Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domain72-acre 1853 municipal cemetery originally segregated as Elmwood (white) and Pinewood (Black); the dividing fence came down in 1969 and the grounds now host county Haunted History tours.
700 W 6th Street, Charlotte, NC 28202
Research updated May 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free public daytime access to the historic cemetery. Mecklenburg County Historic Landmarks Commission and partner organizations charge a per-person fee for the seasonal Haunted History Tours.
Access
Limited Access
Mixed paved paths and uneven grass between historic plots; some slopes and aged stone markers.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1853 · Mecklenburg County Historic Landmark · Civil Rights-Era Desegregation (1969 Fence Removal) · Civil War-Era Burials · Mid-19th-Century Municipal Cemetery
Elmwood / Pinewood Cemetery was established by the City of Charlotte in 1853 as a planned municipal burial ground replacing the smaller Old Settlers' Cemetery. The grounds expanded to roughly 72 acres and contain the burials of Civil War soldiers, Reconstruction-era civic figures, and many of Charlotte's twentieth-century leaders.
From its founding the cemetery operated as segregated grounds. Elmwood was reserved for the burial of white residents; Pinewood, the adjacent section, was the burial ground for Black residents; and a separate Potter's Field accepted white pauper burials. A fence was erected between the Elmwood and Pinewood sections in the 1930s.
In 1968, City Councilman Fred Alexander — Charlotte's first Black city councilman — led a sustained civic campaign to remove the dividing fence. Mayor Stan R. Brookshire broke the council deadlock in January 1969, and the Mecklenburg Jaycees physically removed the fence the following day. The cemetery has since been administered as a single property by the City of Charlotte.
The cemetery is a designated Mecklenburg County historic landmark. Section A contains the well-known marker for John King, crushed by the circus elephant Chief on September 27, 1880 and dying the following day; the stone, erected by members of John Robinson's Circus, is inscribed with the image of an elephant. Foy Cooper, a Charlotte resident found beaten to death in a cemetery mausoleum in 1959, is also documented among the buried.
Mecklenburg County's Historic Landmarks Commission, the Historic Elmwood Pinewood nonprofit, and partner organizations program annual Haunted History tours and the long-running 'Voices From the Past' living-history event, both of which integrate cemetery history with the site's segregation narrative.
Sources
Paranormal reports at Elmwood / Pinewood are filtered through and presented alongside the cemetery's documented history. Tour participants and visitors describe disembodied voices, phantom shouts, and the sense of heavy or charged atmosphere — particularly along the historic dividing line between the Elmwood and Pinewood sections. Local coverage by haunt databases and the Historic Landmarks Commission's seasonal programming frames these reports against the cemetery's history of segregation, the violent deaths of some of those buried there, and the long civil-rights struggle that led to the 1969 removal of the fence.
Specific stories are routinely attached to documented graves. John King, crushed by the circus elephant Chief on September 27, 1880 and dying the following morning, is the subject of recurring reports of phantom sounds near his Section A marker. Foy Cooper, who was beaten to death in a mausoleum on the grounds in 1959, is referenced in tour programming alongside questions about unresolved trauma at the site. The 'Voices From the Past' program — co-produced by the Friends of Historic Elmwood — uses actors to portray those buried there, weaving documented biography together with the contemporary paranormal reports for which the cemetery is known.
Reports treat the cemetery's history seriously: tour materials and the Historic Landmarks Commission's framing pair every paranormal claim with a verifiable historical anchor and do not romanticize segregation. We follow that framing here.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Mecklenburg County Historic Landmarks Commission and partner organizations host seasonal walking tours of the historic cemetery, pairing documented biographies of those buried with the site's segregation history and contemporary paranormal reports. The 'Voices From the Past' living-history event is held at the cemetery on an annual basis.
Walk the 72-acre grounds independently during daylight hours. Section A holds the well-known marker for John King, crushed by the circus elephant Chief in September 1880. The Pinewood side, originally the segregated Black burial ground, retains many historic markers, with the dividing fence removed in 1969.
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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.
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Old Settlers' Cemetery served as Charlotte's first municipal burial ground from about 1776 until 1884. It holds the graves of Revolutionary War and Civil War dead, Charlotte's founding father Colonel Thomas Polk, and North Carolina Governor Nathaniel Alexander. The City of Charlotte continues to administer the grounds today.
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