Greenwood Cemetery is a historic cemetery established in 1874, and located at 6571 St. Louis Avenue in
Hillsdale, Missouri
Hillsdale is a village in St. Louis County, Missouri, United States. The population was 1,478 at the 2010 census.
Geography
Hillsdale is located at (38.683451, -90.286070).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total a ...
. This was the first non-denominational commercial cemetery for African-Americans in the St. Louis area.
It was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
in February 24, 2004.
History
Greenwood Cemetery was established in 1874 by Herman Krueger, it has approximately 6,000 marked graves but is thought to contain up to 50,000 burials.
In 1890, the cemetery was sold to Krueger's son-in-law, Adolph Foelsch; the Foelsch family owned and operated the cemetery, including manufacturing concrete tombstones, until 1981. Those buried at Greenwood include former enslaved people, war veterans, members of fraternal organizations, artists, laborers and middle class African-Americans, as well as a number of famous and prominent African-Americans from St. Louis.
Many of the people buried at Greenwood were originally from southern states and had participated in the Great Migration north. Funerals were numerous in Greenwood in the mid-twentieth century, but with desegregation, the cemetery saw a decline in use. In the 1980s it began to go derelict. It permanently closed in the 1990s and continued to stand abandoned for most of a decade. In 1999, the nonprofit group Friends of Greenwood Cemetery, Inc. was formed for the purpose of restoring and preserving the site as a historic park. Eventually the group gained ownership of the cemetery.
Volunteers from the Greenwood Cemetery Preservation Association have worked to maintain the grounds and preserve African American history.
Other nearby historic African American cemetery include the
Washington Park Cemetery
Washington Park Cemetery is a historic African-American cemetery active from 1920 until 1980 and located in Berkeley, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. Large-scale disinterment occurred over several decades for various construction pro ...
(1920),
Father Dickson Cemetery
Father Dickson Cemetery is a historic African-American cemetery located on 845 South Sappington Road in Crestwood, St. Louis County, Missouri.
It has been listed as one of the National Register of Historic Places since October 6, 2021.
Histor ...
(1903), and
Quinette Cemetery
Quinette Cemetery is a historic landmark and African-American burial ground located in Kirkwood, Missouri, a suburb of the city of St. Louis, Missouri, St. Louis.
History
The Quinette Cemetery was established in 1866, originally associated wi ...
(1866).
Notable interments
*
Walter Davis (1910–1963), blues musician
*
Grant Green
Grant Green (June 6, 1935 – January 31, 1979) was an American jazz guitarist and composer.
Recording prolifically for Blue Note Records as both leader and sideman, Green performed in the hard bop, soul jazz, bebop, and Latin-tinged idioms ...
(1935–1979), jazz musician
*
Harriet Robinson Scott
Harriet Robinson Scott (c. 1820 – June 17, 1876) was an African American woman who fought for her freedom alongside her husband, Dred Scott, for eleven years. Their legal battle culminated in the infamous Supreme Court of the United States, U ...
(1815–1876), wife of
Dred Scott
Dred Scott (c. 1799 – September 17, 1858) was an enslaved African American man who, along with his wife, Harriet, unsuccessfully sued for freedom for themselves and their two daughters in the '' Dred Scott v. Sandford'' case of 1857, popula ...
*
Lee Shelton
Lee Shelton (March 16, 1865 – March 11, 1912), popularly known as "Stagolee," "Stagger Lee," "Stack-O-Lee," and other variations, was an American criminal who became a figure of folklore after murdering Billy Lyons on December 25th, 1895. The ...
(1865–1912; also known as “Stagger” Lee), American folk figure
*
Charlton Tandy
Charlton "Charles" Hunt Tandy (1836 – 1919) was an African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Af ...
(1836–1919), public official, civil rights activist, lawyer, newspaper publisher
See also
*
References
External links
*
*
*
Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in Missouri
Buildings and structures in St. Louis County, Missouri
National Register of Historic Places in St. Louis County, Missouri
1874 establishments in Missouri
Cemeteries established in the 1870s
African-American history of Missouri
{{StLouisCountyMO-NRHP-stub