It’s been said that if you hit a baseball hard enough westward from the field at DeKalb High School, it may fly into the grounds at Fairview Park Cemetery Association.

The cemetery is the largest in DeKalb, has the only pet cemetery in the area. It is located at 1600 First St.

The cemetery is made up of 100 acres of land donated by farmers. The first burial took place in 1903.

“We’ve had over 10,000 burials so far,” said Charles Bradt, treasurer of Fairview Park.

The grounds are divided into sections. The largest and oldest is called the Monument, where above-ground memorials are permitted.

“There’s also the Garden section,” said Barbara Burkart, administrator of Fairview Park. “That section is divided into four smaller areas where flush ground memorials are allowed.”

The Garden of Shalom is one of the areas in the garden section that is reserved for deceased Jewish members of DeKalb and Sycamore.

vi Bass, retired NIU journalism professor, chair of the funeral committee at Fairview and member of the synagogue Congregation Beth Shalom, said the Garden was consecrated by Jews from Sycamore in the late 1950s.

“As the population of Jews in the area grew, they buried their loved ones in the Garden,” Bass said.

The Garden has a stone entrance with a gate, a traditional element in a Jewish cemetery. On the gate is a plaque with the founders of the Garden inscribed on it.

“Even though the garden is 50 years old, there’s been an organized Jewish committee in DeKalb and Sycamore for almost 100 years,” Bass said.

The Garden now is supervised by the local congregation. The Garden is a resting place for prominent storekeepers around the area, as well as NIU professors and staff.