Litchford Family Cemetery
Upper Arlington Schools is proud to honor its historical ties to Pleasant Litchford, a master blacksmith who moved to the area in the 1830s after buying his own freedom from slavery in Virginia.
Litchford built a successful business and purchased a large amount of land in what was then part of Perry Township. His 227 acres of property included the land that is now home to Upper Arlington High School, Northam Park and Tremont Elementary School.
Among Mr. Litchford’s many contributions to the area were establishing a school for African-American children and being a founding member of the historic Second Baptist Church, which provided an important voice in the anti-slavery movement.
Following his death in 1879, Mr. Litchford’s land was divided up between his heirs. Decades later, in the 1950s, the school district took legal action to acquire the piece of land that was home to the family cemetery in order to build a high school. Approximately 30 bodies were exhumed and moved to other cemeteries in the area.
While the Litchford family’s story remains well-known in the history of central Ohio’s Black community, it had long ago been left out of Upper Arlington’s history in our schools and community.
In early 2017, a book by local authors Diane Kelly Runyon and Kim Shoemaker Starr called Secrets Under the Parking Lot raised concerns that some of those laid to rest in the Litchford cemetery may have been left behind.
In 2020, as the district prepared to tear down the 1950s high school and build a new school, an archaeological team was called in to investigate the site. Over the course of several months, the team found several fully exhumed grave shafts, as well as three partially exhumed graves with some human remains left behind. They also discovered the fully intact grave of a girl, who was approximately 10 years old when she died. Her grave was untouched during the exhumations in the 1950s, and she remains unidentified at this time.
Since 2020 descendants of Pleasant Litchford and the school district have been working together. The goals are to honor the life and contributions of Pleasant Litchford and his family as well as to honor and remember those once laid to rest in the Litchford Family Cemetery.
Litchford Cemetery Research Updates
The Upper Arlington Board of Zoning and Planning has approved a conditional use application allowing Upper Arlington Schools to rebury the cremated remains of one individual in the Pleasant Litchford Memorial Garden at Upper Arlington High School. This small landscaped area in the south parking lot near the softball and baseball fields was formerly the site of the Litchford Family Cemetery.
In August, Upper Arlington Schools will ask the Upper Arlington Board of Zoning and Planning to consider a conditional use application for the Pleasant Litchford Memorial Garden at Upper Arlington High School. This small landscaped area in the south parking lot near the softball and baseball fields was formerly the site of the Litchford Family Cemetery, which was appropriated by the district in the 1950s.
The Ohio History Connection notified Upper Arlington Schools that the site of the Litchford Family Cemetery had been selected for a historical marker. The application for the marker was completed by a group of high school students the previous school year.
A group of Upper Arlington High School students, with the support of teacher Marlene Orloff, applied for a historical marker on the site of the Litchford Family Cemetery through the Ohio History Connection. The students worked to research the life and contributions of Mr. Litchford and then compile a statement of significance regarding the site
The City of Upper Arlington and Upper Arlington Schools are partnering to build a park-like memorial on the site of the new Upper Arlington High School in recognition of the Pleasant Litchford family cemetery that had been located on that site.
As demolition work has continued on the old Upper Arlington High School this summer, so did investigations into the Pleasant Litchford family cemetery site.