Duncan Heights CemeteryMcCandless, Pennsylvania · est. 1931
What It Looks Like

Photos, 1931–present

From a 1931 newspaper sketch of the cemetery's planned grounds to this year's volunteer work days — the visual record of Duncan Heights, then and now.

The entrance, imagined

The stone wall on Duncan Avenue

Painted renderings of the cemetery's surviving stone entrance wall, based on a volunteer's photograph — flags placed by veterans' groups still stand along its length each Memorial Day.

Painted rendering of the stone entrance wall with American flags, woods beyond.
The entrance wall along Duncan Avenue, rendered from a volunteer photograph.
Photograph of the stone entrance wall and mowed grounds, seen from across a grassy field.
The same wall, photographed on site.
A row of small headstones with American flags across a mowed section of the cemetery.
The veterans' row, flagged for Memorial Day.
The veterans' section

Rows kept, and rows still being found

The best-preserved graves sit closest to the road, some along a small stream — flagged each Memorial Day by local veterans' groups. Further back, survey flags mark headstones only recently rediscovered under decades of brush.

Close view of two flagged headstones near a small creek.
Flagged headstones close to the water's edge.
Another close view of flagged headstones near the creek.
The same row, from a different angle.
A small, worn concrete grave marker inscribed with the single letter H.
One of the cemetery's minimal markers — inscribed simply "H," as described in 2000 Post-Gazette coverage of the cemetery's poorly marked graves.
A patch of sparse grass and ground cover showing faint rectangular depressions.
Faint depressions in the ground, likely marking where coffins have settled underground.
A newly cleared dirt area with small survey flags and an American flag.
A newly cleared section, with survey flags marking rediscovered graves.
A weathered concrete cylindrical object lying among fallen leaves.
A weathered concrete object among the leaf litter — likely part of a broken grave marker or cemetery curbing.
Beyond the mowed lawn

What sixty years of neglect looks like

Past the tended front section, the cemetery becomes dense woods and marsh: fallen trees, thick undergrowth, and a creek clogged with decades of dumped debris — shopping carts, tires, and old crates sit tangled among the headstones.

Dense overgrown brush and fallen branches on a wooded hillside.
Overgrowth in an uncleared section.
A wide grassy clearing bordered by trees.
Sunlit woods with tall trees and dappled light.
A large uprooted tree with an exposed tangle of roots.
An uprooted tree, part of the ongoing storm damage to the grounds.
A hillside with bare dirt and early regrowth after clearing.
A hillside recently cleared by volunteers.
A rusted culvert pipe surrounded by wild yellow irises and fallen logs.
One of the clogged creek culverts, now surrounded by wild iris.
An old rusted shopping cart wedged against a tree in the woods.
A dumped shopping cart, decades old, wedged against a tree.
A pile of dumped shopping carts and a tire in the woods.
Dumped shopping carts and a tire, part of the debris volunteers clear each work day.
Old rusted metal debris in tall grass near a fallen log and wildflowers.
Green vines and leaves growing over a dark buried object.
Wild rose blossoms among green foliage.
Wild rose, growing through the brush.
A dead branch arching over green undergrowth beside a flowering white shrub.
A dense pile of cut and fallen branches in the woods.
Woods with a house visible through the trees in the distance, showing how closely the cemetery borders modern homes.
Suburban homes now back directly onto the cemetery grounds.
Finding the graves

Survey flags and quiet excavation

Volunteers mark suspected grave sites with small flags before carefully clearing around them by hand — a slow, deliberate process aimed at documenting the cemetery's layout without damaging what's beneath the surface.

An orange survey flag marking a spot of disturbed earth.
A small flag marking a site among low grass and weeds.
An orange survey flag among leaf litter and pine cones.
A red survey flag amid dense low vegetation.
Several orange survey flags placed across a wooded clearing.
A cluster of survey flags marking newly identified grave sites.
A volunteer bent over, carefully digging near a buried object, with a tool bag beside them.
A volunteer carefully excavating around a buried marker.
A volunteer using a hand tool to dig in the woods.
A rusted metal frame and tools beside a blue bag, partially unearthed.
Tools and a partially unearthed metal grave marker frame.
1931, on paper

How it was announced

The cemetery's original marketing, from the pages of the Pittsburgh Courier — the only surviving visual record of how Duncan Heights looked when it opened.

Scanned 1931 newspaper advertisement announcing Duncan Heights Cemetery, Inc.
"Announcing! Duncan Heights Cemetery, Inc." — Pittsburgh Courier, July 4, 1931.
Scanned 1931 newspaper illustration showing a bird's-eye sketch of the planned cemetery grounds.
"View of Beautiful Duncan Heights Cemetery" — a bird's-eye sketch of the planned grounds, Pittsburgh Courier, June 20, 1931.