Laurel Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland

Date: 1852 to 1958
Location: 2401 Belair Road, Baltimore, Maryland 21213
Surnames/tags: black_heritage Maryland Laurel_Cemetery

US Black Heritage Project

For the Cemetery Category, see Category:Laurel Hill Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland

Contents 1 Laurel Cemetery (1852-1958) 2 How WikiTree Can Help 2.1 Categories and Stickers 3 Sources

Laurel Cemetery (1852-1958)

Address: 2401 Belair Road, Baltimore, Maryland 21213. See the Laurel Cemetery Memorial Project Website for a map

GPS Coordinates: 39.31791, -76.57700

Find A Grave ID: 2660000

In July 1852, Laurel Cemetery Co. became the first nonsectarian cemetery for the exclusive use of the Black community in the Baltimore area.

During the Civil War, the federal government seized a portion of the cemetery for use as a national cemetery. By 1866, 230 Black Civil War veterans had been buried there. Some time between 1886 and 1911, these veterans were moved to National Cemetery on Frederick Avenue.

Due to decline in the care of the cemetery and local community members using it as a dumping ground, residents began to call for its removal in the 1940s. In 1957, legislation was passed claiming it had become a health hazard. "After the legislation passed, members of the city's Law Department formed a dummy corporation and bought the cemetery, more than 15 acres of prime land, for $100."

Bulldozers overturned the grounds including those buried and the headstones to make way for a department store and parking lot. Food Depot, Maxway and the Disabled American Veterans thrift store now sit on the original site of Laurel Cemetery in the 2500 block of Belair Road. "For many years after the cemetery's removal, human bones would occasionally be found protruding from the hill behind the department store. The bones ended up as souvenirs in the collections of local citizens."

Although it was claimed those interred were removed, it is estimated only about a dozen were moved with their headstones and reinterred in Carroll County. Original estimates claimed more than 5000 people were interred in Laurel Cemetery between 1937 and 1958, however researchers have already accounted for more than 19,000 in total. New estimates believe the numbers may reach as high as 30,000. Researchers are using death certificates to recreate a list of those laid to rest at Laurel Cemetery, now buried beneath the Belair-Edison Crossing shopping center, its parking lot, and the adjacent road.

How WikiTree Can Help

• Our goal is to create a WikiTree profile for each person listed on the spreadsheet linked below and attach as much family to that profile as we can. The ultimate goal is to assist the Laurel Cemetery Memorial Project in connecting these precious souls to their descendants.

• Create Find A Grave Memorials for each person interred at Laurel Cemetery. No headstones exist for these burials! Death certificates are the only means of creating a memorial. In the biography for each Find A Grave memorial, be sure to state the fact that no headstones exist for this cemetery. (There are currently 6 photo requests for the cemetery!)

Whether you're creating WikiTree Profiles or Find A Grave Memorials, Please see this spreadsheet of the people so far identified who were interred at Laurel Cemetery. Only people who have been given access to the spreadsheet will be able to view and edit it. Please contact Emma for access.

Please add a link to each new WikiTree profile and Find A Grave Memorial on the spreadsheet.

You can find images of the original death records at

Baltimore City Death Records 1875-1972 and [1]

Categories and Stickers

Please add the {{African-American Sticker}} to all profiles of people with US Black heritage.

Please add the cemetery category to all profiles of those who were buried in Laurel.

[[Category:Laurel Hill Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland]]

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Please add this sticker to all profiles of those who were buried in Laurel.

{{Occupation

|image=US_Black_Heritage_Project_Images-2.jpg

|text=was laid to rest in [[Space:Laurel_Cemetery%2C_Baltimore%2C_Maryland|Laurel Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland]].

}}

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Please add the descendant category to all profiles of those who are descendants of those buried in Laurel.

[[Category: Laurel Hill Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland, Descendants]]

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Please add this sticker to all profiles of the descendants of those who were buried in Laurel.

{{Descendant

|image=US_Black_Heritage_Project_Images-2.jpg

|id=[[Space:Laurel_Cemetery%2C_Baltimore%2C_Maryland|an ancestor laid to rest at Laurel Cemetery]]

}}

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Sources

• Laurel Cemetery Memorial Project Website
• Laurel Cemetery on Find A Grave
• Maryland State Archives
• Laurel Cemetery A long-forgotten cemetery
• AIA Baltimore & Baltimore Architecture Foundation Remembering Laurel Cemetery
• Baltimore Heritage Five Minute Histories: Laurel Cemetery