A long-stemmed pink rose, left by unknown hands on the grave of a woman who died more than a century ago, leans against a weathered tombstone in the Mauch Chunk Cemetery in Jim Thorpe.

The spot marks the final resting place of Cornelia Dingman Brodhead, who died in 1883 and was the mother of Albert Brodhead, a wealthy businessman and state senator buried in the cemetery in 1938.

A walk through the centuries-old cemetery off South Avenue reveals time-faded gravestones mixed with magnificent memorials and monuments to local titans of industry in large family plots.

Among the most notable graves are those of industrialist Asa Packer, who made his fortune in anthracite and its transport, and contemporaries, such as John Leisenring and Asa Foster Lansford.

The Victorian cemetery, on a rolling hillside above the small Carbon County tourist town known for its historic charm and architecture, was seemingly excluded from the community’s rich history.

That is until now.

Earlier this year, the Mauch Chunk Cemetery was named to the National Register of Historic Places thanks to the work of Bob Sofranko, who wanted to give back to the town where he forged fond childhood memories.

Sofranko, who immersed himself in the history of the town upon retirement, also worked on the historic designation for the Mauch Chunk Opera House.

His latest endeavor, placing the Mauch Chunk Cemetery on the National Register of Historic Places, became a reality in July.

The process, however, started two years ago, he said in late September while sitting inside the Memorial Chapel of the Resurrection, just inside the cemetery gates.

The stone Gothic Revival chapel with intricate stone-carved gargoyles and towering stained-glass windows is the centerpiece, or true jewel, of the cemetery, he said.

“This is the main place that they were interested in seeing,” Sofranko said of the team from the Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Office that conducted a field visit last fall.

“They were very, very impressed with the architecture, the windows, the basement where the caskets are stored,” he said. “It just really blew them away. They were very impressed.”

The chapel dedicated in 1906 was commissioned by Mary Packer Cummings, daughter of Asa Packer, from whom she inherited the family fortune that would be worth billions today, and dedicated in memory of her sister, Marion Packer Skeer, wife of Charles E. Skeer.

She is one of the more than 6,000 souls whose final resting place is among the cemetery’s unique monuments and quaint pathways.

Cummings chose the Philadelphia architectural firm of Perot & Bissell, known for its work on DuPont family projects including Winterthur Mansion in Delaware, to design the chapel, while Mauch Chunk craftsman Charles Neast erected the structure.

The stained-glass windows, while not designed by the famed Louis Comfort Tiffany like those in St. Mark’s and St. John’s Episcopal Church on Race Street in town, were created by Philadelphia stained-glass artist Alfred Godwin.

His impressive catalog of work includes the opalescent, green and gold dome of the Supreme Court Chamber in the state Capitol and the stained and leaded glass that bejeweled the historic Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia. Much of it endures today.

An ornate, iron-railed elevator inside the chapel lowered caskets into the basement vault for storage during the winter, when frozen ground delayed interments, Sofranko said.

A mechanical pump powered the platform elevator, which sits in front of the pulpit, said Jack Sterling, cemetery association president and local historian. The casket would sit on the platform, then be lowered after the service, he said.

“This building is what put us over the top for this project,” Sofranko said, adding that the elevator really caught the attention of the state historians on their visit.

That visit last October from state officials was more than a year into the process of seeking the designation on the National Register, he said.

Process

Sofranko had believed the application process would be relatively easy, as the town already had a historic district dating back to the 1970s. The cemetery is right outside that boundary, he said.

Managing Director Tom Lager had started the process, but ran into difficulties, Sofranko said, and he volunteered to take on the project based on his previous experience with the opera house.

He originally thought the Mauch Chunk Historic District could be extended to include the cemetery, but officials said it would be more difficult than seeking a separate designation on the National Register.

“So, we abandoned that idea,” Sofranko said.

He instead, on the Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Office’s advice, applied for the national historic designation in the category of Art and Architecture, reflecting exquisite works within the chapel and stunning monuments within the cemetery.

Oldest

The nondenominational cemetery is Jim Thorpe’s oldest, with the earliest burials occurring around 1820, Sterling said.

Many individuals who defined the Industrial Revolution after the discovery of coal in the area are buried in the cemetery, Sofranko said.

Among those are coal magnate and Lehigh Coal and Navigation Co. superintendent John Leisenring; anthracite pioneer Asa Foster Lansford, who co-founded the village of Eckley, now a historic coal village; and multifaceted industrialist and politician William Lilly, who has the only crypt in the cemetery.

The Leisenring and Kemmerer families continue to lease a portion of the cemetery, which is set apart by a stone wall and ornate iron gates and remains locked and private.

John Leisenring’s daughter, Annie, married Mahlon Kemmerer, linking the families. Their home was situated on the site that is now Kemmerer Park in the borough, a short distance from cemetery.

Unique memorials

Despite few available grave sites outside family plots, the cemetery remains active today. The chapel now also serves as a columbarium after the lighted, glass-fronted niches with Italian marble for cremated remains were added.

Many of the large family plots have large stone memorials and towering obelisks, but the largest memorial is that of Benjamin F. Barge, an educator who made his fortune in grain and lumber in Mauch Chunk.

The 100-foot-high memorial with a scholar standing atop is the center of a Halloween tradition in which a carved pumpkin is placed atop the statue’s mortar board by unseen hands each October.

Success

Many months passed between the state historic group’s visit and final approval meeting, Sofranko said. Fall passed to winter, and as winter passed to spring, he began to get anxious about the status of the designation.

Apparently, the application needed not only acceptance from state historians, but also national historians with the National Park Service, he said.

“We were number four of 16,” Sofranko said of the final approval in June 2025 — three years after he began the process.

“I listened to it online,” he said. “When they got to ours, they accepted it. That gave us the acceptance into the National Register of Historic Places.”

The paperwork making it official was signed on July 21, 2025.

The designation will allow the cemetery association to apply for grants for improvements. The cemetery already benefited from a grant from the Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau, which allowed for new paving along a pathway.

“It’s our mission to perpetuate and maintain this historic resource for future generations,” Sofranko said. “We hope to increase its visibility as a tourist destination while maintaining the dignity of those whose lives had such an impact on the area and even the nation.”

Securing the historic designation for the cemetery was Sofranko’s way of giving back to his community, which gave him so many wonderful memories in his youth.

“I consider this project and the designation for the cemetery to be listed in the National Register of Historic Places as my contribution to the town,” he said.