Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainGreensboro's oldest public cemetery — 51 tree-shaded acres opened in 1877 where a horror film was shot in 2006 and the gatekeeper's house stands on the National Register of Historic Places.
801 N O Henry Blvd, Greensboro, NC 27401
Research updated August 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free admission; open to the public during daylight hours.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved roads wind through the grounds; some sections have uneven grass and hillside paths
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1877 · Greensboro's oldest publicly operated cemetery, opened 1877 · Designed in the rural cemetery tradition across 51 acres · Over 700 tree species catalogued on the grounds · Gatekeeper's house listed on the National Register of Historic Places · Filming location for the 2006 horror film The Gravedancers
Green Hill Cemetery was established in 1877 as Greensboro's first publicly managed burial ground, replacing the ad hoc church and family graveyards that had served the city's growing population since its incorporation. The cemetery was laid out in the rural cemetery tradition that had shaped landscape design across American cities since the 1840s — a style that emphasized pastoral settings with winding roads, varied plantings, and a landscape meant to serve the living as much as to memorialize the dead.
The 51-acre site along North O Henry Boulevard has been maintained continuously for nearly 150 years. The grounds have been catalogued for their unusual arboricultural diversity: more than 700 tree species have been documented, making Green Hill one of the more significant informal arboretums in Guilford County. The gatekeeper's house at the main entrance was deemed significant enough for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
Green Hill holds the graves of prominent Greensboro families, Civil War veterans, and significant civic figures from the city's late nineteenth and early twentieth century growth periods. It remains an active cemetery operated by the City of Greensboro through the Parks and Recreation Department.
The cemetery's atmospheric setting — dense tree canopy, Victorian-era stonework, and hilly terrain — made it a logical choice for film production. The 2006 horror film The Gravedancers used Green Hill as a primary filming location, representing the most concrete popular-culture connection the site has to dark-history tourism beyond its intrinsic character.
Sources
Green Hill Cemetery's place in Greensboro's dark-history landscape rests more on atmosphere and association than on documented ghost lore specific to the site. The cemetery's Victorian layout, dense tree canopy, and age make it a natural anchor for any haunted tour of the city.
The most verifiable paranormal-adjacent fact is the selection of Green Hill as a filming location for The Gravedancers, a 2006 horror film in which a group of friends disturb the graves of three violent historical figures and face supernatural consequences. The production chose Green Hill for its authentic atmosphere and period stonework — the cemetery's setting was considered more visually credible than a constructed set.
Ghost tour literature groups Green Hill among the documented dark-history sites of the Gate City. No specific named entities or documented paranormal incidents unique to Green Hill appear in the sources consulted beyond the general listing among Greensboro haunted places. The cemetery's draw is its historical character and the film connection rather than a specific legend.
Media Appearances
Green Hill is known as much for its arboretum character — over 700 tree species on 51 acres — as for its graves. Visitors explore the grounds on foot, following paved internal roads through the rolling landscape. The NRHP-listed gatekeeper's house marks the main entrance.
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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.
Winston-Salem, NC
God's Acre is the burial ground of the Moravian congregation of Salem, established in 1771 as part of the planned settlement of Salem, North Carolina. The cemetery follows the Moravian tradition of burying members chronologically in sections by gender and marital status, with identical flat grave markers leveling all distinctions of wealth or rank in death.
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.