102-acre Raleigh cemetery founded in 1869 on land donated from the former Mordecai plantation, with 1,388 Confederate burials and long-standing local lore around its 'Guardian of Oakwood' angel statue.
701 Oakwood Avenue, Raleigh, NC 27601
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Open free to the public during daylight hours. Self-guided audio walking tours and brochures are available; the nonprofit Historic Oakwood Cemetery organization offers occasional guided tours.
Access
Limited Access
Hilly, mostly paved roads with grassy and uneven sections between gravesites
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1869 · Founded 1869 on land donated from the former Mordecai plantation · Contains the 1867 Confederate Cemetery (~1,388 Confederate graves) · Burial site of 7 NC governors, 5 U.S. senators, 8 NC Supreme Court chief justices, Raleigh's first mayor · Historic Hebrew Cemetery section donated by Henry Mordecai · Listed on the National Register of Historic Places
Historic Oakwood Cemetery occupies 102 acres on the northeast edge of Raleigh's Historic Oakwood neighborhood. The grounds were originally part of the plantation belonging to Moses Mordecai, a prominent Raleigh attorney whose family enslaved labor for cotton and corn production through the antebellum period. After Mordecai's death the land passed to his son Henry Mordecai, who in 1867 donated two-and-a-half acres for a Confederate cemetery.
The immediate occasion was unusually charged: in 1867 a federal agent arrived in Raleigh to identify a national cemetery site for Union soldiers and chose a location on Rock Quarry Road that already held the city's Confederate dead. Local citizens were given three days to relocate the Confederate graves. The Wake County Ladies' Memorial Association, with Henry Mordecai's donated land, hurriedly exhumed and reburied more than 500 Confederate soldiers on the new Mordecai-land site.
The broader nonprofit Oakwood Cemetery was formally chartered in 1869 around this Confederate core. Henry Mordecai also donated the small Hebrew Cemetery section within the same grounds. The cemetery grew through the late 19th and 20th centuries to encompass 102 acres, and now holds the graves of seven North Carolina governors, five United States senators, eight chief justices of the North Carolina Supreme Court, Raleigh's first mayor, and approximately 1,388 Confederate soldiers. The site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is operated by a nonprofit cemetery association.
Sources
Oakwood Cemetery is a recurring stop on Raleigh ghost-tour programs and is featured prominently in regional roundups including US Ghost Adventures' 'Top 10 Most Haunted Locations in Raleigh' and Midtown Magazine's 'Raleigh's Haunted History' and 'Capital City Ghosts' pieces.
The most-cited piece of local folklore concerns a stone angel statue widely referred to as the 'Guardian of Oakwood.' According to the tour-operator and Midtown Magazine roundups, the statue's head is locally claimed to rotate twelve times at midnight on Halloween and its carved eyes are said to follow visitors as they pass. Like most cemetery statuary legends, the claim circulates more as oral tradition than documented event.
A second, separate cluster of reports comes from paranormal investigators who have documented unexplained voices on audio recordings in the cemetery, including a male voice reportedly responding to a question from an investigator and a small voice apparently saying 'stop.' Reports also describe cold spots and shadowy figures, particularly in the older Confederate-era sections of the grounds.
These accounts originate primarily from tour operators and local-magazine features rather than from peer-reviewed paranormal research. The cemetery itself is an active, working historic site and asks visitors to respect the gravesites and the families they belong to.
Notable Entities
Walk the 102 acres of Historic Oakwood Cemetery, visiting the Confederate Cemetery section established 1867, the Hebrew Cemetery, the graves of seven North Carolina governors, five U.S. senators, eight chief justices, and Raleigh's first mayor. Self-guided tour materials are available from the cemetery office.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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