8135 North Dixie Drive
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General Information and Frequently Asked Questions
Dayton Memorial Park Cemetery and Mausoleums (DMP) is a non-profit 501(c)(13) corporation. The interment right owners elect the Board of Trustees who manage the Cemetery's affairs and employ the General Manager. DMP encompasses over two hundred acres and has 9.2 miles of asphalt roadways and driveways. Since opening in 1923, over 50,000 people have been interred here. Approximately seventy-five acres of the cemetery are still in their natural state, being held for future development.
Following are some definitions and descriptions that may be useful in understanding some common terminology used by the cemetery staff and funeral directors.
Interment: Interment is the respectful placement of a full body or cremains into a grave, crypt, niche or mausoleum.
Interment Right Owner: When you purchase Cemetery "property," you are purchasing interment/burial rights only. The Cemetery Association always continues to own the property/property rights and, therefore, govern the use of the property. Interment Rights do not imply or include normal property rights.
Burial Positioning:It is standard practice for full body burials at DMP that the deceased head is on the west end of the casket and the husband be located to the south of his wife, which positions the wife to her husband's right. Families may request that the interment be done differently.
Cemetery Sub-Divisions:
Sections: Large areas in the cemetery numbered from 1 to 23, excluding #13 and #19. These divisions vary in size, in area, number of lots, and number of graves.
Lots: Divisions within the sections and can contain from 4 to 12 graves.
Diagram Lots: Lots that border the drive and therefore, don't conform to the standard uniform size of 4, 6, or 12 grave lots. These have special Diagram Cards filed together, separate from all other lot cards, to show the diagram of the graves and how they are numbered.
Graves: Graves are 40" wide and 7'9" long (except for Garden of Angels graves, as noted below).
Monuments: These are above-the-ground granite memorials. A poured-in-place concrete foundation is installed in the monument space upon which the monument base is placed and then the upright tablet is fitted to the base.
Monument Space: This two and one-half foot wide area runs north and south between every other row of graves in the sections where monuments are permitted. The total length is determined by the number of contiguous graves purchased.
Flat Markers: These may be granite or bronze only and are installed flat on the ground, flush with the surrounding soil. This type of memorialization can be installed in any section where ground interments occur. They are exclusively permitted in sections 18, 22, and the Garden of Angels. When a flat marker is used, special decorating restrictions apply, as explained in DMP's Conditions and Restrictions brochure. (click on the Green link to view the additional information.) These are placed over the graves in the designated flat marker row, which is at the opposite end of the grave from the monument space. Additional markers may be placed in other locations on the grave only after the designated marker row location has been used by a previous interment. Each grave can have as many as three flat markers, with one marker per burial. The only exception is for veterans who also may have the government-issued military marker.
Multiple Interments per Grave: A maximum of three burials per grave is permitted. These interments may be a full body and two cremains or three cremains. If the full body option is chosen, the full body must be interred first, followed by the cremains.
Second Right of Disposition: When a space is purchased, only one burial right is purchased. People often believe they actually own the land itself. This is NOT true; otherwise we would have to be realtors. When one space is used twice or three times for interment, a second right of disposition must be purchased for each additional burial right. This is usually half the cost of the space. The second right of disposition does not apply to companion/tandem crypts or niches.
Vault: Each full body grounds interment must be enclosed in a vault. Flat lid vaults and bottom seal vaults are prohibited, except for those bottom seal vaults that are completely assembled and sealed on the surface before being placed in the grave. Flat lid vaults of any kind are not permitted at any time. The vault must be steel or reinforced concrete. No wooden or fiberglass vaults are permitted for any adult interment. DMP can provide a selection of vaults with a choice of features at a reasonable cost. The vault supplier that installs the vault also takes full responsibility for the tent and chairs setup at the graveside at the time of the funeral.
Interment and Related Services (Opening & Closing): These services include, but are not limited to the opening and closing of the grave, the keeping of all records and perpetual care services, which involve such things as refilling of grave due to soil compaction, reseeding of graves as necessary, leveling of monuments or the raising of markers.
Pre Need (Pre Planning and Payment): This means that most of the decisions and payments associated with an interment are made well ahead of the time of death. This process allows the entire family to participate in the planning process, not just those left after a death. This method permits families to pay for graves, opening/closings, and vaults prior to the time of death. This is a very good hedge on inflation since it locks in the cost of these items and services at the current price. The payment that the cemetery receives for pre need is invested into a trust account, required by and monitored by the State of Ohio to ensure that the money is available and sufficient at the time the services are rendered. Other incentives for pre need are that the family is avoiding the necessity for making these decisions at a very stressful time, and the family is able to plan for these expenses and make monthly payments, if necessary. All opening/closing, grave, and vault charges must be paid in full at the time of burial.
