At 320 acres (130 ha), it is the largest cemetery in Detroit, although it no longer promotes itself publicly as a Catholic establishment.

[3] It quickly gained a reputation for being the final resting place of choice for many within recent immigrant communities specific to the Detroit area like Flemish[1]: 41  Belgians, Germans, Italians, and Poles.

Families of those interred there expressed outrage and indicated possible legal action[4] (Young had already earned a reputation previously for controversially using eminent domain for economic development purposes in Poletown East[6]).

By 1990, there was a noticeable trend by area families to buy burial plots in suburban cemeteries, either out of convenience of location or due to the perception of increased crime within the city limits of Detroit (it is not immediately clear, however, if any of Young's past proposals for Mt.

[8] A 2008 article by The Detroit News noted that though the cemetery continued to average approximately 1,200 burials per year (a significant number, albeit far fewer than in the 1950s), it also had about 100 annual disinterments—mostly by surviving descendants who were moving their deceased relatives' remains to suburban locations, especially Resurrection Cemetery in Clinton Township (which is also operated by the Mt.

The article surmised that while there could possibly be similar movements in other large American cities, it seemed likely to have a particularly pronounced effect with Detroit cemeteries—with Mt.

Olivet over the years occurred after polarizing deaths, like those of Wladyslawa "Lottie" Lorenc (in 1923)[11] and Jerry Buckley (who in 1930 was buried just 100 yards away from where his alleged assassin, Thomas Licavoli, would later be interred).