Early History

Founded in 1922, Shady Lane was a beautiful and peaceful cemetery that was a popular burial site for the people of Scranton and the Abingtons area. It was operated by the Clarence Thomas family and then by the Allan Berger family until 1981. At that point, it was sold to a corporation and maintenance of the property began to suffer. The cemetery includes many tombstones, which makes mowing difficult, and it is on a mountainside, which also makes maintenance more complicated.

Downward Spiral

John Rogan bought Shady Lane in 1986, when he was already being investigated for financial improprieties at his other two cemeteries. He sold 66 acres of the site for a profit before he was arrested for looting the perpetual care funds of the other cemeteries. When Rogan went to prison, his friend Charles Rader took over operation of the three cemeteries. By 2009, Rader had stopped paying taxes on Shady Lane and had abandoned any association with the cemetery. The property was sold for taxes to a buyer who was hoping the owner would redeem the land so he could make a profit. When that did not happen, the buyer disassociated himself from the property and now denies ownership. Shady Lane has had no active management or maintenance since at least 2009.

Recent History

Families and community members have attempted to maintain sections of Shady Lane over the years, but the property had seriously deteriorated. Roads had grown impassable, brush had swallowed burial sites, trees and tombstones had toppled. The Friends of Shady Lane Cemetery has dedicated itself to honoring those buried in the cemetery by restoring and maintaining the property as a beautiful green space for the local community. We do not operate the cemetery as a burial site. Our mission is to salvage the cemetery from abandonment, maintain it in respectful condition, eliminate a public nuisance, promote local history associated with those buried in the cemetery, and create an asset for the community.

Current Projects

The Receiving Vault was open to the elements for many years but is now secure.

Roof for the Receiving Vault

Through a partnership with Johnson College, we placed a roof structure on the Receiving Vault in the spring of 2025. This will help preserve this unique structure from further deterioration. Donation paid for the materials used for this project and students provided the labor as part of their learning experience.

Removing Dangerous Trees

There are dead or dying trees at various places in the cemetery that pose potential dangers to both grave monuments and visitors. With the help of donations, we are gradually having these trees professionally removed. Trees and limbs that come down during storms are removed by a combination of volunteers and professionals, as needed. Whenever possible, we offer cut wood free to the community.

Lifting Fallen Monuments

We are gradually working our way around the cemetery, lifting and restoring toppled monuments. This work is possible thanks to donated funds, as well as donated services. Our goal is to restore all fallen monuments within the cemetery.

Documenting Unmapped Sections

We have discovered various unmapped portions of the cemetery that were usually areas set aside for low-cost burials. These graves were marked only by small, numbered metal stakes that, over time, had been gradually buried underground.

Volunteers have been working to clear brush from these areas, then to locate and uncover the small markers, and finally to lift them back to ground level so that burial locations are obvious. This requires extensive work with metal detectors, shovels, and other tools.

We hope to find more permanent ways to mark these graves in the future, but for now we have ensured that the existing markers are back at ground level and surrounded by gravel. We are continuing to explore other areas in the cemetery where we know that low-cost burials occurred and where no markers have previously been located. It is our goal to document every single grave at Shady Lane, and to treat these graves with equal dignity.