VA buys 15 acres in Indianapolis for new national cemetery

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has purchased nearly 15 acres at Indianapolis’ historic Crown Hill Cemetery for a planned cemetery only for veterans and relatives who have been cremated.

The VA said it acquired the 14.75 acres a few miles north of downtown Indianapolis for $810,000. The new cemetery that will be built there will be a columbarium, an above-ground structure into which cremated remains are stored in urns.

The initial project will build columbarium walls with about 2,500 niches for urns, but the VA says there’s space in the plot it acquired for at least 25,000 niches for cremated remains of veterans, their spouses and eligible relatives.

The Crown Hill columbarium will become the only VA national cemetery in the state only for cremated veterans and their relatives.