Cemeteries
Information gleaned from cemeteries and the gravestones they contain offers insights into the lives of the people buried there and the cultural attitudes of their times. An examination of where people were buried (in family gardens, in churchyards in town, or in larger cemetery complexes outside of town) and how this has changed over time, can lead to a greater understanding of Alexandria land use and the “cultural landscape."
Click to enlargeExcerpts from “Those Upon the Curtain Has Fallen: The Past and Present Cemeteries of Alexandria, VA” by Mark D. Greenly were used to compile this web page. For a more comprehensive study of the subject, the Greenly book may be ordered from the Museum Shops or from Alexandria Archaeology as Publication Number 88 (Cost: $12). It contains a reference list, glossary of tombstone terms, a chronological list of all Alexandria cemeteries, and capsule descriptions of Alexandria cemeteries lying outside of the Old Town historic district.
Many dedicated researchers have contributed historical research and gravestone transcriptions to the study of the city’s graveyards. Archaeological study has also brought to light new information about Alexandria’s burial practices. The archaeological studies were conducted as preservation efforts to protect as many burials as possible in their original locations.
Attention Geneaologists! If you are interested in geneaological information on those buried in Alexandria's cemeteries, additional resources are available at the Alexandria Library, Special Collections
The Value of Historic Cemeteries
The information gleaned from cemeteries and the gravestones they contain can offer insights into the lives of the people buried there and the cultural attitudes of their times. As examination of where people were buried (in family gardens, in churchyards in town, or in larger cemetery complexes outside of town) and how this has changed over time can lead to a greater understanding of people’s attitudes toward land use and the “cultural landscape.” Changes in gravestone styles can indicate shifting popular tastes and changing attitudes about death. A study of all the stones from one time period can reveal demographic information about the population the stones commemorate. A look at any one stone can focus on the person memorialized or on the stone carver who created it. Some people study and admire tombstones as works of art.
Click to enlargeInformation on tombstones is valuable to genealogists and local historians. Data such as birth and death dates, names, spellings, personal relationships and occupations may be available nowhere else. Cemeteries can provide information on where and when locales were settled. Another approach is to use cemeteries as a starting point for a look into different aspects of local history.
The term Old Town Alexandria has been used to encompass a variety of areas. In this study, it means that part of town laid out in gridded streets and city blocks by 1797. This is the area within a “line that has been surveyed for the federal district from the river to West Street; then north, about one block west of West Street, to Montgomery Street; then east, about one-half block north of Montgomery Street, to the Potomac.”
Click to enlargeOld Town Alexandria has 15 cemeteries where some above-ground evidence still exists and the land is still maintained at least in part, as a cemetery. There are 23 other locations that are known or suspected to have been cemeteries, although these may not represent 23 individual cemeteries. For example, the four known finds of remains around Christ Church on North Washington Street probably attest to shifting borders of the cemetery around that church. Some of these sites of former cemeteries where no evidence can be seen today may still contain burials.
The oldest legible tombstone surviving in Alexandria, that of Isaac Pierce in Christ Church yard, reflects Mr. Pierce’s death in 1771. All the grave markers from the years before that have disappeared or have become illegible and impossible to date precisely. Knowledge about the history of, and the burials in, earlier cemeteries has been lost. Many of Alexandria’s gravestones of even more recent date have also disappeared, as have some entire cemeteries.
Alexandria was founded in 1749 as a trading location by merchants and planters who eyed the opportunities to the west in the Shenandoah and beyond, and who needed a port on the Potomac River. Europeans had lived in the area since the 1720s. Most of what is now Old Town, was, in the 1700s, rural countryside. Alexandria’s first street plan in 1749 showed lots laid out as far as the west side of Oronoco Street, and the south side of Duke Street. Other streets were added later as Alexandria grew.
Burials in Alexandria’s earliest days were not necessarily in a churchyard. The 1755 diary of a Mrs. Brown, an English visitor to Alexandria, noted, “It is the custom of this place to bury their relatives in their gardens.” This was not uncommon in the Middle Atlantic colonies. Home burials occurred because the one church in a large parish might be arduous miles away. Alexandria’s first church was founded by the Truro Parish of the Anglican Church sometime before June 1753. The exact location of this church is not known, but may have been west of Royal Street, outside the town limits. None of the current or former cemeteries known in Old Town can be conclusively tied to this first church.
The oldest existing cemeteries in Old Town date from the last third of the 1700s and are all connected with churches. Land on which Christ Church stands was sold to the parish in 1774, although vestry records indicate burials as early as 1766. The land on which the Old Presbyterian Meeting House stands was sold to that congregation in 1772. St. Mary’s Catholic Cemetery dates from about 1795.
