History & local legend
Palmer Cemetery in Philadelphia’s Fishtown neighborhood holds generations of residents from a community shaped by fishing and shipbuilding. One of its ghost stories begins with an ordinary visit to a relative’s grave.
The visitor placed flowers at the burial site and then sensed someone standing behind them. Turning around revealed nobody there. When the visitor looked back at the grave, the flowers had disappeared.
A second story concerns a white figure carrying a baby outside the cemetery fence. Passersby were said to encounter it at night.
Sources
- The Shadowlands, Philadelphia, Palmer Cemetery, visitor’s flowers and figure with a baby
- Frank Rubino, Philadelphia Weekly, interview with local historian Ken Milano, May 18, 2005
- Kensington Burial Ground Palmer Cemetery Association, history of the free community burial ground
- NPR, Stories From an Early American Cemetery, Ken Milano interview
