Charleston: Cemeteries

In addition to several church graveyards located in the historic district of Charleston, there is a large group of cemeteries just to the northeast of downtown. Magnolia Cemetery was dedicated in 1850; St. Lawrence Cemetery was the third Catholic cemetery in Charleston, and was established in 1851; and Bethany Cemetery was established in 1856 by St. Matthew's Evangelical Lutheran Church when its first cemetery reached capacity during a yellow fever outbreak. There may be other smaller cemeteries as part of this group (sort of like the "cemetery belt" in Queens), but these are the three main ones I remember visiting.

We took Uber to the cemeteries because they were a bit far from our hotel, but they were very close to Martha Lou's Kitchen where we (over) ate our weight in fried chicken, collard greens, mac n' cheese and several other sides before our flight back to New York. It was the warmest day of our trip—in the 70s—and the perfect end to a flawless trip.

We came across a section of St. Lawrence Cemetery (I think) devoted to the those killed in the Civil War. I noticed immediately that they were Confederate soldiers and civilians, which of course makes sense in South Carolina (the first state to succeed), but it's not something I'm used to seeing in my New York / New England cemeteries explorations. Anything referencing the Confederacy is always jarring—especially the flag—but stones like the "unknown child of the Confederacy" are universally sad.

Speaking of children, it seemed like a lot of the stones that caught my eye were memorials that featured a child in some way. Two stones made note that they were the "only child," which makes the loss seem even more devastating, and several featured nearly life-sized babies peacefully asleep. The cradle-shaped stone was especially unique and had several toys—including a rubber duck—that looked as if they'd been left fairly recently, despite the grave dating to the 1880s.

While nothing could top the Unitarian Church graveyard, I'm glad we got to experience a different kind of Charleston cemetery. These large, sprawling cemeteries reminded me of Green-Wood or Bonaventure, though maybe not quite as picturesque. Francesca spotted the guy above from afar and she pointed out how much the lights and darks made him look like a skeleton, making him one of our favorite—and spookiest—finds to date.