Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Where does a emetery that is being over taken by a muirooming university go? Nowhere. The House of Peace Cemetery on Whaley Street, acres from the Roost, will be surrounded in the next five years by USC projects, induding a new intrar,iural field and a power plarr. Pass patbrns, missed free kicks and scrums wiii iiven ,p ihe 60-year -old Jewish cemetery in the comiro years, replacing the atmosphere of squawli children, overworked diesel engines and im tient mothers. Who -the university began purchasing the land ound the grave yard, Harold Brunton, vice esident for business affairs, asked the Beth halom Synagogue if it was interested in selli g the land. He even sent a representative of a' cemetery transfer agency to visit. the answer was a polite but decisive, "No." The Orthodox Jewish segment of Columbia has maintained the heavily shaded grounds since 1918 and has set up a fund to insure its upkeep in the future. Gus Oppenheimer, who has tended the graveyard since 1934, said that when a man came around asking the Synagogue to dig up the sacred ground, he said they were not in terested. ~V:a 'It makes no difference if they build a power plant, a football field or a whatever next to it, we will stay," Oppenheimer said. "We just want to keep up old traditions; we don't want to bother the dead," he said with a backdrop of binoculars, watches and guitars, all in well polished display cases in Freed's Luggage & Jewelry. "It don't matter about the money, they'll never get that land. We want them to rest in peace. Money means nothing," Oppenheimer said. The short, dark-skinned businessman said that when he first came to Columbia in the early 1930's, "there weren't but 18 hundred at the school down the hill. We had no idea they would be 18,000 and all around us. '44 Styles by: Eagle Shirts Tailor's. Pulitz By: OANKAMERICARD 4 , Oppenheimer has kept the grave sites "In the old tradition for the Orthodox Jews" for nearly - forty years, but he has chosen a burial spot for himself next to his son at the Tree of Life Cemetery. "A lot of members would prefer to go to the Tree of Life," he said, drawing air-trace pic 4IN, 'La t* VIC* labrrb a 3ench Slacks er Ties 'ord Imports Sperry Top-Siders Forum Sportswear I. Aaronson L'I Authenic In Chaps by I J.D. McGeorge urope Craft Leather 919 SUM'I ACROSS FROM I 'We just want to keep u we don't want to both ures with his hands. "The House of Peace :emetery will be active for another 25 years; nly a few go there. It will be at least 25 years efore it is filled up. We keep it up in the old radition." The head stones, many engraved in Hebrew, tand in neat rows on two sides of a carefully rimmed walk. A six-foot high wall shields the eparted from the outsider's casual glances vhile high trees and bushes tend to hide the tiny -ectanglar cemetery.' The shotgun houses to the left, occupied nostly by poor blacks, will be gone in a few (ears, replaced by a dormitory or a housing :roject for married students. But the plans are till little more than a twinkle in some ad -ninistrator's eye. On the right of the well-shaded oasis is the barbed wire fence of the university and its sign: KEEP OUT, USC PROPERTY. The wire luards mounds of top soil collected from the tadium floor when the artificial turf was laid ast year. The top soil is being used for various projects round the campus. Brunton said he would have preferred that he cemetery be moved "for their benefit," but ;aid the Jews' refusal to vacate had brought )nly "slight" modification in the university's plans for the future. 'D Suits7 raports ' olo6 Sweaters & Suedes 'ER ST. J.S.C. HORSESHO. 444, I p old traditions ; or the dead.' <A, ti 4 Il The old chipped wall that has been partially >roken has stood as an effective barrier, wealing the graves and the sacred traditions from the dusty road, the broken, carelessly tossed bottles that lie scattered along the street and from the curious. In its own quiet way the dignified little plot has stood against USC ex pansion the way the Green Street Methodist Church did in 1969-70. And the cemetery is the uncontested winner. & oil