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It all falls down
Santa Rosa’s got three cemeteries – Evergreen Cemetery, out on the north side of town; San Jose Cemetery, down a narrow road on the east part of town; and the very old Saint Rose of Lima cemetery.
That’s where what’s left of a chapel stands guard over graves and weeds as the plaster falls away from the stone walls bit by bit.
St. Rose of Lima Cemetery
Santa Rosa, New Mexico
photographed 9.21.2013
Rose of Lima
This is part of what’s left of the old church at the St. Rose of Lima cemetery; a marker just inside the fence says the cemetery was established in the early 1800s, and was “replaced to its current location” in 1907. I don’t know how long the church has been without a roof. Or a floor. Or windows. But it’s still standing, maybe out of habit as much as anything else.
This is another example of the way a building can eventually devolve into just its textures – and this one’s got plenty of textures, with the weather-rough wood, the initialed plaster, the stones.
And it even has a flower, tucked into a break in the plaster underneath the window.
Santa Rosa, New Mexico
photographed 9.21.2013

