Columbarium Planned For Pine Tree Cemetery

Pine Tree Cemetery, in Corunna, announces plans to add a 76-niche (124-spaces) columbarium to their cemetery services.  Pine Tree Cemetery's columbarium will be located at the front of the cemetery, in the New East Addition, near the corner of Cherry and Margaret Streets.  The columbarium will be installed by Great Lakes Monuments from Perry, Michigan. 

A columbarium is an above-ground disposition site for cremations with small niches in which to place urns.  The word columbarium comes from the Latin "Columba," meaning "dovecote," a compartment house for doves.  Columbaria date back to early Greek and Roman times.  History tells us that these ancient civilizations built many columbaria, for all levels of society, above and below ground. 

Pine Tree Cemetery's columbarium will house 28 single niches and 48 double niches, for a total of 124 spaces.  The single niches are 13" x 13" x 13" in size and the double niches are 13" x 13" x 25".  The square, granite columbarium is Byzantine-Romanesque in style, with the niches flanked by granite pillars.  It will include a handicapped-accessible sidewalk with two matching granite benches. Additional landscaping is planned for the future. 

Financial support for this project comes from the Pine Tree Cemetery Perpetual Care Fund, whose sole funding comes from 50% of the sale price of grave sites.  One hundred percent of all columbarium sales will be returned to the Pine Tree Cemetery Perpetual Care Fund. 

It is planned that interment in the columbarium will be a more economical way to store and memorialize the remains of a loved one than a traditional in-ground burial.  Interment in the columbarium is open to anyone.  Pine Tree Cemetery also has many grave sites available for sale. You do not need to be a Corunna resident to be interred in Pine Tree Cemetery. 

Groundbreaking for the columbarium is set for the spring of 2006 and should be completed in the early summer of 2006. For more information about the columbarium, reserving a niche, or any other cemetery questions, call 989-743-3650.