Magnolia Cemetery (Mobile, Alabama)
Magnolia Cemetery (Mobile, Alabama)
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Magnolia Cemetery (Mobile, Alabama)

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1403033

Magnolia Cemetery (Mobile, Alabama)

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Magnolia Cemetery (Mobile, Alabama)

Magnolia Cemetery is a historic city cemetery located in Mobile, Alabama. Filled with many elaborate Victorian-era monuments, it spans more than 100 acres (40 ha). It served as Mobile's primary, and almost exclusive, burial place during the 19th century. It is the final resting place for many of Mobile's 19th- and early 20th-century citizens. The cemetery is roughly bounded by Frye Street to the north, Gayle Street to the east, and Ann Street to the west. Virginia Street originally formed the southern border before the cemetery was expanded and now cuts east–west through the center of the cemetery. Magnolia contains more than 80,000 burials and remains an active, though very limited, burial site today.

Magnolia Cemetery was established by municipal ordinance on an initial 36 acres (15 ha) parcel outside the city limits in 1836 as Mobile's New Burial Ground. The cemetery grew to its present size with the addition of the numerous new sections.

The Jewish Rest section, also known as the Old Hebrew Burial Ground, was deeded to Congregation Sha'arai Shomayim, the oldest Reform Jewish congregation in the state of Alabama, by the City of Mobile on June 22, 1841. Jewish Rest is the oldest Jewish burial ground in Alabama. The Jewish Rest section was full after only a few decades and led to the establishment of two additional Jewish cemeteries in Mobile, the Sha'arai Shomayim Cemetery for the Reform congregation and the Ahavas Chesed Cemetery for the Conservative congregation.

In 1846 the city began to grant free burial plots within the cemetery to civic, labor, and religious organizations. The Coal Handlers Union, Colored Benevolent Institution Number One, Cotton Weighers Society, Draymens Relief Society, Homeless Seamen, Independent Ladies Mill and Timber Association, and the Protestant Orphan Asylum Society were among those organizations to take advantage of this policy until it was ended in 1873.

The Confederate Rest section was added on November 25, 1861 for Confederate soldiers. It was initially called Soldiers Rest. The Mobile National Cemetery annex was established immediately after the war, on May 11, 1866, when the city donated 3 acres (1.2 ha) to the United States government for use as a National Cemetery. The cemetery as a whole was renamed Magnolia Cemetery on January 15, 1867.

On August 20, 1868 the 7 acres (2.8 ha) Goldsmith and Frohlichstein extension was added to the cemetery, adjacent to the Jewish Rest section. The elevated and highly desirable plots in this section eventually became the resting place for both Jews and Gentiles, and came to contain some of the more elaborate sculptures and mausolea in the entire cemetery. The cemetery was enclosed with a fence in 1883. 1913 saw the addition of a set of monumental twin Mediterranean Revival gatehouses and wrought iron gates at the George Street entrance. Small additions continued to be made to the cemetery into the 1920s, extending the earlier Goldsmith and Frohlichstein section.

With the expansion of Mobile and the establishment of large private cemeteries in the first half of the 20th century, Magnolia Cemetery began to go into decline. Mobile National Cemetery was closed to burial in 1962 due to it being filled to capacity, like most of the remainder of the cemetery. By 1970 nearly 60% of the cemetery was not being cared for and had become extremely overgrown. In 1984 the Historic Mobile Preservation Society formed the Friends of Magnolia Cemetery as a non-profit corporation.

The goals of the Friends of Magnolia Cemetery included the establishment of perpetual care for the plots, cleaning up the cemetery, removing or improving the existing vegetation, improving maintenance, restoring historic monuments and ironwork, hiring a superintendent for day-to-day operations, and surrounding the site with a new wrought iron fence. The new fence was conceived and designed by local architects Arch R. Winter and Thomas F. Karwinski. Along with its notable monuments and the prominent individuals interred, the efforts by the Friends of Magnolia Cemetery helped lead to the cemetery being placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

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