City Cemetery
About this property
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. The cemetery was established in 1839. Its oldest currently-standing monument commemorates two victims of a Comanche attack who perished in 1842. 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 established in 1914, 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. 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. Despite its protected status, the cemetery had been subject to crime, vandalism, and decay for decades until significant restoration efforts began in the mid 2010s. L. C. Anderson (1853–1938), academic administrator John Andrewartha (1839–1916), architect and civil engineer Jessie Andrews (1867–1919), first woman graduate from the University of Texas at Austin Richard Bache Jr. (1784–1848), politician and military officer Anne L. Armstrong (1927–2008), diplomat and politician John Barclay Armstrong (1850–1913), Texas Ranger and Marshal Florence Anderson Clark (1835–1918), author, librarian, and academic administrator Hardaway Hunt Dinwiddie (1844–1887), academic administrator Rebecca Jane G. Fisher (1831–1926), philanthropist and preservationist George Washington Glasscock (1810–1868), politician Will Hogg (1875–1930), attorney and real estate developer John Garland James (1844–1930), academic administrator George W. Littlefield (1842–1920), businessman and military officer Reuben Shannon Lovinggood (1864–1916), academic administrator Hermann Lungkwitz (1813–1891), painter and photographer Bud McCallum (1900–1977), American football player and coach
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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Questions about this property
When was City Cemetery listed on the National Register?
City Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 16, 1985.
What type of historic resource is City Cemetery?
City Cemetery is classified as a district in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for City Cemetery?
The period of significance for City Cemetery is recorded as the listed era.
Can I research the history near City Cemetery?
Yes. Aubrey Research reports search National Register listings, battlefield records, land patents, and other primary historical sources within any radius of a US address. A report for an address near City Cemetery will include this listing and all other historical records in the area.
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