Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainThe second-oldest Jewish cemetery in South Carolina; a century-old legend holds that laughter from two young women buried in their wedding dresses can be heard on summer evenings.
400 Broad Street, Georgetown, SC 29440
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Publicly accessible cemetery; no admission fee
Access
Wheelchair OK
Flat cemetery grounds along Broad Street
Equipment
Photos OK
Second-oldest Jewish cemetery in South Carolina · Contains graves of three of Georgetown's six Jewish mayors · Reflects Georgetown's historically significant 19th-century Jewish community
Georgetown's Jewish community established Beth Elohim Cemetery as one of its earliest communal institutions. The burial ground on Broad Street is recognized as the second-oldest Jewish cemetery in South Carolina—a designation reflecting Georgetown's historically significant Jewish population, which by the early 19th century constituted a substantial portion of the town's merchant and civic leadership. Georgetown at one period elected six Jewish mayors; three are interred at Beth Elohim.
The cemetery sits on the opposite side of a short block from the Prince George Winyah Episcopal Church graveyard, with the two properties separated by Broad Street and a short stretch of Duke Street. The proximity of the two burial grounds is central to the most-told Georgetown haunting story: that Pauline Moses, a Jewish woman, and Eliza Munnerlyn, buried at Prince George Winyah, were best friends who contracted yellow fever in the summer of 1885 and died within days of each other, before the double wedding they had planned for that October. Both were interred in the dresses they had sewn.
The cemetery has no formal administration visible to the public and is maintained as a quiet historic site within Georgetown's walkable historic district.
Sources
The Beth Elohim Cemetery and the adjacent Prince George Winyah churchyard share what Georgetown locals call a paired haunting. In October 1885, two young women—Pauline Moses (Beth Elohim) and Eliza Munnerlyn (Prince George Winyah)—were scheduled to marry on the same day. Both contracted yellow fever during the summer and died days before the wedding, and both were buried in the gowns they had sewn together. The story has circulated in Georgetown for generations.
Visitors report hearing laughter—light and girlish in description—drifting from among the headstones on warm summer evenings. Photographs taken under the live oak canopy above both cemeteries reportedly show orbs. The Hammock Coast tourism site notes the laughter is most often heard on summer nights near the grave sections that line Broad Street. Georgetown ghost tour operators treat the two cemeteries as a single stop, walking guests past both graveyards and narrating the story of Moses and Munnerlyn as a unit.
Notable Entities
Located on Broad Street adjacent to the Prince George Winyah Episcopal Church graveyard, Beth Elohim is among the oldest Jewish burial grounds in South Carolina and contains graves of several of Georgetown's Jewish mayors. The two cemeteries together anchor Georgetown's ghost tour circuit.
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