Derry's Livermore Cemetery steeped in history, even if 'Night of the Living Dead' legend isn't true

Livermore Cemetery has long been haunted by rumors of ghosts and silver-screen zombies, but that’s not why Rick Shoemaker used to carry a gun whenever he went there.

The funeral director was worried about the flesh-and-blood partiers who wreaked havoc on the small hilltop graveyard in Derry Township near the Indiana County line.

“These people from Pittsburgh kept coming out and vandalizing the place,” Shoemaker said. “They would actually shoot the monuments with shotguns and high-powered rifles.”

The remote cemetery’s unwanted notoriety began 50 years ago, with the release of George Romero’s classic zombie movie, “Night of the Living Dead.”

“For some reason, everybody thought that movie was made out at Livermore Cemetery,” said Bill Kirkland, the cemetery’s caretaker. “That’s what caused a lot of the problems, that movie.”

“Night of the Living Dead” was not filmed at Livermore. The opening scene, which depicts a zombie attack at a graveyard, was shot at Evans City Cemetery — 65 miles away in Butler County.

“We don’t have anything in the Livermore file that talks about that movie at all,” said Anita Zanke, library coordinator for the Westmoreland County Historical Society.

Nobody knows how rumors to the contrary got started, but they’ve been all-but-impossible to dispel. Local media outlets, including the Tribune-Review and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, helped spread the false information.

Latrobe resident Dean Austraw grew up near Livermore and regularly jogs on the nearby bike path. He’s heard different takes on where “Night of the Living Dead” was filmed, but most locals agree, he said.

“I’ve grown up hearing it’s that one up there,” Austraw said, gesturing toward Livermore.

He’s heard stories from his dad about how Livermore used to be a popular party spot with local teens.

The partying reached its peak about 15 years ago, Shoemaker said. Between local revelers and out-of-towners coming to see a piece of movie history, the once-tranquil cemetery was being overrun.

“They built that gate to keep them out, and they went around it or through the woods,” Shoemaker said.

Members of the Kirkland family used to spend the night guarding the cemetery with limited effectiveness, Kirkland said.

“You can’t be down there all the time,” he said.

Almost all of the largest grave markers have been toppled and repaired at least once, he said.

It’s much quieter now, but safeguards remain. The gravel path up to the graveyard is barred by a metal gate, surrounded by “no trespassing” signs.

“It comes and goes, sometimes we don’t have more problems for a while, then we’ll have problems again,” Kirkland said.

Many members of Kirkland’s family are buried at Livermore. So when the previous caretaker stepped down, he volunteered to take over. He didn’t expect to be doing it for more than three decades.

Though Livermore Cemetery is most famous for things that never happened there, its true history is just as eventful.

It once stood above the tiny town of Livermore, which was founded in 1827, according to the historical society’s records.

Charles Dickens visited Livermore while traveling from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh in 1842. He described his lodgings on the journey as “primitive.”

In 1936, the Great St. Patrick’s Day Flood swept numerous Livermore homes from their foundations. Historical society records describe residents clinging to their roofs, hoping they would not be carried away by the rising Conemaugh River.

Dorothy Kirkland, Bill’s sister, grew up in Livermore in the late 1930s and early 1940s. She remembers rollerskating down the street and attending school with her friends.

“I liked Livermore,” she said. “Sometimes, I just think of all the things I used to do back in Livermore.”

The town was evacuated and demolished in the 1940s to make room for a reservoir for the Conemaugh Dam. Most of the site is now underwater, but the hilltop cemetery was spared.

“It’s not been abandoned,” Shoemaker said. “We’ve been burying people out there for as long as I’ve been funeral director, 47 years.”

Gravestones are scattered throughout the cemetery. Many date to the 1800s, including numerous graves of Civil War veterans. The oldest stones are weathered and faded. The newest stands out, black and smooth.

Shoemaker built it this year for Lyle and Ellen Barnhart, a couple who died a month apart in January and February. They join numerous other Barnharts who are buried nearby, some of whom used to live in Livermore.

“The people who are still being buried there are people who have ancestry in the area,” Shoemaker said.

Kirkland is worried that drawing attention to the cemetery might cause the old problems to flare up again.

“I’d hate to put any more publicity into it,” he said.

Shoemaker said he’s never seen the movie that brought him so much trouble.

“I don’t watch stuff like that,” he said. “I have more important things to do.”

Jacob Tierney is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jacob at 724-836-6646, jtierney@tribweb.com or via Twitter @Soolseem.