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St. Joseph’s Seminary on Mapleton Road has been reborn

as Princeton Abbey & Cemetery, under the leadership

of Father Elmer Bauer, near right, and
CEO Bernard ‘Buzzy’ Stoecklein, far right.

Diccon Hyatt reports, page 26

Page 26 U.S.1 Newspaper June 22, 2016

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Six Feet Under, a Business Is Taking Root

By Diccon Hyatt Bernard ‘Buzzy’ Stoecklein, left, CEO of CMS Mid-Atlantic and President, Princeton
Abbey & Cemetery with Father Elmer Bauer, Treasurer of the Vincentian Eastern
There’s an urban legend about St. Province on the right.
Joseph’s Seminary, the former
religious school on Mapleton Road There will be room for about 7,000 Father Elmer Bauer, treasurer of
by Carnegie Lake: that some of its traditional graves, 3,000 spots in the Vincentians’ Eastern Province,
students are buried in a field above-ground crypts, and 2,000 based in Philadelphia, said the
behind its imposing gothic stone underground. That figure includes arrangement will allow the historic
chapel. Like most urban legends, a planned garden for cremated buildings as well as the tranquil
it’s mostly false. But like the best remains that will be offered for free landscape of the campus to be
urban legends, there’s a grain of to veterans whose ashes are lying preserved indefinitely.
truth to it, and in the near future unclaimed in funeral homes.
the truth about the old chapel will Bauer, who was a student at the
outdo the legend. The truth is that “This project has been six years in seminary between 1979 and 1983,
there really is a cemetery on n the the making,” said Bernard “Buzzy” attended daily mass in the chapel.
grounds of the seminary. Stoecklein, CEO of CMS Mid- Throughout the building are images
Atlantic, the company is converting of the Catholic faith, including
The school was founded in 1914 to the school chapel and grassy school stained- glass windows, altars with
educate young men who were grounds into the Princeton Abbey images of saints, carvings, and
interested in becoming Catholic and Cemetery. other artwork.
priests, specifically those of the
Vincentian order. The campus was The Vincentians will continue to In the future, the building will be
home to both a preparatory own the campus, while a new not just a place of Catholic worship,
seminary boarding school and a nonprofit company, formed jointly but instead will be open to people
college. In 1934 the Vincentians by the Vincentians and Stoecklein, of any faith or of no religious
built a chapel on the site in the will control the cemetery. Two not- beliefs. Bauer said that he had
neogothic English style. In the for-profit management companies many great memories of the
1930s they buried Simon O’Dea in a will market the cemetery and chapel, and that it’s a good thing it
grave behind the new chapel. He maintain it into the future. will now be shared with the public.
was not a student, but instead was
the one of 446 Vincentian priests
and brothers who have been laid to
rest on the grounds of the
seminary.

Under a new plan, the seminary
grounds will become a final resting
place open to the general public,
with more than 25,000 spots
available between graves, crypts,
and cremation niches. The walls
and floor of the chapel itself will
become a space to inter ashes and
to visit the cremated remains of
loved ones.

It’s fundamentally a holy place, so In the decades that followed, fewer In 2011 Plainsboro Township
to be able to share it with more and fewer boys were interested in rezoned the land to allow the
people I think is wonderful,” he joining the priesthood. The college cemetery plan to take shape.
said. “I think having it open is a real closed in 1970 at which time St. Currently the school buildings are
service to the community.” Josephs College became St. Josephs occupied by the French-American
Preparatory Seminary. School and the Laurel School for
The mission of the Vincentians is dyslexic students.
“religious instruction of the poor, In 1989 the chapel was renovated
the training of the clergy and and restored, but the declining Previous tenants include the
foreign missions.” When St. numbers continued, and the last American Boychoir School and the
Joseph’s opened, priests and classes were held at the seminary Wilberforce School, both of which
students held prayers in a large, in 1992. have moved to different campuses
unadorned room. — the Boychoir to the campus of
Later it became a retreat and Rambling Pines Day Camp in
In 1934 the chapel, designed by F. sanctuary, but that shut down in Hopewell and the Wilberforce
Ferdinand Durang & Son, was 2009. The Vincentians were faced School to the Windsor Athletic Club
completed. The building with the dilemma of what to do on Clarksville Road.
incorporates 18 altars, a large with their large campus, which was
wrought iron baldacchino, or not in use but costly to maintain. ” When the Vincentians went looking
canopy, and stained-glass windows We wanted to preserve the for a company to manage the
by the famous artist Nicola architecture and the beautiful cemetery, they ended up
D’Ascenzo. historic look and feel of the connecting with CMS, based in
buildings,” Bauer said. Pittsburgh. Stoecklein, who is a
In 1926 the Missionary Sisters of second generation cemetery
the Precious Blood, an order of The solution they found was owner, said the company manages
German nuns who supported the twofold: lease the school buildings six cemeteries in New Jersey and
Vincentians, moved in. Further to other educational institutions, New York, including Mercer
buildings were built in 1961. That and turn 12 acres of the 87-acre County’s largest cemetery,
period was to be the peak of the grounds into a cemetery. Greenwood, where almost half of
seminary as a Vincentian all Mercer County residents are
institution. interred upon death.

