PHOTO BY: CADY HERRING Murray Miller celebrates after being named homecoming queen in front of the Lyceum Tuesday. St. John’s Catholic Church is seen on University Avenue Tuesday.
As cremations become more popular, columbarium use is on the rise, and the city of Oxford is staying abreast of the times by constructing one of the trendy buildings in Saint Peter’s cemetery.
The city columbarium will bring the number of niches in Oxford to 932.
The Oxford mayor’s office has already received phone calls from city residents requesting either a spot for themselves or for their loved ones. Calls such as these have become more and more frequent as news of the new columbarium, a building with niches for funeral urns to be stored, has spread.
“It’s something that people were asking for and it’s a service provided by the city of Oxford,” Mayor Pat Patterson said. “We’re trying to serve the needs of the community.”
Saint Peter’s Cemetery has no more available space and a newer section of adjacent land called the Oxford Memorial Cemetery contains only 150 more desirable lots for 300 additional people. This increases the need for a columbarium, which would provide room for 800 niches, each of which could hold two people.
The columbarium, a three-sided above-ground structure, will be situated on the small amount of space left in the center of the Saint Peter’s Cemetery located in the Jefferson Madison Historic District of Oxford.
“We came up with the design and I think it met the needs of the mayor, who’s interested in providing as many niches as we can that also has an attractive design and is respectful,” said Katrina Hourin, assistant city planner.
After working for two years from May 2012 to early 2014 to gain the approval of the Historic Preservation Commission, the city has made some headway in the creation of the new columbarium. Public works will supervise the construction and solid waste will maintain the site once completed.
Currently, the city does not have an opening date for its columbarium nor has a price been set to reserve a niche. The Board of Aldermen will determine niche prices at a meeting in the near future.
Columbariums have become an increasingly popular option to make the most of a small amount space.
St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, 403 University Avenue, completed its own columbarium a month ago and has had its first burial. The building is located on the west side of the church facing east.
Since there is no Catholic cemetery located in Oxford, the columbarium is the first opportunity local members of the Catholic faith have the chance to be laid to rest on hallowed ground in this area. Moving remains from a columbarium is an easy process as well, in case of relocation of family members.
“The good thing about a columbarium in this town is that a lot of people are transient,” said Rev. Joe Tonos, pastor of St. John’s. “If someone is living in Oxford and dies and their remains are put here and their kids decide they don’t want to be here anymore they can easily take their parent’s remains and put them in a columbarium closer to them.”
The fee to reserve a single niche in the St. John columbarium is $2,500, which does not include the cost of cremation. The money will go back into a marked fund used for maintenance of the facility.
“Ours will be equal to what the city is charging, at least that’s what we’ve estimated until they come up with a price,” Tonos said.
The Catholic Church columbarium, with 72 niches, is the most recent addition to such buildings in Oxford, including one at First Presbyterian Church with 36 niches and one at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church with 24 niches holding four people each. Each church has a plan for expansion when current spaces have been filled.
The various facilities provide people with a range of options concerning where they would like to be laid to rest.
Even The University of Mississippi considered constructing a columbarium on campus after alumni showed interest in having their remains become a part of Ole Miss. The “Columbarium Q&A” page of First Presbyterian Church’s website also the university will have a columbarium in the near future.
For now, however, the university has decided to forgo the project.
“We interviewed other schools, we talked to other people in the business, and we did all of our homework looking into it, but at the end of the day we’ve decided not to pursue it,” said Clay Cavett, associate director of the Ole Miss Alumni Association.
That decision may change at some point in the distant future.
“I’m not going to say never, but I think it’s a moot point for the next five years at least,” Cavett said. “We may revisit it.”