By 1800, other cemeteries existed or are surmised. The 1799 map by Col. George Gilpin shows the existence of, or sites for, other churches and meeting houses: Methodist, Quaker, and Dutch Lutheran. The Penny Hill Cemetery, a municipal burying ground on South Payne Street, was purchased in 1795. There also existed an unknown number of family cemeteries and perhaps other organized cemeteries for which all knowledge has been lost.
In 1804, the Alexandria Common Council decreed that graves were not to be dug “in any ground within the corporation, not opened or allotted before the twenty-seventh of March, eighteen hundred and four.” While some burials occurred in town after that date, the Council’s action prevented the founding of any new cemeteries within the limits of Alexandria. Local churches looking for places for new cemeteries settled on a area southwest of the corner of Wilkes and Payne Streets, then called Spring Garden Farm. This locale has grown to include 13 cemeteries, counting the Black Baptist Cemetery immediately west of Hooff’s Run from Alexandria National Cemetery.
Old Town’s history shows a trend for burial places to be located farther and farther from the living residents. Burials were originally placed informally near residences. Later, by the last quarter of the eighteenth century, churchyard cemeteries were the formal places of interment within the fabric of the city. Then, in the first decade of the nineteenth century, most graves were placed in specific cemeteries that joined together outside the city limits into the Wilkes Street complex.
Those cemeteries left behind in Old Town after 1804 faced pressures that probably had already caused some earlier cemeteries to vanish. Other than the Quaker Cemetery, they were no longer active. As time went by, fewer and fewer Alexandrians remembered the individuals buried there, felt a personal connection with them, or sought to preserve the cemetery. It was not uncommon in this part of the country for the new owner of piece of land to remove the evidence of a family cemetery on it. Only the cemeteries with the strongest backing among the local population could survive the ravages of time and the pressures of competing land use. Such backing could come, for example, from the fact that a particular cemetery might have important historic associations or ties with prominent institutions.
Cemeteries without this protection, even the cemeteries of white Alexandrians, would succumb. African American residents of Alexandria faced other challenges. Their graves, for example, were sometimes marked with shells, ceramics, or other materials rather than less ephemeral thane grave mrkers. Alexandria has had a sizeable African American popular since Colonial days, yet only a few African American cemeteries are known. None of these from Alexandria’s earliest days pre-date the 1860s, nor do the few cemeteries account for the number of deaths among this group. There are probably thousands of unknown African American graves in Alexandria, along with the unknown white graves.
Countering the Threats to Cemeteries
Why don’t we see more of the cemeteries that once existed? Several forces have contributed to this disappearance of inscriptions on gravestones, of the gravestones and other grave markers themselves, or of entire cemeteries.
Click to enlargeWeather can erode inscriptions. The natural shifting and settling of the soil can topple stones. Human-caused threats to tombstones include air pollution and acid rain that can erode them, power mowers that damage or deface them, vandalism, modern attempts to “clean” them, and the deliberate movement of the stones “out of the way” to protect them. The different kinds of stone used for grave markers also have different weathering rates.
Other forces such as the pressures of development can threaten cemeteries as a whole. Even without such competing pressures, though, neglect can be just as damaging. The continued upkeep of a cemetery can be a difficult challenge. Those persons most concerned, the families, congregation or association, can fade away, leaving behind a situation where perhaps no one continues the proper maintenance.
A cemetery thus neglected can become invisible after grave markers decay, topple over or are removed, and the land becomes overgrown and littered with trash. In general, a well-kept setting helps deter vandalism by conveying the message that someone cares. Conversely, an unkempt setting coneys a lack of concern and implicit toleration of vandalism or neglect. Over time, neglect could continue until a cemetery fades from view.
Alexandria Archaeology's role in Locating and Protecting Gravesites
A Report on Alexandria’s Archaeological Protection Ordinance (Alexandria Archaeology 1989:40) estimated that more than 70 percent of the land in Old Town still has the potential for containing archaeological treasures. It is not likely that previously unrecorded graves would be recognized by construction crews as they were in the last century. First, the remains in them would not be well preserved. Second, many excavations today are more mechanized than in the past. Workers excavating from within or atop heavy machinery are not as likely as the pick-and-shovel men of the 1800s to notice something they uncover at their feet.
Click to enlargeFortunately, Alexandra does not depend on construction crews to find graves. Large development projects in Alexandria require archaeological evaluation before approval. This archaeological process generally follow three stages. First, City archaeologists provide a preliminary assessment to determine if a property has the potential to contain significant resources and if further investigation should be conducted.
