Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainGrand Rapids' oldest public burial ground, established 1838, where the city's founders lie and ghost tours make regular rounds
833 Fulton Street E, Grand Rapids, MI 49503
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free public access; ghost tours that include this stop charge separately
Access
Limited Access
Uneven historic cemetery grounds with grass paths and aged stone surfaces; not fully wheelchair accessible
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1838 · Grand Rapids' Oldest Public Burial Ground · First-Generation City Settlers Interred Here · Primary Record of Early Kent County Settlement
Fulton Street Cemetery was established in 1838, less than a decade after Grand Rapids began organizing as a formal settlement. As the city's first public burial ground, it received the dead of Grand Rapids' earliest decades — settlers, tradespeople, civic organizers, and their families who arrived during the initial period of Kent County development in the 1830s and 1840s.
The cemetery's historical record is documented by Historic Grand Rapids, which has developed an audio archive covering the site's founding and the individuals interred there. First-generation settlers of European descent are the primary population in the older sections, reflecting the demographics of Grand Rapids' founding era and the displacement of the Odawa people who had occupied the Grand River valley.
The cemetery fell into relative disuse as Grand Rapids expanded and larger burial grounds were established elsewhere in the city, but it has been maintained as a historic site. Its age and the density of early Grand Rapids history concentrated in a relatively small urban footprint have made it a consistent subject of both historical documentation and ghost tour interest.
Sources
As Grand Rapids' oldest cemetery, Fulton Street has accumulated a body of paranormal lore proportional to its age and historical significance. Ghost tour operators who include it in their circuits describe it as one of the more consistently reported sites in the city — not dramatic, but persistent.
Paranormal investigators report activity concentrated in the older sections of the cemetery, where the headstones date to the 1830s and 1840s. Accounts include apparitions observed among the stones after dark, unexplained cold spots in localized areas, and light anomalies in photographs taken at night. The specific identities behind reported presences are not documented — the lore here is atmospheric rather than named.
Rapid Growth Media, covering Grand Rapids' paranormal history, has cited Fulton Street Cemetery as part of the city's documented ghost geography. The site's combination of genuine historical weight — nearly two centuries of use, first-generation settlers — and its accessibility as a public urban cemetery make it a natural anchor for dark-history tours.
Explore Grand Rapids' oldest public cemetery, established 1838. First-generation city settlers and civic founders are interred here. The Historic Grand Rapids organization maintains audio documentation of the site's history.
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Atlanta, GA
Historic Oakland Cemetery was chartered in 1850 as the six-acre 'Atlanta Cemetery,' renamed Oakland in 1872, and expanded to 48 acres. Approximately 70,000 people are interred, including roughly 6,900 Confederate soldiers (3,000 unidentified), four Confederate generals, six Georgia governors, 27 Atlanta mayors, Margaret Mitchell, golfer Bobby Jones, and Maynard Jackson, Atlanta's first African American mayor. The cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 28, 1976.
Forest Park, IL
Forest Home Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois, grew from two adjacent cemeteries — German Waldheim (established 1873) and Forest Home (1876) — which merged in February 1969. The 220-acre site was chosen as a non-denominational burial ground, a policy that made it the only Chicago-area cemetery willing to accept the bodies of the Haymarket defendants in 1887.
Ann Arbor, MI
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