In Lakewood, Colorado, There Was A Mall Known As Villa Italia. Was It Built On A Burial Ground?

[torin7]

My co-workers claim that our mall's property utilised to be a cemetery back in the 1950's. My dad has lived right here since the 1950's and has told me it wasn't a cemetery. Does anybody know the history of the land Villa Italia Mall/Belmar Mall was built on in Lakewood Colorado? I haven't had luck discovering data on it.Thanks!

[Currito]

There are parts of an old cemetery on both sides of my home. When it is extremely dark, practically pitch, you can nevertheless occasionally type of see the old tombstones even though they are not there. Some of them can even be read although its difficult to make out the writing. Sometimes I dream of the putrescent old tombstones with their weird symbols and writings rotting horribly in the moonlight of decades ago.

[liang87]

[Ammi]

that's interesting. I'll have to do some in-depth research on any stone masonary work that went on back then and see how much of it is true. I used to sneak into cemetery's all the time and I'm a strong believer in ghosts, but I'm skeptic at the same time, so a story like this one strikes my intrests enough, but for the time being I'm not believing it.Yellowdog: that's awesome...maybe not the nightmare part. My aunt lives in Virgina on old war ground so I know how spooky it can be at times.Pam: yes there is actually, all over property. Though I haven't seen anything, our janitoril crew completely refuses to go into parts of the mall after midnight. I work on the night shift(security guard) so I'm aching to see something happen.

[leverett]

"You son of a *****. You moved the cemetery, but you left the bodies, didn't you? You son of a *****, you left the bodies and you only moved the head stones. You only moved the head stones. Why? Why?"Any reports of poltergeist activity?

[Adwr]

PamPerdue said: 3 "You son of a *****. You moved the cemetery, but you left the bodies, didn't you? You son of a *****, you left the bodies and you only moved the head stones. You only moved the head stones. Why? Why?"Any reports of poltergeist activity? 59 months ago

[pfesssley]

Geppetto said: 1 When I spent some time at Denver Air Force Base, I heard the story, too. But it was much earlier than 1950. More like 1850. It supposedly was a graveyard for Italian stone masons brought over from Italy to work on project. There apparently was a collapse of a wall, and of them were killed. I heard the story while having dinner with a bunch of my drunken buddies at Mama Leone's....where the first course was all the soup you could eat, followed by the second course which was a pasta dish with braciole, with salad following the pasta, and then spumonie ice cream....all consumed with vast quantities of beer. 59 months ago

[Spalding]

jenNjuice said: 4 that's interesting. I'll have to do some in-depth research on any stone masonary work that went on back then and see how much of it is true. I used to sneak into cemetery's all the time and I'm a strong believer in ghosts, but I'm skeptic at the same time, so a story like this one strikes my intrests enough, but for the time being I'm not believing it.Yellowdog: that's awesome...maybe not the nightmare part. My aunt lives in Virgina on old war ground so I know how spooky it can be at times.Pam: yes there is actually, all over property. Though I haven't seen anything, our janitoril crew completely refuses to go into parts of the mall after midnight. I work on the night shift(security guard) so I'm aching to see something happen. 58 months ago

[Arley]

The history of the Villa Italia property can be easily traced back to the 1930s when May Bonfils either inherited or bought 10 acres at what is now the intersection of Wadsworth and Alameda.  Over the next few years she purchased adjacent parcels of land and created a 750 acre estate that she named Belmar, named for either a combination of her mother?s name, Belle, and her own given name, Mary, or for Eli Belmar, who used to ranch on the site.   In 1960 she and her husband, Charles Stanton, agreed to lease the land that would become the Villa Italia Mall, which was at the time of it?s opening the largest indoor mall between Chicago and California.   Given that the destruction of the Villa Italia and the subsequent construction of Belmar were well-covered by local media, the lack of stories about the discovery of a cemetery or burial site or bones or artifacts would indicate that the land in question was never used for such a purpose.  Since the land was part of the Bonfils-Stanton estate in the 1950s it certainly was not used as a cemetery then.    Nowhere in articles talking about the demolition and rebuilding of the mall by various engineering firms are cemeteries an issue either, and they had to deal with underground storage tanks and drilling wells to check for soil contamination.   If you want to investigate further, like trying to find out which parcels were purchased by Bonfils and their history prior to the 1930s, try contacting the Lakewood Historical Society(they don?t update their site much, but they do exist, at least as of December 2008) for help.

[Cadwallon]

When I spent some time at Denver Air Force Base, I heard the story, too. But it was much earlier than 1950. More like 1850. It supposedly was a graveyard for Italian stone masons brought over from Italy to work on project. There apparently was a collapse of a wall, and of them were killed. I heard the story while having dinner with a bunch of my drunken buddies at Mama Leone's....where the first course was all the soup you could eat, followed by the second course which was a pasta dish with braciole, with salad following the pasta, and then spumonie ice cream....all consumed with vast quantities of beer.