West Point Cemetery

History

West Point Cemetery was Norfolk’s first municipal African American cemetery. It was established as such in 1827 after an ordinance provided for their interment in a section of Potter’s Field just north of the Borough limits. The area was sectioned off exclusively for the burial of black citizens in 1852 and named Calvary in 1873.

A unique aspect of West Point is the sacred ground that an appreciative African-American community dedicated as the final resting place for those local heroes who served their country and their race as soldiers and sailors in the Civil War. Known as the Sycamore Gardens section, 58 soldiers and sailors are interred there today.

When federal policy allowed the Union army to enlist blacks, Norfolk was one of the few major cities in the South where blacks could be recruited because the area had been re-occupied by Union forces. About 1200 local blacks served. They distinguished themselves at the battles of Chaffin Farms, New Market Heights, Fair Oaks, Dutch Gap, and the sieges of Petersburg and Richmond. Many were cited for bravery and awarded medals.

In the 1870s, with their newly-acquired political power, Norfolk blacks began to assert themselves and insist that the city provide publicly supported institutions to their community comparable to those that whites had. There was no city-owned burial ground for blacks; thus in 1873 the land upon which West Point Cemetery rests, at the time known as Potter’s Field, was designated as a burial ground for blacks and re-named Calvary Cemetery.

Foreseeing that a larger cemetery would soon be needed for Norfolk’s growing black population, the Norfolk City Council purchased 53 acres of Thomas Ballentine’s property northeast of the city and passed an 1877 ordinance rescinding the naming of the earlier cemetery Calvary, and designated the new property as Calvary Cemetery. The cemetery established in 1873 continued to be known as Potter’s Field; however, because the name suggests that it was the resting place for paupers, blacks with means preferred not to inter their loved ones there.

Norfolk’s first black city council member, James Fuller, decided to rectify the situation in 1885 by proposing that the cemetery be named West Point, for it was located along the western side of Elmwood Cemetery. The council approved Fuller’s motion and adopted his later motion that a section of West Point “…be dedicated as a special place of burial for black Union veterans…” Thus, Section No. 20 was “donated to the Directors of the Union Veterans Hall Association for the burial of the members of the Grand Army of the Republic.”

After the city granted land to the Veteran’s Association, the committee named the area Sycamore Gardens and decided to have a monument erected in honor of their fallen comrades. Over a span of more than two decades, Fuller and others slowly raised money by selling pies, chicken dinners, and tickets for raffles and concerts. By 1906, they had enough funds for the construction of the base of the monument. James Fuller died in 1909. A host of churches, lodges, and civic and social groups operating under the leadership of the Norfolk Memorial Association continued the fundraising crusade until the monument was completed in 1920.*

*Excerpted from the National Register of Historic Places Nomination, Section 8, Page 3 Statement of Significance

West Point Cemetery was placed on the National Registry for Historic Places on May 3, 2007.

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)

*West Point Cemetery no longer has graves for sale.

Cemetery Hours

Sunrise to Sunset

Aerial Photograph & Plot Information

Click here for an aerial view of West Point Cemetery.
Click here for a map of the West Point 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 West Point 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 interested in volunteering to help us collect genealogical information, restore and preserve West Point cemetery? If so, please click here for more information.