The city of Berkley will be hosting a self-guided tour of the Roseland Park Cemetery on Oct. 18. Visitors will learn historical facts about the cemetery and look inside the usually closed Rose Chapel Mausoleum.
By: Mike Koury | Woodward Talk | Published September 30, 2025
BERKLEY — A rare tour of the Roseland Park Cemetery will be available to people this month as a way to raise funds for the Berkley Historical Museum.
The tour of the cemetery, located at 29001 Woodward Ave., will be from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 18. In the event of a rain delay, the new date would be on Oct. 19 during the same time period.
Berkley Director of Communications Caitlin Flora said she hopes the tour adds another point of connection for residents and visitors to Berkley.
“We have a lot of people who live here in Berkley that have maybe lived here for generations in their family. Maybe they’re brand-new, too, but a lot of times that unique mix we find makes us really special as a city but can be a little bit difficult to connect,” she said. “We’re hoping that the cemetery tour can kind of be a bridge to that and people can come and learn about the notable people in Berkley, which we expect people who have lived here for a long time to find exciting, and then for people who have moved here, it’s a great way to learn about the city.”
The tours of the cemetery, which opened in 1904, are self-guided, and at different points there will be volunteer historians to share “fascinating narratives about Berkley’s past and important historical figures,” a city press release states.
Jeffrey Tong, of the Berkley Historical Museum, said many early leaders of Detroit have been buried in the cemetery, from mayors to major businessmen and politicians. This includes Charles Oakman, the U.S. representative who introduced the bill that added the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance.
“So because of this man who’s buried in Roseland Park Cemetery, every time you say the Pledge of Allegiance, you’re saying the two words that he added to it,” Tong said.
Stops on the tour include the American Legion burial plot and the mass grave of the victims of the 1919 pandemic, an early kit home with a display of the history of Roseland Park and the Rose Chapel Mausoleum, the largest public mausoleum in the United States when it was dedicated in 1914.
Flora is especially excited for people to see the Rose Chapel Mausoleum, as it is rarely, if ever, open to the public. The mausoleum also holds the resting place of the man who designed it, Louis Kamper.
“I think that it provides a lot of interesting facts about Berkley and the people who’ve lived here,” she said.
Tong added that the mausoleum was the first of its kind to be built in Michigan.
“It’s a beautiful piece of architecture,” he said. “There’s several other buildings on the grounds that will be open that are never open to the public, and so we think it’s going to be a lot of fun. People will learn a lot about the history of this area, the history of the cemetery.”
The tour costs $15, which will go to support the Berkley Historical Museum. Tickets can be bought at the museum or City Hall, which are both at 3338 Coolidge Highway, or the Berkley Public Library, 3155 Coolidge Highway. For more information, contact the Berkley Historical Museum at (248) 658-3335 or museum@berkleymi.gov.