Jurisdiction:  St. Joseph Township Section 1                  

 

Status:  Active.  BCGS Cemetery Records updated  March 31, 2006.

 

Location:  East side of Niles Road, ½ mile South of Lincoln Avenue

 

Cemetery Governing Body:  St. Joseph City

 

Location of Cemetery Records:  Riverview Cemetery Office

 

Size:  40 acres

 

Riverview Cemetery is situated on land originally considered “Royalton Heights”.  In the early days there was a heavy forest growth on both sides of Niles Road, extending through to Lincoln Avenue.  This land consisted of towering pines, giant oaks and many other forest trees and the ground beneath covered by thick ferns, wild flowers and huckleberry vines.

 

The cemetery started out in 1912 as 5 acres and was purchased by the city from Adelbert Birdsey.  Minor improvements began in 1915 with the official name being given as Riverview Cemetery by the City of St. Joseph in 1927.  In 1934, major development began on the cemetery and the future, Riverview Park.  During the improvement phase, over 25 acres were added to the cemetery and 107 acres were included along the St. Joseph River for a recreational center and wild life sanctuary.  The additional land cost $8,000 and was originally planned to give the city a right-of-way to the edge of the St. Joseph River so that a more suitable water system could be installed.  Riverview cemetery at that time consisted of lagoons, rustic bridges, and winding trails.  Also added; a pumping plant, automatic underground sprinkling system, chapel and a superintendent’s building with offices and restrooms.  With donations from businesses and individuals, the Music Memorial Tower was erected along with Memorial Park and the Garden of Memory.  The area and vicinity of the Singing Tower is made up of a 75 x 100 foot plot designated as Memorial Gardens.  One section is limited to surface plate markers, one for small height markers, also medium and large markers.  This system is in keeping with that of many of the largest cemeteries.

 

In 1973, the St. Joseph Department of Public Works razed the stone residence built in the mid 1890’s that stood in the middle of Riverview Cemetery.  Mr. & Mrs. George Muhlbrandt were the most recent tenants.  The city expected to create another 450 grave spaces by this razing.  The residence was presumed to have been an old farmhouse or homestead built long before the area was to become a cemetery.  After the City of St. Joseph obtained the land to make it into a cemetery, the house was rented out.   It was never the home of the cemetery sexton, however.  The fieldstone exterior and stone cemetery fence came later in the development of the cemetery and at one time, officials considered turning the home into a burial chapel.  Former resident of the house was Mrs. Fred E. Hess, who lived there as a child in the late 1890’s.  Mrs. Hess believed that the house was built by a Chicago millionaire and was a showplace at the time.  She also remembered that the family raised peacocks and that they would let out a piercing cry which startled the horses when the stagecoaches would pass by on what would later be Niles Road.  Stagecoach drivers would have to keep a tight grip on the reins when passing by for fear of losing their team.

 

Appearing on the St. Joseph Township Plat Map for 1903, Riverview Cemetery bordered the property of Sarah Bort to the South and S. L. and Richard C. Crawford property to the North.  The St. Joseph River borders the cemetery to the East.

 

Riverview Cemetery experienced a great loss when the superintendent’s office burned to the ground in 1929, taking with it all the sexton records for the city-owned cemeteries.  The building was a total loss.  For now, the sexton records only cover the years since June 1929 but efforts are being made to re-create these lost records through stone rubbings, walkthroughs and research by the Berrien County Genealogical Society. 

 

One unique feature of Riverview Cemetery is the use of “Columbariums”, a new alternative to in-ground burial following cremation.  Each granite unit provides for 48 individual burial niches, which are permanently protected by a granite cover held in place by bronze fasteners.  Each niche can hold the ashes of two cremations in appropriate containers. 

 

Ultimately, Riverview Cemetery provides space for over 7,000 burials, including a Catholic section, infant section and a veteran’s section.  Also offered is the “Perpetual Care Contract” which offers headstone care and maintenance for eternity.