Lynchburg Living

Departments

By Kimberly Feldkamp

“A lovely and intelligent child, born in Lynchburg, has unknowingly provided a phrase apt for the subject of this book’s content. Her name for the cemetery is ‘grave garden.’ The Old City Cemetery is just that, especially in the flood time of spring and when autumn brings its glory to the sugar maples.” -From the Introduction to Behind the Brick Wall “A Cemetery Story” by Philip Lightfoot Scruggs

You’ve probably driven by it hundreds of times. The sign for Old City Cemetery sits on the corner of Fourth and Taylor Streets. Hopefully, you’ve also taken the time to drive through it.

The Grave Garden, also known as Old City Cemetery, is 26 acres of rolling hills, sprawling, weepy, majestic trees and bright, blooming flowers, all growing and blossoming among a lot of history. Established in 1806 on land given by the city’s founder John Lynch, Old City Cemetery is a place that honors both Lynchburg’s famous and the city’s forgotten. About 15,000 citizens are buried there, though only about 2,500 tombstones remain. Most of those tombstones belong to the Confederate soldiers buried in the Confederate section of the cemetery. Those tombstones that have weathered the test of time and do remain are scattered throughout the grounds and are slowly beginning to crumble and chip away; fading markers to remember those who have been left behind.

“Most of the people buried here couldn’t afford tombstones,” Dawn Fields Wise, Public Relations and Visitor Services Manager, said. “Old City Cemetery prided itself on the fact that it accepted everyone: the common man, Lynchburg citizens and businessmen, as well as slaves to prominent black business owners. From 1806 to 1856, this was the only place that allowed anyone of color to be buried here.”

Wise explained that most of those buried here used different types of flowers to mark the graves, from orca plants to periwinkle “death flowers,” since they couldn’t afford to use anything else.

It was that inspiration of using flowers, plants and trees to remember those left behind, Wise explained, that led the cemetery to start its own horticultural project during the 1985 restoration project.

Old City Cemetery is more than just a cemetery; it’s also an arboretum of historical plants, medicinal herbs, antique roses and hundreds of native and ornamental trees. This cemetery Grave Garden is a historical, educational, inspiring place, right in our own backyard.

The Planting Season

The Grave Garden had become quite run-down and overgrown, often a garbage dumping ground for citizens to throw away old appliances and other unwanted junk. In 1985, it was decided that something needed to be done to clean up the cemetery, to bring it back to what it once had been.

Jan Baber White, a member of the Southern Memorial Association, had family buried in the cemetery and she became the driving force behind the project. As the Restoration Chairwoman, it was her labor of love to breathe life back into the cemetery, to bring it back to its beautiful, historical roots.

“The replanting of Old City Cemetery included only plants that would have been growing here more than 100 years ago,” Wise said. “We wanted to make it as historically accurate as possible to what it would’ve been like hundreds of years ago.”

There were a lot of Victorian symbols of death, like the wilted roses and Weeping Willow trees etched into tombstones, which drove the restoration, Wise explained, as she pointed out one of the rose carvings in a tombstone.

The Growing Season

“There have always been roses here,” Wise said, “but never as many as there are today.”

The restoration team started planting roses wherever they found them on tombstones. The Antique Rose collection, which includes more than 60 varieties from 1581 through the 19^th century, was planted in 1986 along the 500 foot remains of an 1860s brick wall that wraps around the Confederate section. Some of the plants came from local gardens, others from across the United States and Canada.

“We are well-known for the blooming roses,” Wise said. “The peak is in May, but we do have some roses that bloom throughout the cemetery through the summer and even into the late fall.”

The roses, which were planted in chronological order by their date of introduction, are botanically labeled throughout the cemetery.

The stunning rose bushes aren’t the only bountiful plant in the Grave Garden. More than 100 different varieties of trees also grow on the grounds here. There are gnarled catalpas, sugar maples, huge American hollies, an American boxwood hedge and Atlantic White Cedars, along with oak and magnolia trees that form the landscape around the grounds.

“One of my favorite parts of the cemetery is the Earley Memorial Shrub Garden,” Wise pointed out on a tour of the Grave Garden. “It’s so beautiful back here–we even have wedding ceremonies here.”

The shrub garden contains more than 50 varieties of shrubs, small flowering trees and antique daffodils.

“A lot of what you see here today is what you would’ve found in a garden in the 19^th century,” Wise said. “And no matter what time of year you come here, there will also be something in this garden that is in bloom.”

Something else that makes the shrub garden special, besides the majestic pecan tree, are the historical elements here, Wise explained.

“We have an old church steeple, the College Hill Reservoir Pitcher from 1890–even old train depot columns–that were brought in to be a part of the shrub garden,” Wise said. “There’s just so much Lynchburg history here and it’s just so beautiful to see it in this setting.”

Besides the vast array of flowering plants in the Earley Memorial Shrub Garden, the Grave Garden also contains a Medicinal Herb Garden, which contains herbs that were often used in the 19^th century to treat a variety of illnesses. You’ll also find a peaceful lotus pond here and a butterfly garden, which boasts a great variety of butterflies during the spring, summer and fall months.

The Blooming Season

For most of us, the thought of bright, blooming flowers almost always elicits thoughts of spring, when everything is budding and growing after a dormant winter. But, one thing that makes the Grave Garden unique is that it doesn’t matter what time of year it is, there is always something in bloom.

“We wanted it that way,” Wise said. “So even if you drive through here in the cold, dreary months of January and February–in the heart of the winter time–you’ll find something alive and blooming.”

Visitors will even find a list of what they can expect to find blooming during the year. In the winter, witch hazels and hollies are in season; in April, the daffodils, winter honeysuckles, lilacs and crabapple trees are just a few of the plants sprouting new life. In July, the daylilies and Sophora trees take center stage, while the second and third week of October is the peak of the fall color for the sugar maples.

“It was calculated and took a lot of planning to make it this way,” Wise explained. “But it’s a garden, so we always wanted people to be able to find something beautiful here.”

The Learning Season

Don’t know a daffodil from a hydrangea? Don’t worry. This grave garden is a walking education lesson. All plants are labeled so guests can stroll the grounds and still know what they’re looking at in bloom. For those desiring a little more guidance, the Grave Garden offers multiple tours, educational lessons and activities. There are guided tours that sometimes involved costumed docents that can be arranged to cover many different areas throughout the cemetery, including Lynchburg’s Founding Fathers and Mothers or the Pest House, with its medicinal herbs and Civil War Pestilence.

There’s also a Kids Haven Memorial Area and plenty of different educational tours available.

“We have a lot of schools that come here and we’ll do different lessons,” Wise said. “The kids can learn about composting or watch the butterflies and learn about the history that’s here.”

Then there’s the popular Candlelit Tours in October (see Calendar for details), where professional actors in period costumes portray true stories of Cemetery residents.

“We sell out for this every year,” Wise said. “We do five tours each night, the last two weekends in October, and it’s just so much fun.”

So, the next time you’re driving by the corner of Fourth and Taylor Streets and see the sign for the Old City Cemetery, hopefully you’ll decide to take the time to take a drive through it, and discover everything that you never knew was right in Lynchburg’s Grave Garden.