Magnolia Cemetery Mobile, Alabama · Est. 1836
Victorian monuments and cast iron fencing at Magnolia Cemetery

Since 1836

History

Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, Magnolia Cemetery documents much of the history of Mobile, Alabama.

Mobile is an old port city founded by French and later Spanish immigrants. As a Roman Catholic colony, burials took place in the original Catholic cemetery that stretched between Conti and Dauphin streets, in front of the present-day Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

Protestant English and American settlers began arriving early in the 19th century, and Church Street Cemetery was established by the City of Mobile in 1820. Within a decade it became apparent that more land would be needed. Like many coastal cities, Mobile was visited with yellow fever epidemics that killed hundreds of men, women and children.

  1. 1836

    A new burial ground outside the city

    Following a national trend to establish cemeteries away from crowded urban centers, the City purchased land beyond the city limits. The original 30-acre tract could be reached by carriage and, later, streetcars.

  2. 1847

    Lots for fraternal organizations

    The city began offering lots to fraternal organizations free of charge, so members who could not afford a plot were assured of a space through their dues. The practice was discontinued in 1873.

  3. 1862

    Soldier’s Rest

    Created with the onslaught of the Civil War and later renamed Confederate Rest.

  4. 1867

    The name Magnolia Cemetery

    What had been called New City Cemetery became Magnolia Cemetery by order of the City of Mobile on January 15.

  5. 1911

    Automobiles admitted

    The city council made provisions for automobiles to enter the cemetery, warning motorists that it was not to become a “speedway.” The worry that the machines might frighten a horse was termed a myth.

  6. 1912

    The first burial records

    Although the cemetery was city owned, no records of who was buried there were kept by city employees until this year. Before that it was up to the lot owner to know who was buried where, since many graves were never marked.

  7. Mid-1900s

    Forgotten and overgrown

    Mobilians had largely forgotten about Magnolia. A number of families moved ancestors and loved ones to newer perpetual care cemeteries. The city kept up only the roadways; maintaining a lot was the owner’s responsibility.

  8. 1981

    The Friends of Magnolia Cemetery

    Members of the Historic Mobile Preservation Society founded the Friends to conduct volunteer work days, clearing brush and grass that had obscured graves and monuments for decades.

  9. 1986

    National Register of Historic Places

    Magnolia Cemetery was listed, recognizing how completely it documents the history of Mobile.

  10. 1987

    The Friends take over operations

    The Friends entered into a contract with the City of Mobile to operate the cemetery and hire their own personnel. Funds the city once budgeted for roadways and paths were given to the organization each year.

  11. 1990s

    The memorial fence

    Funds were raised to restore broken funerary art, and a memorial fence program began replacing a rusted chain link fence. That iron fence now surrounds more than three-quarters of the cemetery.

  12. Today

    More than 100 acres

    Some 100,000 people are buried here, though fewer than 90,000 are known — many rest in older unmarked graves. The Friends raise money through memberships and memorials to run the office, and provide members an annual walking tour and three newsletters a year telling the colorful stories of the Mobilians buried here.

Who rests here

Notable Mobilians

In Confederate Rest and the National Cemetery within Magnolia Cemetery are buried war dead from the War of 1812 through Operation Iraqi Freedom.

  • Walter D. & Bessie Morse BellingrathFounders of Bellingrath Gardens
  • Augusta Evans WilsonCivil War authoress
  • Dr. Josiah NottRenowned physician
  • John GayleTwice Governor of Alabama
  • James BattleOwner of the Battle House Hotel
  • Michael KrafftFounder of the Cowbellian de Rakin Society
  • Braxton BraggConfederate general
  • Chappo GeronimoApache

Funerary art

Hope, mercy, forgiveness and memory

Angels, urns, anchors, lambs and crosses — the symbols carved here were a language every 19th-century Mobilian could read.

Marble effigy of a sleeping infant resting on a tasseled pillow atop the Mannie monument
A sleeping child, carved in marble
Carved marble lamb resting on the headstone of Murray Wheeler Burgett, who died in 1864 aged 14 months
A lamb for a child of fourteen months
Draped marble urn crowning the monument to Clara, who died in 1875
A draped urn: “Blessed are the pure in heart”
Two winged marble cherubs leaning on the edge of a monument
Cherubs keeping watch
Weathered stone figure of a young woman carrying a bouquet of roses
A stone girl with her roses
Clasped hands and a cross carved in a wreath on the Maguire monument, dated 1865
Clasped hands on the Maguire monument

Preservation

The challenge to present-day Mobilians

Magnolia Cemetery has always been a place of change, as it continues to be today. The needs are very real ones: to preserve this unique and vast urban cemetery for its past, for its present, and for its future.

Ways to help