Cedar Grove Cemetery

History

Cedar Grove Cemetery was established as Norfolk’s first municipal cemetery in 1824 following the enactment of an ordinance restricting the creation and/or use of private burial grounds within city limits.

Like Elmwood Cemetery, Cedar Grove was designed in the Victorian park fashion. It is different from Elmwood Cemetery in that it has several large family vaults which were popular from 1830 – 1870. These vaults are half above ground and half below ground and are usually an arched structure of masonry or concrete containing either shelves or enclosed spaces inside upon/in which to place coffins. Family vaults could hold up to 20 family members. Cedar Grove also has some unusual honeycomb tombs wherein a rectangular chamber is enclosed by an arc of outer walling so that the graves multiply outwards from the original single cell at the center.

Cedar Grove is also the site of Norfolk’s Yellow Fever epidemic mass burials. Yellow fever struck Norfolk in 1795, 1802, 1821 and 1855. At the height of the 1821 and 1855 epidemics, nearly 100 Norfolk citizens died on a daily basis. The bodies were loaded onto a wagon and brought to Cedar Grove Cemetery. If the family had a lot, the body was buried on the family lot. If the family had no lot, the body was buried in a mass grave.

Notable burials in Cedar Grove include a many Civil War officers and Norfolk founding fathers.

Cedar Grove Cemetery has been approved for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. Bureau staff and volunteers are working to have it added to the National Register in 2012.

Contact Information

238 Princess Anne Road, Norfolk, Virginia 23510, Phone (757) 441-2653, Fax (757) 441-1332 (map)

Office Hours

Monday - Friday 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., Saturday 9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m., Closed Sunday (Appointments available by request)

*Cedar Grove Cemetery no longer has graves for sale.

Cemetery Hours

Sunrise to Sunset

Aerial Photograph & Plot Information

Click here for an aerial view of Cedar Grove Cemetery.
Click here for a map of the Cedar Grove Cemetery.

*USGenWeb Archives, a cooperative network of volunteers that provides genealogical information on the Internet, has partnered with the Bureau of Cemeteries to provide an interment catalogue of Cedar Grove Cemetery. This catalogue is not complete. It is updated from Bureau records every six months. The Bureau is working to provide an official, accurate, searchable City interment database online. If you cannot locate an interment, please call (757) 441-2654 or e-mail bobette.nelson@norfolk.gov for more information. To access the catalog, click here.

Are you intereted in volunteering to help us collect genealogical information, restore and preserve Cedar Grove cemetery? If so, please click here for more information.