As with any transcription, errors are possible. Researchers are strongly urged to double check information provided against the source materials cited. This site is not affiliated with the Sharp Street Memorial United Methodist Church or Mount Auburn Cemetery and the information provided is for reference purposes only. For additional information on burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery, please contact the Sharp Street Memorial United Methodist Church.

Located in the Westport/Mount Winans community of Baltimore, Mount Auburn Cemetery is one of the city’s largest African American cemeteries. Founded in 1872 by Reverend James Peck, the cemetery is the final resting place for former slaves, clergymen, teachers, doctors, military veterans, and Civil Rights leaders as well as countless African-American families.

Notable burials include:

• Lille Mae Jackson Carroll (1889-1975) - Civil Rights leader and President of the Baltimore branch of the NAACP
• Joseph Gans (1874-1910) – the first African American lightweight boxing champion
• Joseph "Tunnel Joe" Holmes (d. 1973) - the only inmate of the Maryland Penitentiary to escape by digging his way out with a spoon
• John Henry Murphy (d. 1922) – the founder of the Afro-American newspaper
• Dr. N. Louise Young (1907-1997) - the first African American woman to practice medicine in Maryland
• Dr. Howard E. Young - Maryland's first African American pharmacist

Over the years, the cemetery suffered from periods of neglect and vandalism. Articles and photographs published in the Afro-American revealed the deteriorating condition of the cemetery. Dense, overgrown briars prevented family members from locating the graves of loved ones. In October 1944, the Afro-American reported that "The graves themselves present a contrast of raw clay mounds, sunken pits, muddy trenches and weedy plots above which the marble and granite markers made a desperate effort toward dignity." Periodically, volunteers attempted to clear dense brush and mow the grass, but maintaining a cemetery is a year-round, expensive endeavor - reportedly costing $25,000 per year - and the cemetery lacks a perpetual care fund. Without a regular maintenance plan, the landscape quickly became overgrown and weed-choked once again.

Recently, access to the cemetery has been made possible through the efforts of the inmates participating in the state prison system's Public Safety Works program. Thanks to their hard work clearing debris, cutting down overgrown brush and mowing grass, families are now able to visit the graves of loved ones. The worn boundary wall has been replaced with new fencing and a new arch adorns the entrance on Waterview Avenue.

The resurrection of Mount Auburn Cemetery has begun.

Information on burials is drawn from a variety of sources. First, of course, is the information available from the tombstones. Tombstones are photodocumented using the iPhone app associated with the website Billion Graves. The photographs and their geocoded locations are upload to the Billion Graves website where they are transcribed and linked back to this website. Since Billion Graves is a relatively new website, photographs are also uploaded to the better known FindAGrave so that the information can be made available to a wider community.

Since some graves were never marked and many of the existing tombstones have been damaged, other sources are necessary to identify those who may now be buried in unmarked graves. Some names were derived from death certificates while others were collected from obituaries published in The Sun (Baltimore) and the Afro-American (Baltimore). In addition, cemetery records -- available at the Maryland State Archives, the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library -- can be consulted to determine burials.

While burials may have been systematically recorded from the founding of the cemetery, extant records available at the Maryland State Archives and the Enoch Pratt Free Library appear to document primarily post-1904 burials. By 1921, a card index to 5,000 lot holders existed (and may still exist), but this card index does not appear on any of the microfilm editions of the cemetery records. As a result, research will initially focus on pre-1904 burials to try to identify through death certificates and obituaries those burials that may not be recorded in existing cemetery records. Although death certificates and obituaries are not definitive proof -- the certificates are not infallible and in at least one case to date, an obituary cited a burial in Mount Auburn that actually took place in another cemetery -- this can be a starting point for a period when cemetery records are elusive.

As of 11/21/2024, nearly 55,925 burials have been identified through a combination of the sources listed above. Since there are an estimated 55,000 burials at Mount Auburn, this is clearly a work in progress and will evolve over time. Hopefully it will serve its intended purpose -- to provide preliminary documentation of the historic landscape and to help loved ones locate family graves -- and it has been gratifying to hear from the families of those whose graves have been located so far during the project.