Historic Greenwood Cemetery
Greenwood Cemetery was organized in 1874 to serve the needs of the growing black population of post-civil war St. Louis and St. Louis County. It was the first commercial non-sectarian cemetery for African Americans in the St Louis metropolitan area. More than 50,000 Africans Americans are buried within Greenwood’s 31.85 acres. Greenwood Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 26, 2004.

Promise and Progress

Click here to check out our Events Blog. You can learn about the restoration progress at Historic Greenwood Cemetery. 

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Notable Burials

  • Harriet Robinson Scott, wife of Dred Scott
  • Lucy Ann Delaney, wife of Zechariah Delaney, a free woman of color and courage in pre-Civil War St. Louis​

Records and Research

A number of different records and research projects are currently underway. The Greenwood Cemetery Restoration Association plans on uploading and providing digital burial records, headstone information, obituaries, and more. For more information about cemetery records and historical research, please fill out our Contact Us form, or contact Greenwood Cemetery Historian and Archivist, Etta Daniels at ettadaniels@charter.net.

Greenwood Cemetery Legacy

There is no doubt of Greenwood’s historic, cultural, and social importance to St. Louis, and particularly St. Louis African Americans. Verification of that came in Feb. of 2004 when, due to the efforts of the Friends of Greenwood, the cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Knowledgeable informants speak of the black musicians, civil rights leaders and other key individuals associated with the development of black St. Louis buried there. Although the condition of the cemetery and many of its stones, as well as incomplete burial records, currently make it difficult to verify some this oral information, Greenwood offers enormous promise as an educational and tourist resource.
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