Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainAn antebellum cemetery bricked into a mall parking deck — the graves of Greenville's founding family, entombed since 1966
410 S. Memorial Dr (Greenville Mall parking deck, near former Carolina Ale House entrance), Greenville, NC 27834
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Public mall parking area; no admission required to view the exterior brick wall
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved parking deck; level surface
Equipment
Photos OK
Evans Family Plantation Site · Antebellum Burial Ground · Greenville Founding Family · Cemetery Enclosed by Commercial Development 1966
The Evans family were among Greenville's earliest settlers, holding a 100-acre plantation along the Tar River whose grounds eventually became the core of the downtown commercial district. By the mid-20th century, the family's private burial ground — holding roughly two dozen graves, including markers dating to the early 1800s — remained on a parcel absorbed into the commercial development corridor.
When Pitt Plaza was constructed in 1966, demolition crews and planners faced the cemetery. Rather than relocate the remains, developers enclosed the grave site behind a brick wall and poured concrete over the area that became part of the parking structure. WRAL's reporting confirmed that the graves remain sealed beneath the parking deck, the brick enclosure still visible from the parking area.
The WNCT television segment that brought regional attention to the site noted a detail local visitors have observed for decades: no grass grows on the concrete slab above the graves, even as vegetation pushes through cracks in adjacent pavement. Whether this is attributed to soil chemistry, the sealed concrete, or something else has not been formally investigated. Strange Carolinas' detailed account confirmed the grave dates and family connection, tracing the Evans name to Greenville's founding generation.
Sources
The most striking element of the Greenville Mall cemetery is not a ghost story but an architectural fact: the dead were bricked in and poured over rather than moved. The decision, made in 1966, has not been reversed. The Evans family graves sit today under the parking deck of what has since been renamed Greenville Mall, entombed as they were when the concrete was poured.
The no-grass detail — observed by visitors since at least the time of WNCT's coverage — functions as the site's paranormal hook. In local telling, the ground refuses to be normal because what lies beneath it is not normal. Whether this is factually accurate or a perception shaped by the knowledge of what's underneath is a genuinely open question.
Notable Entities
The Evans family cemetery is visible from the mall parking area as a walled enclosure behind brick and concrete. No grass grows on the sealed surface above the graves. The site is accessible during mall hours and requires no advance arrangement.
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