Established in 1806, Old City Cemetery is the oldest public cemetery in Virginia still in use today. It is the most visited historic site in the City of Lynchburg and is Central Virginia’s most unique public garden.
The Old City Cemetery, established in 1806, is one of the oldest public cemeteries in the United States still in use today. Mayors and other prominent civic leaders, along with the city’s indigent and “strangers,” are among the estimated 15,000 people buried here. Two thirds of those interred here are of African descent, both enslaved and free. The cemetery’s Confederate section contains the graves of more than 2,200 soldiers from 14 states. Museums on the property interpret the diverse history of this rehabilitated graveyard and its inhabitants. Today, Old City Cemetery is the most visited historic site in the City of Lynchburg and is Central Virginia’s most unique public garden. It is a Virginia Historic Landmark on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Southern Memorial Association, founded in 1866, is now a non-profit, tax-exempt organization whose purpose is to manage, preserve, and interpret the Old City Cemetery, or Old Methodist Cemetery, of Lynchburg, including its graves and gravemarkers, archives, museums, and horticulture.
