Oakwood Cemetery (Austin, TX)

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Oakwood Cemetery NRHP: City Cemetery
(U.S. National Register of Historic Places)

Location:	Austin, Texas, USA
Coordinates:	30°16′36″N, 97°43′27″W
Added to NRHP:	September 17, 1985
Governing body:	Austin Parks and Recreation

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.

[edit] 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, 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 of time.

The cemetery was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985; its annex was added on October 30, 2003. Despite its protected status, the cemetery has been subject to crime, vandalism and decay for decades.