If you would like to support me on Patreon please visit   / scottontape  
Follow my Instagram   / scottontape  
If you would like to help support my travels and films you can PayPal me at https://www.paypal.me/scottontape99
Join my Facebook group Scottontape

#famousgraves #cemetery #cemeteries #abandonedplaces #abandoned

Music by Scottontape

The largely wooded and overgrown area just past the Scottish Rite Temple on 17th Street is the final resting place for Wilmington’s criminals, the indigent and the unknown.

Known as the “poor man’s burial ground,” Oak Grove Cemetery was established in 1870 by the city of Wilmington and later sold to New Hanover County. Now overgrown, the cemetery looks like a wooded area primed for an apartment complex or shopping center. The county received several offers from private developers, but between the tall pine trees is the final resting place for as many as 9,000 Wilmingtonians.

The last burial at Oak Grove took place prior to 17th Street’s extension in 1961. When the road was cut, some of the remains were transferred to Flemington Cemetery. The rest were left in place.

Author Bill Reaves, in his book titled “Oak Grove Cemetery,” told the StarNews in 2015 some families paid to be buried together, but the largest part of the cemetery was for the burial of blacks, another section was for whites and a third section was known as a potter’s field.

Established in 1870 by the city of Wilmington.
Ownership transferred to New Hanover County in 1882.
Active from 1870 to 1960 with approximately 10,000 people buried on the property.
75 percent black, 20 percent white, 10 percent unknown.
1961: Some graves were moved to Flemington, across the Cape Fear River, so 16th and 17th streets could be extended.