Richmond Cemeteries

Exploring Richmond Virginia’s Historic Burial Grounds

Author: RyanSmith

  • Introducing the Friends of Maury & Mt. Olivet

    Historic cemeteries increasingly rely on groups of descendants and volunteers to bring fresh energy and care to their sites. The city of Richmond is the beneficiary of one more of these groups with the creation of the Friends of Maury & Mt. Olivet Cemeteries in 2026. Though the two cemeteries have always been managed as…

  • Richmond city staff and partners

    The city of Richmond’s latest weekly newsletter, “Hey Richmond,” offers a key update in the saga of the city’s African American cemeteries. Briefly, in 2024, the city of Richmond formally acquired ownership of East End Cemetery, Evergreen Cemetery, and Forest View Cemetery, three African American cemeteries that had fallen into legal limbo with the dissolution…

  • RIP, Bill

    This past fall, I got to attend an open house event at the Valentine for educators. The museum’s staff and collections are always excellent. I’ve taken my students there for field trips, and I have used the collections extensively for my cemetery research. That evening’s open house event was lively and inspiring, and I got…

  • RIP, Eddie

    Richmond does not have many architectural historians. We lost one of our best on December 15, with the passing of Edward Slipek. There have been noteworthy tributes to his work, by Rich Griset in his beloved Style Weekly here and here, by Scott Bass and Harry Kollatz in Richmond Magazine here. His official obituary is…

  • Barton Heights walking tour

    On Saturday, 9/13/2025, the Richmond Cemetery Collaboratory and its community partners celebrated the release of a walking tour guide for Richmond’s historic Barton Heights Cemeteries. The cemeteries themselves, founded in 1815 by a society of free black Richmonders, do not have welcome signage or tour support. In an effort to provide a resource to area…

  • Preliminary designs for the memorial on the hillside

    On July 12, 2025, the design team that the City of Richmond commissioned for a memorial plan for the core of the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground unveiled its proposals for the site at 1305 N. Fifth Street. The design team is led by architect Burt Pinnock of the Baskervill firm, who has overseen memorials…

  • A change at Woodland Cemetery

    Since 2020, Marvin Harris has been the driving force behind the Woodland Restoration Foundation. Working with Henrico County, the City of Richmond, descendant families, and ongoing volunteers, his foundation was able to acquire the beleaguered cemetery from the former private owner, as detailed in this post. The cemetery’s legacy is enormous, for Woodland Cemetery, founded…

  • University of Richmond’s new memorial

    On April 21, 2025, the University of Richmond unveiled its new memorial on the site of a long troubled burial ground associated with African American burials. That burial ground, on the site of the former Westham plantation, predates the creation of the campus around Westhampton Lake, but the university has repeatedly and knowingly disturbed the…

  • Protests at St. John’s, then and now

    Yesterday the St. John’s Church Foundation celebrated the 250th anniversary of Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty, or give me death” speech delivered at Richmond’s St. John’s Church during the second Virginia Convention in 1775. In the afternoon, following the parish’s ordinary Sunday worship service, the Foundation delivered three formal reenactments of the convention with Henry’s…

  • Richmond Cemetery Collaboratory symposium, 3/29/2025

    Something really cool is happening at the Library of Virginia on Saturday, March 29. That day, the Library of Virginia will be hosting a symposium put together by the Richmond Cemetery Collaboratory. Titled “Cultivating Perpetual Care Communities:A Richmond Cemetery Collaboratory Symposium,” this free event will run from 9:00am to 4:00pm. The symposium will explore how…