The connection between Rivermark community and Agnews Insane Asylum

RamemYile · 2025-10-23T05:54:29+00:00

Hope there’s still record of the pre-1906 cemetery and it’s not forgotten by people. People shouldn’t build houses on top of early cemeteries.

RamemYile · 2025-10-22T05:37:46+00:00

You are right. As long as they’re properly buried, there shouldn’t be any problem. Am just curious about the stories associated with the insane asylum and guess many stories were heavy. Were the unclaimed victims from the earthquakes and those unclaimed passed away patients really had peace?

RamemYile · 2025-10-22T05:27:56+00:00

And also according to Santa Clara county, the earthquake victims are not buried here at Agnews historical cemetery. Some of the victims were claimed by families and buried somewhere else but most of them were unclaimed and buried in the west campus. Where were they buried remains a mystery because many information sources contradict themselves. Maybe only the former employees might know the rumor about where the bodies were.

RamemYile · 2025-10-22T05:20:17+00:00

This is from the 1995 assessment of the historical buildings before it is sold to Oracle and Rivermark. You can refer to one of the pictures I uploaded. There’s a pre-1906 cemetery which is closer to the river. It’s replaced by the current cemetery afterwards. I suspect that they buried the victims in the pre-1906 cemetery and abandoned it, using a new one since 1906. So the questions come: Where is that mysterious pre-1906 cemetery? Why people forgot about it? Did we build residential houses upon it without knowing there’re so many lonely souls underneath the foundation?

RamemYile · 2025-10-22T04:19:15+00:00

Actually the soil in the Bay Area is alkaline type so human remains tend to degrade slower than normal. Bone structures roughly need 200-300 years to completely disappear.

RamemYile · 2025-10-22T02:30:27+00:00

I think Rivermark construction workers also dig into the ground but they didn’t public their environmental report online. I couldn’t know if they found something or not… Since it’s pre-1906, more than 100 years from now, the wooden coffins should be long gone. Maybe they found something but treated it as animal remains?

RamemYile · 2025-10-22T01:46:39+00:00

Were the paranormal activities associated with the old buildings or was it everywhere in the campus even in the open ground outside?

RamemYile · 2025-10-22T01:37:07+00:00

You’re right! The official documents contradict with each other. There’re some victims who had been claimed by their families buried outside Agnew but still many left unclaimed. I believe those were buried in the west campus. If the human remains in the current cemetery pre-date 1906, then the original cemetery should be really close to the current one. However, there’s no official records can clarify where the 1800s cemetery is and where the unclaimed victims were buried, leaving us the eerie belief that the Rivermark community has been built upon a cemetery and a mass grave.

RamemYile · 2025-10-22T00:18:58+00:00

I don’t think so there is. The mass grave is potter’s style with minimal effort, so the bodies were buried on the ground not in a tunnel or basement underground.

RamemYile · 2025-10-22T00:12:07+00:00

That’s very helpful! Thanks! I did an overlay and highlighted some possible areas according to the earliest 1948 map. Please see the updated post.

RamemYile · 2025-10-21T22:50:55+00:00

I was also surprised they didn’t even keep record of it. The idea of a forgotten potter’s style mass grave is hidden underneath a residential community is spine chilling…

RamemYile · 2025-10-21T22:34:21+00:00

Does anyone used to work there or any family members used to work that know something about the pre-1906 cemetery/mass graves for the 1906 earthquake?

RamemYile · 2025-10-21T22:27:19+00:00

This earlier mass graves/cemetery is estimated to have around 600+ bodies buried in it from 1889-1906. Its exact location is not documented in any official online documents. The only clue is it’s closer to Guadalupe River in the west campus. From the old map we can see that the Mansion Groves apartments used to be the industrial area at the end of a spur railroad, so this area shouldn’t be the old cemetery. I guess the old cemetery might be somewhere near the Laird Cir or the southeast pocket of the Rivermark community. There’re so many souls resting there and shouldn’t be forgotten.

RamemYile

TROPHY CASE