Oakwood Cemetery (Austin, Texas)

Oakwood Cemetery, originally called City Cemetery, is the oldest city-owned cemetery in Austin, Texas. Situated on a hill just east of I-35 that overlooks downtown Austin, just north of the Swedish Hill Historic District and south of Disch-Falk Field, the once-isolated site is now in the center of the city.

City Cemetery
Comal St. entrance to the cemetery in 2018
Location16th & Navasota
Austin, Texas, US
Coordinates30°16′36″N 97°43′35″W
MPSEast Austin MRA
NRHP reference No.85002297[1]
Added to NRHPSeptember 17, 1985

History

The cemetery dates from the mid-1850s. It may have begun even earlier, as legend states that its first tenants were victims of a Comanche attack whose bodies were laid to rest on the same hill.

The cemetery was renamed Oakwood in 1907 per city ordinance. It spreads over 40 acres (160,000 m2), including an annex across Comal Street to the east, and includes sections historically dedicated to the city's black, Latino, and Jewish populations. Paupers were historically buried in unmarked graves on the cemetery's south side. Graves without permanent markers were subject to reburial after a given period.

In 1914 the Oakwood Cemetery Mortuary Chapel was built on a design by Texas architect Charles Henry Page as a site for memorial services. The chapel was later renovated and remodeled in 1944 under the direction of local architect J. Roy White.[2]

The cemetery became a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1972 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985; its annex was added on October 30, 2003. The view of the Texas State Capitol from Comal Street in the center of the cemetery became one of the Capitol View Corridors protected under state and local law from obstruction by tall buildings in 1983.[3] Despite its protected status, the cemetery has been subject to crime, vandalism, and decay for decades.

Notable burials

References
  1. "NRHP nomination form" (PDF). Texas Historical Commission.
  2. "City of Austin Cemeteries – Introducing the Master Plan Process" (PPT). City of Austin. Retrieved July 19, 2017.
  3. "Downtown Development and Capitol View Corridors" (PDF). Downtown Austin Commission. June 27, 2007. Retrieved November 10, 2017.
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