Residents Trying to Restore Historic Reisterstown Cemetery

As the Reisterstown Improvement Association continues its effort to revitalize Main Street, several of its members are also working to preserve the town’s past.

“It’s a very interesting little cemetery,” said Kim Drapkin, an RIA member working to raise funds for the Reisterstown Community Cemetery’s restoration.

The town’s founder, John Reister, and soliders from the Revolutionary War, Civil War and War of 1812 are buried in the cemetery on Cockeys Mill Road.

“The community of Reisterstown actually owns the cemetery, not the church. John Reister deeded it to the community and it has remained that way ever since,” Drapkin said. “Every single person that lives here, we all have a stake in the cemetery.”

Read Linda Percy’s guest column to learn more about the cemetery’s history.

The first step in revitalizing the cemetery is repairing the brick wall that surrounds it, which has crumbled in several places. The cemetery committee and Baltimore County are working with a conservator and a historic mason to insure the cemetery’s restoration is up to historic standards.

Linda Percy, a member of the RIA working on the cemetery restoration, expects the conservator and mason to be at the cemetery this week. Their report should be ready in time to present to the county in February, she said.

The RIA is accepting donations on behalf on the cemetery committee. Checks can be made out to The Reisterstown Improvement Association with The Cemetery Fund in the Memo area and mailed to the Reisterstown Improvement Association, P.O. Box 856, Reisterstown, MD 21136.