Documentary study and archaeological evaluations are the second stage. Researchers review archival records like deeds, tax and court records, and so forth. This helps establish the historic features of the landscape and the appropriate historical themes on which to focus a research design. Archaeological evaluation (testing) is done to establish the original ground level and the depth at which any resources might be located. An evaluation report is then written to document any archaeological resources present at the site, the extent to which the development will affect them, and what actions should be taken.
The third stage is the completion of the preservation actions recommended in the report and approved by the Director of the Office of Historic Alexandria. These actions are taken before any work on the development disturbs the ground. Possible preservation actions include leaving the archaeological resources undisturbed and protected, performing various sampling strategies or excavating the site to recover all data.
The discovery of graves in this process adds additional restrictions. The Virginia Antiquities Act mandates a permit from the Virginia Department of Historic Resources for the excavation of unmarked graves. Work at the burial site cannot proceed until this permit is received.
How do archaeologists detect the presence of graves if the remains are not well-preserved? A grave shaft can be deduced from the differences in the soil density and color. When a grave shaft is filled in, the soil does not go back exactly as it came out, and it is not as hard-packed. It will be less dense, shown by the fact it is easier to probe with special tools. Soil layers in the shaft will be mixed togther. This evidence indicates that a grave was dug and filled in, but is not proof that the grave shaft contains human remains or a coffin. Deterioration due to damp, acidic soil can reduce the human and cultural remains to dark soil stains, a few fragments of bone or teeth and a few slivers of wood. This is still a grave, and is still protected by law. The remains, if removed, may be re-buried in a suitable location, perhaps on the site in an area not disturbed by the project. They might be studied before re-burial (if this is considered appropriate) since human remains and burial artifacts can be a rich source of information helping to bring life to the past.
Although all of Alexandria’s cemeteries offer glimpses of the city’s history, the most lengthy selections included here are notable due to their associations with persons or institutions and their accessibility to history and geneaology enthusiasts and professional researchers.
Who's buried in Alexandria's Cemeteries? Additional Resources
Attention Geneaologists! If you are interested in finding out who is buried in Alexandria's cemeteries, the following resources are available at the Alexandria Library, Special Collections
- Bruch, Virginia Irene. Beneath the Oaks of Ivy Hill. Alexandria, Virginia, 1982.
- Kaye, Ruth Lincoln. St. Paul's Cemetery Records. Alexandria, VA, October 1991.
- Miller, T. Michael. Burials in St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery, Alexandria, Virginia. Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1986.
- Miller, T. Michael. "Ghosts, Goblins & Graveyards--A History of Alexandria Cemeteries" in Artisans & Merchants of Alexandria, Virginia, Vol. II,, Appendix VIII. Includes tombstone transcriptions and burial data for the following cemeteries:
- Old Presbyterian Meeting House Cemetery;
- First Presbyterian Church Cemetery;
- Trinity Methodist Cemetery;
- Christ Church Cemeteries (N. Washington St. & upper Wilkes Street);
- Methodist Protestant Cemetery;
- Penny Hill Cemetery;
- Spa Spring Cemetery;
- Old Methodist Independent Meeting House Cemetery;
- Fendall Family Cemetery;
- Shuter's Hill Cemetery;
- Quaker Cemetery.
- Miller, T. Michael. Burials in St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery Alexandria, Virginia 1798-1983. Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, Inc., 1986.
- Pippenger, Wesley E. Tombstone Inscriptions of Alexandria, Virginia. Westminster, MD: Family Line Publications. Vols. 1, 2, 3, 4. Includes tombstone transcriptions and burial data for:
- First Old Presbyterian Meeting House Cemetery;
- Presbyterian Church Cemetery;
- Trinity United Methodist Church Cemetery;
- Home of Peace Cemetery;
- Agudas Achim;
- Cemetery; Penny Hill Cemetery;
- Union Cemetery of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South;
- Freedmen's or Contraband Cemetery;
- Methodist Protestant Cemetery;
- Quaker Cemetery;
- Auld Family Cemetery;
- Black Baptist Cemetery;
- Bloxham Cemetery;
- Dove Family Cemetery;
- Fendall Family Cemetery;
- Goings Family Cemetery;
- Howard Family Cemetery;
- Moore-Holland Cemeter;
- Shuters Hill Cemetery;
- Terrett Family Cemetery;
- Trisler Family Cemetery;
- Christ Church Cemeteries;
- Douglass Memorial Cemetery;
- Lebanon Union Church Cemetery;
- Oakland Baptist Church Cemetery;
- Summers Family Cemetery;
- Theological Seminary Cemetery;
- and Bethel Cemetery.
