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| Name | Old City Cemetery Museums and Arboretum |
| Brief Description | 200-year old cemetery and historic 19th-century arboretum |
| Type | Attraction |
| Category | Historic Site |
| Description | The Old City Cemetery of Lynchburg, Virginia, has been completely rehabilitated in the past 12 years from a neglected storm-ravaged inner-city public graveyard to one of the city's leading visitor destinations, welcoming over 20,000 tourists, scholars and gardeners annually. In replanting the 26-acre site, only trees, shrubs, roses, daffodils, and herbs were used which would have been planted by a grieving family in the 19th century when the cemetery was in most active use. The result is a step back in time to when grandmother's favorite rose or the acorn from the big oak was the only family gravemarker. Three-fourths of the 20,000 burials are African or Native American; one-third are infants and small children. Only one person in five has a marker, but horticultural symbolism was plentiful and evident in many of their plantings and carvings. Creative interpretation and maintenance include "grave-gardeners," "archaeological" goats, honeybees, companion planting, composting, and the scythed effect of seldom cut grass. An annual Antique Rose Festival, sale
of thousands of rooted rose cuttings, a 22-page Horticulture Guide, and guided tours and programs all bring the site back to life. Reading the landscape, whether the sunken graves, the family plots outlined in daffodils or the gnarled trees supporting tipsy tombstones, reflects the culture, the life and times of those buried there.
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| Address | 401 Taylor Street |
| CSZ | Lynchburg, Virginia 24501 |
| Phone 1 | (434) 847-1465 |
| Email | occ@gravegarden.org |
| Handicapped Accessible | Yes |
| Time Allowance | 2 hours |
| Website | www.gravegarden.org |
| Local Visitor Bureau | www.discoverlynchburg.org |
| Information Request | Request Lynchburg Virginia Visitor Information |
| Last Updated | 7/30/2007 |
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