Photo courtesy Randy Osteen
David Dwyer, an Eagle Scout candidate from Troop 838 in North Dallas, has chosen to do his Eagle Scout project at Western Heights Cemetery.
Western Heights Cemetery is administered and managed by the non-profit Fort Worth Avenue Development Group, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the Fort Worth Avenue/Commerce Street corridor.
The 2-acre cemetery was established in 1848 and is the burial ground for many Dallas families, including veterans of both the Union and Confederate Armies of the Civil War, and veterans of World War I, World War II and the Spanish-American War. Also notable is the burial site of Clyde Barrow and several members of his family.
In 2006, the cemetery’s founding congregation closed, and the cemetery fell into a state of neglect. In 2009 Western Heights Cemetery was adopted by the Fort Worth Avenue Development Group. Over the years the organization maintained the grounds with mowing, tree trimming and minor repairs.
In 2022, through active fundraising, FWADG raised community awareness and participation by undertaking a master reclamation and restoration project involving volunteer maintenance, monument repairs, a web-based directory of burial sites, and participation in a pilot program with Constellation of Living Memorials toward transforming the cemetery into a native eco-system.
Now, Dwyer will help make the cemetery even better through his Eagle Scout project.
The cemetery is divided into 42 sections, A1 through G6, and Dwyer will be directing a project to install signposts at each intersection of gridlines which will demarcate each group of 4 tangent sections.
“These guideposts will be throughout the cemetery that basically mark like different areas throughout the cemetery, they can use for navigation, like people who want to come see relatives, or just explore the cemetery, or come to see Clyde Barrow, all that stuff,” Dwyer said.
Another aspect of the project is to build a platform for six rain barrels. There is no water service to the cemetery, so volunteers have to bring jugs and buckets of water to water any nutrients or plants at the cemetery.
“What we want to do is get as much pressure going through those lines coming out of the barrels as possible,” Dwyer said. “And make it as easy as we can for the volunteers to keep things watered.”
About 2% of all Boy Scouts earn the Eagle Scout rank, Dwyer said, and he is proud to be leading a project that benefits the community.
“I’m glad I can be helping out such a historic place for the entire city of Dallas, as well as the neighborhood, and it’s pretty cool being able to do something that’s historic and has that much of an impact for the families of the other relatives,” Dwyer said. “From people that are here and just the neighborhood as a whole.”
