Greenwood Cemetery - St. Louis, MO - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

The Greenwood Cemetery was established by Herman Krueger in 1874. In the post Civil War era Krueger saw the need and potential profitablility of a private non-sectarian black cemetery. Greenwood was the first commericial burial ground for area African Americans, maintaining the Jim Crow law segregration in life and death. Kruger sold the cemetery to his son-in-law Adam Foelsch in 1890. The Foelsch family lived on the property and maintained the cemetery in park-like setting until 1981 when they sold the cemetery. With desegregation the need for separate cemeteries ended, that along with the lack of perpetual funding has led to rapid deterioraton of the cemetery. Since early 1980's, the cemetery has become over grown, vandalized and a dumping ground for trash. Even with the deterioriating conditions burials continued into the 1990's. It is estimated there are more then 50,000 bodies buried at Greenwood, 31 + acres, though records are incomplete. In 1999 the Friends of Greenwood Cemetery Association, Inc. a not for profit organization was formed and they along with many organizations have begun cleaning and restoring the cemetery. The progress has been slow and the task daunting.

Street address: 6571 St. Louis Ave Hillsdale , Missouri County / Borough / Parish: St. Louis County Year listed: 2004 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Event Periods of significance: 1850-1974 Historic function: Cemetery Current function: Cemetery Privately owned?: no Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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