Yesterday’s picture featured historic St. Mary’s Church in Rockville at the corner of Veirs Mill and Rockville Pike. Though it is significant as it was built between 1816 and 1817, has withstood a fire, has undergone a significant restoration, has been placed on the national regester of historic places. The historic plaque outside the chruch tells the story of dedicated members of the Rockville community who saved the church from destruction when a new building was placed next to it.
Today’s photo was taken right next to the church. I had originally gone out to look for this in the begining of July, but I failed to find the grave, and I also gave up when I realized that I had forgotten my memory card. This is the grave of American author F. Scott Fitzgerald.
(Aside: How many people out there knew that his name was actually Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald. Indeed there are enough posts relating to Key that he almost deserves his own category on the site. However, this was no coincidental naming. The author of books and the author of anthems were related to each other.)
The quote on the tombstone is from the great gatsby. However, that is far from the most interesting thing about this grave. If you look at the church website, you’ll see that FSF was buried here in 1975, but this tomb tells us that he passed in 1940. So where was he during those 35 years? At the Rockville union cemetery, far away from his family’s plot at St. Mary’s. It was thanks to the efforts of the Rockville community (who reached out to his daughter for permission) that his remains were brought to this site in 1975.
One more MD tie to Fitzgerald includes: He rented an apartment in Towson while Zelda was hospitalized at Sheppard Pratt. (a cheaper hospital at the time according to Zelda’s biographer, Sally Cline.)
2 responses so far ↓
1 leigh // Aug 28, 2008 at 9:45 AM
Yes!!! Now if only my wish list item #1 were to be fulfilled…
2 shelly // Aug 28, 2008 at 11:48 AM
yay graveyard pics!
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