Rosewood Cemetery
Posted by: Groundspeak Regular Member jhuoni
N 29° 16.052 W 094° 49.758
15R E 322271 N 3239014
Rosewood Cemetery can be found on 63rd street, off of Seawall Blvd. The marker is located inside the cemetery gate.
Waymark Code: WMRBNJ
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 06/05/2016
Published By:Groundspeak Premium Member QuesterMark
Views: 10

The land which was once Rosewood Cemetery is now hotels. Records show almost 450 interments, but less than 50 headstones remain.
Marker Number: 16369

Marker Text:

On January 30, 1911, a group of African American Galvestonians formed the Rosewood Cemetery Association. The citizens purchased more than eight acres from the Joe Levy Family near the beach, just west of the termination of Seawall Boulevard. Prior to the establishment of Rosewood Cemetery, African American citizens were prevented from interring their dead at most of the city's cemeteries.

Individuals, churches and organizations, such as the Norris Wright Cuney Lodge No. 63 of the Colored Knights of Pythias, purchased shares in the association. Association minutes indicate that individual plots were sold for $10 each, with an additional $2 grave digging charge; plots for the burial of children cost $6.50. The first interment was that of Robert Bailey, an infant who died on February 1, 1912. The cemetery was utilized into the 1940's, although most of the identified burials date from 1914 and 1915. The last known burial occurred in June 1944, when Frank Boyer was interred.

In 1951, the city of Galveston began acquiring undeveloped portions of the cemetery for the extension of the Seawall west of 61st St. This construction blocked the natural outlet of Green's Bayou and created flooding in the cemetery and may have contributed to a reduction in its use. Beginning in the late 1950's, the land on which the cemetery sat was gradually sold to developers, and by the late 1990's, Rosewood had disappeared from many city maps. In 2006, just over one acre of the original cemetery property was donated to the Galveston Historical Foundation, in an effort to preserve what was left of this important site.

Historic Texas Cemetery 2004
Marker is Property of the State of Texas


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Bon Echo visited Rosewood Cemetery 06/06/2016 Bon Echo visited it