20 | MAY 13 • 2021 

T

rying to locate the gravesite of 
a loved one at Clover Hill Park 
Cemetery, a 60-acre cemetery with 
more than 15,000 burials, could make an 
already emotional situation even more 
stressful. Until last year, visitors to Clover 
Hill had to rely on their memory or a ceme-
tery employee to help locate a gravesite.
Now visitors can get driving or walking 
directions directly to a plot in the same 
way they would get directions from Google 
Maps or a similar platform. A computer, 
cell phone or kiosk located at the cemetery 
entrance can be used to access this infor-
mation. 
The technology utilized by Clover Hill 
allows users to search the database with as 
little information as the last name of the 
deceased. Users are then able to locate the 
burial site on a map and get directions. 
They can also see the area with a 360-degree 
ground view, including images of surround-
ing graves and landscaping and the ability 
to read the headstones. 
“We wanted to make a strong commit-
ment to our families by using this tech-
nology. When people are here initially, it’s 
usually very traumatizing and emotional, 
and they tend to forget or not pay attention 
to how they got there,
” said Kim Raznik, the 
executive director of the Clover Hill Park 
Cemetery. “There are also those who haven’t 
been to the cemetery before and don’t know 
how to find their relatives or friends.
”
She described the software as “an unbe-

lievable tool in helping families navigate 
the cemetery in person or virtually.
” Raznik 
told the story of a recent visitor who was 
convinced the gravesite of a loved one was 
somehow moved. After locating the site on 
the kiosk and printing out directions, they 
discovered that the woman was looking on 
the wrong side of the cemetery. 
Raznik said that as far as she knows, 
Clover Hill is the only local cemetery using 
this but declined to discuss the cost of the 
project, which was approved by the board of 
directors in 2019.
To get all the necessary data online, 
Clover Hill hired a company to do some-
thing called ESRI mapping. It’s what cities 
use to map their communities, and it 
provides a longitude and latitude point for 
every gravesite and interfaces with Google 
to provide turn-by-turn directions. 
Additionally, more than 500,000 pictures 
were taken to offer 360-degree views of 
every inch of the cemetery grounds. For a 
week-and-a-half in August 2019, Cemetery 

360, a California-based company, walked 
the grounds of Clover Hill, snapping a pho-
tograph every 5 feet. 
Having these images online is particular-
ly useful for family members living out of 
state or those unable to get to the cemetery, 
allowing them to make a virtual visit. 
“While I prefer to go to the cemetery, 
it’s nice to know I can see my daughter’s 
gravesite online for the times when I 
can’t physically get there,
” said Lisa Ziff 
of Bloomfield Hills. Ziff’s daughter Shay 
passed away in April 2019. 

SALES AID
The software is also a valuable sales tool 
by allowing users to view available burial 
sites without visiting the cemetery or see 
examples of headstone options by search-
ing within the cemetery. This has been 
especially helpful early on during COVID 
when people were not leaving their homes. 
Although the software wasn’t a response to 
the ongoing pandemic, its usefulness has 
been an unintended benefit. 
Raznik doesn’t know how they could 
have managed without it during the height 
of COVID when the cemetery saw a 50% 
increase in burials. Families needing to 
select a plot or order a grave marker could 
do so online. 
Established by Congregation Shaarey 
Zedek in 1918, Clover Hill has approximate-
ly 200 burials per year. It’s the final resting 
place for many of Detroit’s most prom-
inent Jewish leaders, including Mandell 
“Bill” Berman, Al Taubman, William “Bill” 
Davidson, Max M. Fisher, David Hermelin 
and Rabbis Morris Adler and Irwin Groner.
“The cemetery has a garden-like, park-
like feel to it,
” Raznik said. “We want it to 
be a serene place, and this helps make that 
happen by taking away the stress of trying 
to find a loved one.
” 

For information, visit cloverhillcemetery.org.

OUR COMMUNITY

New mapping system at 
Clover Hill makes fi
 nding 
gravesites easier.

A Guiding 
Hand

JENNIFER LOVY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

A cemetery 360 
image that allows 
viewers to read 
grave markers.

ESRI mapping documents 
the location of every 
gravesite, by longitude and 
latitude and interfaces with 
the cemetery’s database.

