City Cemetery

City Cemetery is the City's first public burial site. , Raleigh's City Cemetery, established in 1798 just outside the city limits on East Street, was the principal burying ground for Raleigh's citizens until the late nineteenth century. , The City of Raleigh, established in 1792 as the state capital, felt an almost immediate need for a public cemetery. In 1798, the state General Assembly enabled the city commissioners to utilize up to four acres of state-owned land located adjacent to the city for a “public burying ground.” , The four-acre cemetery was laid into four squares bisected by driveways: the north two for citizens, the south west one for “strangers,” and the southeast one for “Negroes and persons of color.” , Expanded in several stages to 7.46 acres, the cemetery was enclosed in 1898 by the decorative cast-iron fence that had formerly surrounded Capitol Square. Approximately 1,800 monuments crowd the cemetery's park-like grounds, generally arranged in family plots with masonry borders. By the late 1800s, the plots were sold out. , The Raleigh Historic Sites Commission and the Wake County Historical Society have erected plaques at the graves of especially important individuals. A monument near the main entrance contains a list and a map of forty-one historically significant graves. , City Cemetery contains designs, monuments, markers, walkways, plot borders and other features which connect visitors to Raleigh's historical past. , We ask for your acknowledgement of the sanctity of this site and ask that you use the site in a manner which preserves its features and amenities for future generations. , Text: Courtesy of Ruth Little