Correspondent photo / Sean Barron A ribbon-cutting ceremony took place Tuesday at Mount Hope Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Youngstown to celebrate a variety of maintenance improvements to the cemetery. , at which many veterans who fought in World Wars I and II, as well as in Korea, are buried.

YOUNGSTOWN — It warms Annette Brown’s heart to see a once-abandoned and dilapidated cemetery with overgrown grass and large fallen branches come back to life — and to hope for the burial of a few faulty assumptions.

“This has been a labor of love over the years,” said Brown, who is part of the Mount Hope Veterans Memorial Cemetery committee.

She was referring to a wide array of restorations, maintenance projects and improvements to the cemetery, 1945 Liberty Road on the East Side, along with the hope that some people’s widely held assumptions that no one is caring for, or doing anything to improve it, will finally be laid to rest.

Suffice it to say that both hopes likely will carry plenty of weight, because Brown and a few dozen others gathered for a special celebration and ribbon-cutting event Tuesday afternoon in front of the cemetery entrance to usher in the progress and improvements.

Many such changes were evident by what was not seen: Nearly 100 dead trees and countless branches had been cut down and removed from the property, Ian Beniston, the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp.’s executive director, noted.

The YNDC has worked in partnership with Councilman Jimmy Hughes, D-2nd Ward, as well as committee members for several years via providing funding and labor when needed, Beniston said.

Additional improvement projects include installing new gates and markers, as well as road paving and landscaping, Hughes noted. He added that work remains to straighten some of the headstones and tackle certain drainage problems, both of which he hopes will be addressed in the spring.

A lot of the efforts to better the cemetery’s appearance have been done behind the scenes, Brown said, adding that committee members and others have done so voluntarily, without pay and in piecemeal fashion — all while dealing with some people’s criticisms that the space is being neglected.

For his part, Hughes has spent a lot of time mowing high grass. Years ago, he and others brought their equipment on Saturdays to restore the cemetery, at which many World War I and II veterans, along with those who fought in the Korean War and elsewhere, have been laid to rest, Hughes said.

Others who are buried in the space are residents of an East Side set of neighborhoods known as the Sharonline, named after the Youngstown-Sharon Railway and Light Co. that, in the early 20th century, ran a trolley line along Jacobs Road that connected Youngstown and Sharon, Pa. During that time, the two cities, as well as Campbell, were fast-growing steel hubs, and the location was ideal to run such transportation to best serve the three locations.

“This has been a long time coming,” Hughes said about the cemetery’s progress.

Also happy with what she saw — and didn’t see, namely a plot filled with fallen trees — was the Rev. Gwendolyn Johnson, former pastor of nearby Reed’s Chapel AME Church.

“I come with an attitude of gratitude for the work and labor manifested,” said Johnson, whose grandparents, Sam and Effie Ward, as well as Warren and Bessie Watson, are buried in what was once the area’s sole black cemetery.

Johnson noted that perhaps one of the most prominent individuals laid to rest there is the Rev. Sarah Reed, who was Reed Chapel’s first pastor when the church was founded in 1921. The current church at 1939 Jacobs Road was built in 1947, she said.

The church continues to be the committee’s primary meeting and fundraising location on behalf of the cemetery, Johnson added.

Others who have contributed to the site’s betterment include a few Boy Scout troops, who assisted with erecting new markers, cutting trees and making improvements to the sign at the cemetery’s entrance. For his efforts, Roan Thomas, who was part of Youngstown-based Boy Scout Troop 9022, was awarded an Eagle Scout badge in May 2023 for his cemetery project.

For Brown, perhaps the most pleasing aspect of the longtime and ongoing efforts to restore the cemetery is the collaboration and care that continues to be part and parcel of it.

“My heart is full today,” she said.