Located just minutes from beautiful Nassau Street, Princeton Abbey provides The elder Stoecklein and an uncle
a tranquil and inspirational environment for receptions, performances, would drive around in a bread
concerts and memorial services. truck selling funeral plots, and
Buzzy always had summer jobs
CMS developed a plan to make a The Business of Burial. cutting grass or digging graves.
cemetery of the 12 acres on the Stoecklein joined the army in the
west side of the campus in five Disposing of human remains is not 1960s and while stationed at Fort
phases of construction. The layout just a necessary function of society Bragg, decided he would sell burial
of the cemetery will preserve — it’s a business. And as always, spots to make extra money so he
existing trees, and utilize a tree- business is good. “It is a business could live off-base.
lined buffer zone between the forever, not a business that goes
graves and the edge of the out of style,” Stoecklein said. “The When Stoecklein left the army in
property. life cycle of a cemetery is forever. 1970, that side job turned into a
This cemetery is in its infancy.” career, and eventually Stoecklein
The chapel itself — redubbed “Cemeteries really need to be together with his younger brother
Princeton Abbey — is being forever,” Stoecklein said. “We will ended up owning CMS West, which
transformed into a place to hold never be able to change that back. had funeral homes and a
cremated remains, and will also be It will always be a cemetery. My gravestone business in addition to
open for special events and job is to carry the baton until the owning cemeteries.
concerts. next person takes over.”
In 1992 his brother left the
The chapel’s acoustics, optimized Stoecklein has been in the family business to pursue other ventures,
for church music, allow two people business in some form or another and in 1995 Stoecklein founded
to have a speaking-voice since the 1950s. He grew up in CMS Mid-Atlantic, headquartered
conversation while standing at Pittsburgh, where his father was a in Union, which focused on
opposite ends of the sanctuary. baker who also sold funeral plots managing cemeteries in New York
on the side. and New Jersey. His cousin,
George, owns CMS East, which
manages 29 cemeteries in
Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the
Carolinas.

The business of managing
cemeteries is like no other. In the
strictly regulated cemetery
business in New Jersey, the division
of labor is very well defined.

Funeral home owners cannot Celebrate your memorial in Princeton Abbey’s Chapel underneath a one-of-a-
manage graveyards. Graveyards kind wrought iron baldacchino [bal-duh-kee-noh], which in Italian means
must be maintained by a nonprofit ‘canopy of state over a throne’.
group, which exist only to keep the
cemetery looking nice until the end Princeton Abbey has enough space Stoecklein, who runs a nonprofit
of linear time. in its 12 acres to go for about 250 group called Friends of Rural
years until the last grave is dug and Cemeteries, once helped the
Because eternally mowing a lawn is the last urn placed in a niche. All of Prospect Cemetery in Nantucket
an expensive proposition, the the regulations of the cemetery get a charter to form a nonprofit
nonprofit groups must have a business exist for a reason. If the group to take care their
source of funding they can draw long-term management of a deteriorating and neglected
upon to keep the property up for graveyard isn’t planned out in graveyard. The group held a
hundreds of years after all the advance, old cemeteries can fall fundraiser, and got to borrow a
people who ever knew anyone into neglect. $500,000 fund from a foundation
buried in the cemetery are dead to help get on their feet.
themselves. Once a graveyard is “Over 65 to 70 percent of older
full, there can be no new graves cemeteries are in disrepair and For another source of revenue,
dug, and therefore no source of verge of insolvency,” Stoecklein they opened up some land for new
income to maintain the property. said. “Some cemeteries are old, plots. “I picked up a shovel and
and well-meaning people run them said, ‘this is how it’s done,’”
That’s where companies like CMS but they just don’t have Stoecklein said. Because
come in. CMS markets and sells wherewithal to develop revenue cemeteries not controlled by
plots in a graveyard, and passes stream put together trust funds for churches are required to have trust
along a certain percentage of every the future.” funds, their finances are open to
sale —15 percent for a grave, 10 the public.
percent for a crypt or cremation —
to a trust fund controlled by the
nonprofit group. That group uses
interest and dividends generated
by the fund to pay for grounds
keepers. Thanks to the magic of
compounding interest, these funds,
if well managed, should keep the
grass green for centuries to come.
The industry likes to use the phrase
“in perpetuity” to describe its
obligations.

As a result of this, the cemetery
management business requires
long-term planning like no other.
The “life cycle” of a cemetery
depends on the size of it and the
rate of people being buried there.
It can be hundreds of years. For
example, Stoecklein estimates that
Greenwood cemetery, founded
around the time of the Civil War,
will be burying people for the next
400 years.

