Galveston's oldest burial ground, established 1834, holds yellow fever victims, 1900 hurricane dead, and a mother who poisoned her four children in 1894 — buried in the same plot as them
40th Street and Broadway, Galveston, TX 77550
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Cemetery is publicly accessible. Ghost tours via Ghost City Tours, Spooky Galveston, and Walk With the Dead priced separately.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Flat cemetery grounds; paved paths between sections
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1834 · Galveston's oldest burial ground (established 1834) · Yellow fever epidemic burials (1839, 1867) · 1900 hurricane casualties · Elize Roemer Alberti murder case (1894)
The Old City Cemetery predates the city of Galveston's 1839 incorporation, having been established in 1834 to serve the growing settlement on the barrier island. When Galveston was formally organized in 1839, the Galveston City Company donated land adjacent to the original cemetery, expanding it into the broader Broadway Cemetery complex that would eventually span seven distinct burial grounds over six city blocks.
Yellow fever was the cemetery's first major catastrophe. An 1839 outbreak killed 250 Galvestonians. The 1867 epidemic killed 725. Between epidemics, the cemetery received the dead from the ordinary hazards of a major 19th-century port: maritime accidents, fires, and violence. Bodies were buried in the sandy soil, and as the city repeatedly raised its grade elevation throughout the twentieth century, new interments were placed above earlier graves. Some sections of the Old City Cemetery contain burials three bodies deep, with approximately 1,200 visible markers representing a substantially larger number of actual interments.
The September 8, 1900 hurricane killed between 6,000 and 8,000 Galvestonians — still the deadliest natural disaster in American history. The Old City Cemetery received some of the identified dead; the adjacent Evergreen Cemetery absorbed the largest single expansion, with approximately 900 burials added in the immediate aftermath.
The cemetery's most documented individual burial is Elize Roemer Alberti. On December 4, 1894, Alberti poisoned wine with morphine and gave it to four of her children — Willie (age 4), Dora, Ella, and Lizzie. Two children, Emma and Wilhelmina, survived. Alberti, whom Galveston newspapers called 'the demented mother,' was convicted and sent to an asylum in San Antonio. After her release she returned to Galveston and died by suicide. She was buried in the same family plot as the four children she killed — one of the few recorded instances of a perpetrator interred with their victims.
Sources
The Old City Cemetery's paranormal reputation rests primarily on the weight of its documented history rather than on any single dramatic incident. Nearly two centuries of epidemic burials, storm casualties, and the unusual Alberti interment have made it a standard stop on every Galveston ghost-tour circuit.
Ghost City Tours, which rates its Haunted Cemetery Tour 4.9 stars across hundreds of reviews, centers the Old City Cemetery's narrative on Elize Roemer Alberti. Her burial in the same plot as the four children she poisoned in 1894 is the most specific story: investigators and tour participants describe an unease around the Alberti section that they attribute to the unique circumstances of the burial arrangement. The cemetery's ghost-tour accounts note that, unlike some sites, there are no well-documented historical reports of specific apparitions; the site's status comes from the accumulated documented human tragedy and from reports collected by tour participants over many years.
The three-deep burial structure, created by twentieth-century grade raises, means that in some sections the ground surface sits several feet above the original coffins. Tour guides note this as context for activity that seems to occur at locations with no visible marker — the graves below may have no headstone at the current grade level.
Notable Entities
The Old City Cemetery contains approximately 1,200 identified grave markers, with some plots stacked three bodies deep due to twentieth-century grade raises. The Alberti family plot — where Elize Roemer Alberti is buried alongside the four children she poisoned in 1894 — is accessible. Galveston's municipal cemetery office (galvestontx.gov) maintains records.
Ghost City Tours operates a 90-minute nighttime cemetery tour rated 4.9 stars. The tour covers the Alberti case, yellow fever epidemic deaths, 1900 hurricane casualties, and the cemetery's layered burial history. Walk With the Dead also operates locally-owned cemetery tours departing from the Broadway complex.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Aerial survey · USDA NAIPGalveston, TX
The Broadway Cemetery complex in Galveston encompasses seven distinct historic burial grounds established between 1839 and 1939, collectively containing an estimated 36,000 or more burials. The complex includes sections dedicated to victims of the 1900 Great Storm — the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history, which killed between 6,000 and 12,000 people in Galveston — as well as yellow fever epidemic victims, Confederate deserters executed by firing squad, and a documented 1894 murder case involving a woman who poisoned her four children.
Ferndale, CA
Established in 1868 on a steep hillside above Ferndale's Eel River Valley, the cemetery served the Victorian dairy-farming and lumber community through its founding generations. Its moss-covered stonework and rhododendron canopy drew the production crew for Stephen King's 1979 Salem's Lot miniseries, which used the site as the fictional Harmony Hill Cemetery.
Galveston, TX
The Broadway Cemetery Historic District is a seven-cemetery complex in midtown Galveston, established between 1839 and 1939. It holds an estimated 36,000 burials across six city blocks, with the actual body count far exceeding the approximately 12,000 visible markers due to three-layer interment created by twentieth-century grade raises.