounds feature large trees, bushes, and flowers, along with flat grave markers instead of upright tombstones. Specific sections are designated for Jewish and Muslim community members, and a burial garden for children and a chapel in the woods are also present. The site accommodates traditional ground burials, lawn crypts, and a scattering garden for ashes. On a recent October afternoon, the grounds displayed fall leaves and Halloween decorations, including pumpkins placed by visitors.

Ownership of the cemetery has changed hands several times since its opening. Geller sold the property in 1999 to Cornerstone Family Services. That entity later became StoneMor Partners L.P., a publicly traded company in 2004. In 2022, the New York-based hedge fund Axar Capital Management took the company private. The business was renamed Everstory Partners in 2023. Neither Everstory nor Columbia Memorial Park made anyone available for comment for this report.

Gerald Brock, who served as vice president and senior development director for The Rouse Co., told The Washington Post in December 1988 that a cemetery completes the concept of the total city. Lynne Warshaw, who moved to Columbia in 1969, told the same outlet that having a local cemetery would round out the life cycle for residents who did not grow up in Howard County. She described the community as their home and said it was where they would like to be buried.

Rouse died in 1996 and is buried in the park he helped facilitate. He rests under a shady tree with his second wife, Patricia “Patty” Traugott Rouse. Their plot features a low-slung bench with their family name and flat metal plaques. Erin Berry, an archivist for the Columbia Maryland Archives, noted that the residents' effort to build an inclusive burial ground speaks to the community's diversity. She stated that residents needed a place to bury their dead because they would not find that elsewhere.