Stoecklein said anyone can get Stoecklein said that in the While it’s possible to keep a loved
annual financial reports that cemeteries close to New York City, one’s ashes on a mantle, or have
cemeteries are required to submit a burial plot costs $15,000 or more. them scattered, Stoecklein said
to the Board of Cemeteries in that many families prefer to have a
Trenton, and he recommended At Princeton Abbey, costs are more permanent memorial.
doing research before choosing a in line with the state average of
final resting place. around $5,000, with a discount That’s exactly what the chapel is
available if bought in advance. being turned into. Almost every
It’s also a good idea to see if they That does not include the cost of available space in the building is
are well managed and easily the funeral or monument. The being used to store remains.
reachable. “The first thing you prices are set by the Board of
want to do is to find out if a Cemeteries and Stoecklein said Certain flagstones on the floor will
cemetery has a phone,” he said. In there is “no haggling.” be removed and replaced with
addition to basic grounds keeping, bronze markers beneath which
graveyards require extra To visitors, he is offering savings remains will be stored.
maintenance. Because of the certificates that unlike their
settling of the loose earth used in bearers, will never expire. On the walls, wood panels will be
graves, they will sink during the removed, urns placed behind them,
first two years after burial, so With space always limited and the and replaced with specially
crews have to level the earth costs always rising, fewer people designed plates with a fleur-de-lis
periodically. are choosing to be buried than ever motif that can also be seen
before. Cremation is becoming the throughout the chapel.
Because of the limited availability popular alternative. In the 1960s,
of space and the need for only about 3 percent of Americans In other rooms of the building, such
maintenance “in perpetuity,” the chose cremation. But opinions as the library, shelves will line the
cost of a burial plot has sky began to change, starting on the walls, some with illuminated cases.
rocketed. Over the last century, West Coast. Today, about 38 Even the altars will contain cleverly
the cost of burial plots and funeral percent of people who die in New designed compartments for the
services has escalated about 6 Jersey are cremated, and that storage of human remains, and
percent a year, but the figure is figure is expected to rise to about there are a handful of slots
higher in places where land is half in five years. Accordingly, available directly underneath the
scarce. there is space for about 15,000 stained-glass windows.
cremation urns in Princeton Abbey.
Prices range from $1,300 for the
most obscure and less accessible
spots to $20,000 for the most
exalted positions within the chapel.

Princeton Abbey offers a wide
selection of permanently lit glass-
front niches. Located throughout the
Abbey in private alcoves, including
several that offer original stained-
glass backdrops, all provide an ideal
location to display an urn. Families
that choose a glass-front niche have
the advantage of being able to
display a picture or other permanent
memorabilia. Both individual and
companion niches are available.

All of the names of the buried will He said one family plans to relocate In about 70 percent of cases, he
be inscribed in a book that will be the remains of their mother in the said, the woman will outlive the
placed under glass on what is now Abbey, and will hold a memorial man in a married couple and will
the main altar of the chapel. service in the chapel for more than end up making the arrangements if
100 people. they are not done in advance.
Princeton Abbey also plans to Another good reason to plan ahead
launch a secure website where a Princeton Abbey will hold an open is that if you make your wishes
memorial page can be created for house on Saturday, June 25 and known before you die, your
loved ones. The chapel is meant to Sunday, June 26. Princeton Pro relatives won’t have to decide what
be a pleasant place for the living as Musica will play a concert from 11 to do, and won’t have to fight
well as the dead. “We do look at a.m. to 2 p.m. The next day, the about it.
this as being a cultural center,” Princeton Music Connection
Stoecklein said. Intermezzo Quartet will play from 1 Stoecklein has already made his
to 4 p.m. For more information, own arrangements, even though he
In his years of running cemeteries, visit twww.princetonabbey.org. plans to live until the ripe old age
he has seen how much it means to of 115. He’s considering changing
people to be able to visit their Stoecklein said planning ahead is a them though, and he and his wife
loved ones. He said the chapel was good idea. Buying a grave site or now want to be buried on the
a “hidden gem” and that he has niche in advance will net a 20 to 30 grounds of Princeton Abbey and
already had a great deal of interest percent discount compared to Cemetery. “I turn 69 next year,”
from people interested in buying buying one “at the time of need.” Stoecklein said. “I have 17,104 days
spots. left on this Earth.”

Located immediately adjacent to the Chapel, the Library Princeton Abbey’s stained-glass windows were created by
offers a warm and inviting setting for memorial services. Nicola D’Ascenzo, a peer of Louis Comfort Tiffany.

If you would like a private tour of the Abbey and Grounds, please contact Katherine Walden,
Manager of the Princeton Abbey & Cemetery.

75 Mapleton Road Princeton, NJ 08540 609-452-1600 ww.princetonabbey.org