
City Cemetery
City Cemetery, located on 7.68 acres at East and Hargett Streets and New Bern Avenue, is the oldest public cemetery in Raleigh, established by the NC General Assembly in 1798. Burials include founding fathers of Raleigh, legislators, free and slave African Americans, and stone masons from England and Scotland who helped build the state capitol building.
Database- see links panel for new 2011 Shaw-Blunt Database.
GIS Map of City Cemetery
Welcome to the GIS map for City Cemetery, which offers a resource for over 200 years of North Carolina history. The GIS map provides online research by name, date of birth, date of death, and grave marker location of those interred at City Cemetery, and you can use the GIS map to plan your own personal walking tour of the City Cemetery. The map includes both grave information and marker photos. (Instructions below).
How to use map:
1. Choose your search category
2. Enter the query into the blank field/box titled with your search category
3. Select Perform Search located in the upper left corner of the search box
4. Results will be located on the lower horizontal banner
5. Be sure to select “full details” on the left of the horizontal banner for more information and photos
6. Selecting the magnifying glass beside any result in the lower banner will zoom directly to that grave.
1. Enter the century of the year followed by ** into one of the search fields
2. For example to search for all those interred who were born in the 1800’s under Birth Year enter 18**
3. The wildcard “*” is flexible. It can be located anywhere in the search string. Ex: Death Year 1*00 returns 3 results all died in 1900. Birth Year 191* returns 54 results all born between 1910 and 1919.
1. To the original distance select the world icon on the top left
2. To the previous view select the counter-clockwise arrow
3. To zoom into a specific plot:
3a. Select the magnifying glass with a plus, or
3b. Create a square with your mouse atop the desired location
3c. Release the mouse
1. Select Identify button on the toolbar (Blue circle with little i in it)
2. Click the grave marker you wish to see information about
3. Then information will post in the right hand banner
4. Select full details to see all information and pictures
1. Perform a search
2. Select full details
3. Select the File tab
4. Choose Print
1. Select the printer icon on the header at the top left
2. Choose download image
3. Select the printer icon or select Ctrl+P
For more help select the Help Button on the top right.
National Register Nomination
City Cemetery was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in June 2008. To read this document, click on the link to pdf below.
Database
The Shaw-Blunt City Cemetery Database, also included below, is intended to be the definitive reference source for burials in CityCemetery. It represents the combination of the following works:
– Superintendent’s “black book” – compilation of grave sites based on physical inspection, dated about 1935
– Physical inventory done between 1979-1980 by Betsy J. Shaw and Robert Leon Shaw
– Elizabeth Norris records at Olivia Raney Local History Library, Raleigh, NC
– Database maintained by City of Raleigh Parks and Recreation Dept.
– US Census and Mortality Records
– Death Certificates of Wake County
– Wake County Historical Records Survey of North Carolina, 1939
This database will be periodically updated as new information is gathered. There are many institutional records yet to be reviewed that will provide a continuous source of new information. Should you have information to provide to the database, we would be delighted to receive it. Please send to: jthurman@rccpreservation.org
Links
City Cemetery National Register Nomination
City Cemetery Map and Walking Tour
City Cemetery List of Interred
City Cemetery List of African-American Interred