Like other long-range planning activities, a Cemetery Vision Plan gathers and presents information about a cemetery's history and current conditions, treatment recommendations, and other goals and how to achieve them. Westcott Cemetery Association will be working with descendants and friends, the neighboring community, and various professionals to develop and implement the McDaniel Street Cemetery Vision Plan. Some of that work started in 2020, and we expect it will continue through 2025. Periodic status reports will be posted below, and you can also sign up for our email list to stay informed!
February 10, 2023
At the January 30 board of directors meeting, the board approved the final version of the Vision Plan with a few minor edits. To read the approved plan please click this new link.
December 10, 2022
Click this link to read the draft Vision Plan for historic McDaniel Street Cemetery.
December 5, 2022, is the final board meeting of this year for WCA. Lead consultant at McDoux Preservation, Steph McDougal, will present the Vision Plan for McDaniel Street Cemetery in our first face-to-face meeting since the pandemic started.
December 8, 2021
Grave Markers and Potential Unmarked Graves
In November, technicians from Texas Cemetery Restoration Services visited the McDaniel Street Cemetery on two separate trips to first assess the condition of all extant grave markers and later investigate the possibility of unmarked graves using ground-penetrating radar (GPR). They identified 58 existing grave markers, 9 base stones where grave markers once stood, and 34 potential unmarked graves. That data was captured using Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and imported into a Geographic Information System (GIS) database. The resulting map of the cemetery is only one of the products of this part of the project.
This information will be used in many ways.
Texas Cemetery Restoration Services will be back in Spring 2022 to level, reset, and repair the 20 markers which will be most expensive to conserve. We look forward to continuing to work with them!
November 23, 2021
November has been busy for Westcott Cemetery Association and our professional partners! Here's what we've been up to:
Saturday, April 29, 2023. WCA's Sharing Our Vision and First Annual Descendants Reunion.
Thursday, March 9, 2023. WCA welcomes the registered participants of Texas Historical Commission's (THC) in-person headstone repair workshop at McDaniel Street Cemetery, one of three cemeteries in Texas selected for the workshops. The workshops are made possible through a National Parks Service grant to THC related to the consequences of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria and are a follow-up to the THC's Disaster Training webinar series. The workshops will be taught by Texas Cemetery Restoration’s Rusty Brenner and NCPTT’s Jason Church. The workshops will focus on simple and complex headstone repair (emergency stabilization, levelling, and resetting gravestones). Rain date is March 23.
Thursday, April 21, 2022, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Iglesia Vision Global, 2828 McDaniel Street OR Saturday, April 23, 2022, 9:00-11:00 a.m. at the Cemetery - Neighborhood Outreach - we want to hear from the folks living within the borders of Jensen, Curry, Crosstimbers and Bostic about their ideas for improvements to Historic McDaniel Street Cemetery.
Saturday, March 19, 2022 9 a.m. - Noon - Volunteer Marker Cleaning Day