Burying Ground for Negro Paupers

This colored paupers’ cemetery was originally founded in 1895 by William Forrester as a part of Greenwood Memorial Cemetery in Henrico County. Many of the colored cemeteries in the city were overgrown due to lack of appropriate care, and Mr. Forrester wanted to provide burial plots for colored people in the city where they could take pride in burying their ancestors. His dream was not limited to African-Americans; burials were open to all non-white ethnicities from any economic background. In 1896 William Forrester stepped down as president of this cemetery, and Thomas Crumpler was elected president. Six acres of the cemetery that included grave sites were sold to Mr. Bauer of Henrico County to cover the debt on the cemetery. Finding the land uninhabitable for any other purposes, the property was re-sold to the City of Richmond and re-named the Colored Paupers’ Cemetery. Between 1895 and 1896, many infants and children between the ages of 3 and 12 throughout the area died as a result of poor nutrition and childhood diseases. According to early reports of the cemetery superintendent more than 500 infants and children, many of whom resided in the city streets, orphanages, asylums, and hospitals were laid to rest here. By the 1970s the cemetery was all but forgotten and was consumed by trees and vegetation. In 2007, historian Veronica A. Davis, the Richmond Sheriff’s Department and Richmond’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities joined efforts to restore this area of the cemetery to its original appeal. Today it is known as the Garden of Lilies, named for the delicate yet fragile children that are laid to rest here.