Melvin-Lewis Cemetery
A shopping center near Cherry Creek State Park is like many of its kind — big box shops, retail and eating establishments. But between a couple restaurants in the parking lot is an unlikely sight: a cemetery. In pioneer times, this area was the Melvin community, built around John and Jane Melvin’s ranch called Twelve Mile House. Travelers ate, slept and refreshed themselves there. And some were laid to rest on the property alongside the settlers. It was sold to John and Emma Lewis, and later the University of Colorado, then changed hands a few more times. In 2002, what once was a remote area became today’s bustling shopping center. The developer agreed to preserve the tiny graveyard, now enclosed in a black metal fence and gate with the name Melvin Lewis Cemetery, the resting place as well of 1,600 people who donated their bodies to science.
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