Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainEighty-plus graves of infants, stillborns, and mothers from a 1903 Arlington home for unmarried women — flat stones easy to miss, Texas Historical Marker on site, and visitors report children's voices and shadows near the trees.
801 W Mitchell St, Arlington, TX 76013
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Publicly accessible cemetery within Doug Russell Park on the University of Texas at Arlington campus. No admission fee.
Access
Limited Access
Flat park grounds with some uneven turf around grave markers. Most markers are flat stones flush with or near ground level.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1903 · Texas Historical Marker (1981) · Berachah Industrial Home for the Redemption of Erring Girls · Founded by Rev. James T. Upchurch and Maggie May Upchurch · Only surviving physical remnant of the Berachah campus · 80+ graves; earliest dated 1904
Reverend James T. Upchurch and his wife Maggie May Upchurch established the Berachah Industrial Home for the Redemption of Erring Girls in Arlington, Texas, with the facility opening on May 14, 1903, on a seven-acre site acquired in 1901. Upchurch's model differed from most contemporary homes for unmarried mothers: rather than placing infants for adoption immediately, he required residents to nurse and care for their children for a full year before any placement. This policy was considered progressive and controversial for its era.
Over the next three decades the campus expanded to encompass a chapel, a handkerchief factory, a print shop, an infirmary, and a school. By 1924 the home housed 129 women and girls, with an average resident age of 17. The institution published its own newspaper and maintained a degree of self-sufficiency.
Deaths at the home resulted from childbirth complications, disease — a measles epidemic around 1914–1915 was particularly deadly — and other causes. Each woman and infant was buried in the home's cemetery with individual markers, though most markers identify the deceased only by first name to protect the mothers' privacy; some infant graves are marked only by number, such as 'Infant 46.' Eunice Williams, buried in 1904, was the first interment.
The Berachah home closed in 1935 due to insufficient funding. Rev. Upchurch's daughter reopened the site as the Berachah Child Institute, an orphanage, on Easter Sunday 1936; that facility operated until 1942. Upchurch died in 1950. The buildings were demolished by the late 1960s, and the land was subdivided and sold. The cemetery alone survived in the northwest corner of what is now Doug Russell Park on the University of Texas at Arlington campus. A Texas Historical Marker was installed at the graveyard on March 7, 1981.
Sources
The Berachah Cemetery is among the quieter paranormal sites in the Dallas–Fort Worth area — there are no theatrical tours or commercial events attached to it — but it draws consistent reports from visitors who come specifically to see the graves or stumble across the historical marker.
The most frequently described experience is auditory: the sound of children's voices, sometimes described as play sounds rather than distress, coming from the treeline at the northwest edge of the park. Because the cemetery contains so many infants and young children, the attribution is immediate in most accounts, though the park is actively used and incidental noise from the surrounding campus is common.
Shadowy figures described as darting between the trees at dusk or in low light have been reported by multiple visitors, including accounts collected by Texas paranormal writer Tui Snider. The sensation of being watched is consistently reported even on bright days with no other visitors present.
The small toys — typically left by earlier visitors as offerings — have their own odd history at this site: objects placed on specific grave markers are sometimes found to have moved or disappeared entirely between visits, with no obvious explanation. Some paranormal investigators interpret this as evidence of activity; others note that an outdoor cemetery accessible to the public makes such movements easy to explain ordinarily.
A less common report involves the feeling of invisible hands touching visitors' hair near the grave markers, usually attributed in local lore to the infants interred there.
The Berachah Cemetery contains more than 80 graves marked primarily by flat stones, many identified by first name only or by number (e.g., 'Infant 46'). A Texas Historical Marker installed in 1981 provides historical context. Eunice Williams, who died in 1904, was the first burial. Visitors walk the northwest corner of Doug Russell Park to locate the graves, which are easy to overlook.
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