At Need charges refer to any charges made because of a death in a family. Many times, if there has not been a previous death in the family, they are purchasing graves for the first time and there will be additional graves purchased for other family members. If there have been previous deaths, there may be a group of graves owned for that family's use and the funeral home will assist us in determining the owner of the family's graves and the right of burial for the deceased. The guidelines for burial priority are outlined in the cemetery's Rules & Regulations.
(Click on the Green link to view additional information.)
Cremation is a growing trend as a choice for disposition. Dayton Memorial Park's cremation rate in 2014 was 22%. The cremation rate in some states, such as California, is as high as 60%. There is not a vault requirement for cremains and they can be placed in a grave space, mausoleum crypt, or niche. The only requirement is that they be in a durable container such as hard plastic, metal, marble, etc. Cremains are also sometimes buried in a casket with a full body burial. There is an additional opening/closing charged for these interments for record keeping that include all the same information as a regular interment, and the burial is given a separate interment number.
Soldiers Circle is located at the center of sections 5, 11, and 12 and is designated for military men and women with honorable service records. Family is not allowed to be buried with the veteran, although in the past it has been done. The stone bell tower and military memorial is located there and the circle is a flat marker only section. These graves are not sold as pre need, but are sold at time of need only and the next available grave is used. There is not a charge for the grave. Opening/closing and vault charges are the same.
Veterans Section, or Section 22, is a newer military section where family can also be buried beside the veteran. It is also a flat marker section, located in the back (west) of the cemetery and on the north side of the Abbey Mausoleum area. Graves here are free for the veteran only.
Garden of Angels (formerly Babyland) is located in the northwest corner of the cemetery grounds and is designated for infants only. The grave size is 2' x 3' and the section allows flat markers only. This section was developed to accommodate families that are not ready to purchased a family lot. It allows these families to purchase a small space in a very dignified area with trees and flowers.
Abbey Mausoleum is one of the area's first public mausoleums with 1500 crypts plus cremation niches. It has a full chapel area and allows for services there without charge for mausoleum interments. Occasionally, a family will request using the chapel area for a service before a ground burial. There is a fee charged for this circumstance. Also, there is an occasional need to allow funeral directors to use the mausoleum chapel because of inclement weather; in that case they will request it by phone and we permit it without charge.
Whispering Pines Mausoleum opened in September 2007. There are 314 spaces for entombment. Whispering Pines also offers niches. All the niches will hold at least two cremations, depending on urn size. Chapel space is also offered but is smaller, compared to the Abbey Mausoleum. Whispering Pines Mausoleum is heated and has fans. Abbey Mausoleum does not have heat or air conditioning. Neither mausoleum has public restrooms.
Crypt: A crypt is a sealed chamber that holds a casket in the mausoleum. These can be single, allowing for one casket with an individual size crypt front, companion, allowing for two caskets side by side, with a double size crypt front to accommodate family name and two individuals' names, or tandem, which is a type of companion crypt where the caskets are placed head to foot, with an individual size crypt front. A casket protector, purchased from the Cemetery, is required for all casket entombments.
Niche: A niche is a smaller chamber in the mausoleum or columbarium (outside) used to hold cremations. Niches in the Abbey Mausoleum are large enough to allow for four standard size cremation containers and spaces are sold individually, meaning that a family can purchase one, two, three, or four spaces in a four-space niche. The columbarium outside the Abbey Mausoleum can be purchased as a single or companion niche. All niches in Whispering Pines are at least companion niches with some holding up to four standard size cremations.
Dayton Memorial Park does have a Cremation Garden. The garden is located between the two columbarium outside the Abbey Mausoleum. The cremation garden includes inurnments in benches and cremation rocks.
Perpetual Care is an irrevocable trust fund that was established to provide funds to maintain the cemetery after it is filled. This money cannot be used; however the interest from this fund can be used for everyday operations.
Year Chartered - 1921
Year of First Burial - 1923
Year Office Completed (originally living quarters of caretaker) 1925
Year Veteran Memorial (Bell Tower) Completed - 1927
Total Interments as of June 2015: 50,480+
Total Interments for 2014 - 377
Size of Cemetery - 200 acres
Total Employees - 8 Full-time and 3 Part-time
© 2021 Dayton Memorial Park Cemetery and Mausoleum
Click here to contact:
Email: info@daytonmemorialpark.com
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