Abandoned cemetery to come out of the shadows

Twists and turns can be expected when restoring an 80-year-old house. Just ask Darryl Schroeder.

In 2014, Schroeder and his wife, Lori, bought the old Weingarten mansion in Riverside Terrace. The house had never been restored or had central air conditioning. Old furniture, books and carpets had to be removed for the smell to begin to fade. At one point, vandals broke in and stole a glass chandelier that hung above a spiral staircase in the foyer. The worst came when Schroeder received a cancer diagnosis while he was planning the property's restoration. He continued to work with architects while undergoing chemotherapy.

Now, there's yet another twist.

When the couple set out to buy the crumbling mansion, they learned there was a small, abandoned cemetery abutting the backyard. A sign on the property promoted a future development called "Indigo Fields." A local developer wanted buy the cemetery and expand it into a memorial park where families could inter their loved ones' ashes.

Schroeder figured the odd proposal would fizzle. When it didn't, he hired a lawyer who successfully petitioned a Harris County court for control of the long-abandoned property known as the Kuhlmann Cemetery.

Schroeder and a couple of his neighbors are now directors of a nonprofit that has been set up to restore and maintain the cemetery, 2 sloping acres just off South MacGregor Way where 19th-century Houston land baron John Kuhlmann and several of his family members are buried.

It's the first time a private group had attempted such an undertaking, said Kourtney Schroeder, the attorney for the nonprofit Kuhlmann Cemetery Preservation Society. She and Darryl Schroeder are not related.

More Information Resting place Kuhlmann family history records indicate that the following family members are buried in the cemetery behind Houston's Weingarten mansion in Riverside Terrace: Mary Ann Heitman Kuhlmann, died 1860 Johann (John) Frederick Kuhlmann, died 1883 Sarah Williams Kuhlmann, died 1914 Kuhlmann infant, died 1860s Francisco Kuhlmann Behrmann, died 1877 John Behrmann, died 1903 Henry Behrmann, died 1895 Toby Behrmann, died (n/a) Marie Annie Kuhlmann, died 1881 Source: Janet Wagner, J. K. Wagner & Co.

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The nonprofit is receiving funding to improve the property from Kuhlmann family descendants in Fort Worth and Darryl and Lori Schroeder.

"Darryl's the official neighborhood white knight," said Jay Tapp, a Riverside Terrace resident, president of the West MacGregor Homeowners' Association and a director for the nonprofit.

For decades few people paid much attention to the old cemetery. There were no obvious grave markers, no signs and no clear record of who owned the property in Riverside Terrace, a historic subdivision south of Texas Southern University and the University of Houston.

People from the neighborhood assumed the land belonged to the previous owner of the mansion, a recluse who lived there with his wife and children. He owned the stately home for almost 50 years until his death in 2013.

During a recent visit to the site, there were virtually no visual clues of what lay beneath property behind the house along the 4000 block of Roseneath. Two marble gravestones remain, though they are too worn to offer any distinguishable information.

The property, a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, dates back to 1839 when Kuhlmann, a German immigrant, came to Houston via New Orleans and began buying land along Brays Bayou, land that was part of Stephen F. Austin's estate, according to research from Janet Wagner, a landscape architect and historical consultant.

Kuhlmann farmed the land and over the next several decades became one of the county's largest landholders. He also owned property off downtown's Market Square, including the Fox-Kuhlmann Building, at 305-307 Travis, a protected historic landmark.

Those buried in the cemetery were members of the Kuhlmann family and possibly others who lived or worked on the land. The burial dates range from 1860 to 1903, according to the Texas Historical Commission.

In 1878, Kuhlmann sold his Brays Bayou farm to his brother, Henry Kuhlmann and 2 acres were dedicated as a family cemetery.

Yellow tape now frames a 30-foot-by-30-foot plot protecting remnants of a concrete and brick foundation for a wall or fence that once surrounded the family graves.

In the early to mid-1900s, some of the graves were relocated to Houston's Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery, but records show nine burials that remain, including Kuhlmann and two of his wives, Wagner's research shows.

Schroeder, who is with the Crinion Davis & Richardson law firm, found a legal statute stating that if the municipality in which a cemetery is located hasn't maintained it, a resident can petition the court to appoint a nonprofit to take care of it. The court will have to approve the nonprofit's plan to preserve the property.

The group plans to re-fence the area around the family graves, add new headstones and investigate the unmarked graves.

Over the years developers have tried to purchase the Weingarten property, which fronts the bayou and sits on nearly 5 acres at 4000 S. MacGregor Way. They pitched "wild schemes," said Tapp, including proposals to build multiple houses on the land and high-rise condominium towers.

Houston developer Terry Ward worked for several years to develop a project that would incorporate the cemetery.

He wanted to build a place where families could store their loved ones' ashes in a serene, landscaped setting.

Ward created a website for the project, printed expensive brochures and even put a sign on the land promoting the project.

"That was a gorgeous piece of land," said Ward, who is now trying to develop a similar project elsewhere.

When the Schroeders purchased the Weingarten mansion, they vowed to save it from demolition. The house, built for grocery magnate Joe Weingarten, was completed in 1939 and inspired by 19th century French architecture. It has been cleaned out and much of it gutted in preparation for a massive renovation including an addition. The couple paid $2.25 million for the property and are likely to spend another $2 million on the renovations.

The home recently historic landmark status from the city of Houston.

Darryl Schroeder, who is in the offshore drilling rig business, said the house won't be completed for another year. The improvements to the cemetery will be on a similar timeline.