SITE DIRECTORY
To learn more about any of the BCN sites listed below, click “Read more” to view individual site briefs. To search for a specific BCN site, use the search bar below:
Union Cemetery
UNION CEMETERY
FOUNDED: 1900
ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A
AFFILIATION(S):
Ujima Union Cemetery Project
HISTORY:
Union Cemetery, named in honor of the two dozen veterans of the Civil War who are buried here, was established in 1900 by Carlisle resident Robert Thompson, Sr. (1828-1900). Thompson was one of the most prominent African-Americans in central Pennsylvania during his day. From his birth, an enslaved person, in Front Royal, VA to his death in his home on Carlisle's South Street, Thompson lived the unique life of an entrepreneur who owned a large amount of property and businesses in the Carlisle and Harrisburg areas. The land for the cemetery was purchased in the 1890s after Lincoln Cemetery, located at the corner of North Pitt Street and West Penn Street, became full. Upon Mr. Thompson's death, several generations of the Thompson family managed the site before it was taken over by the Borough of Carlisle, which still maintains the cemetery. The earliest gravestone is dated 1885. Union Cemetery follows one of the earliest burial customs by burying everyone facing east.
BCN Contact Information:
Ujima Union Cemetery Project
sigvoice@aol.com
https://www.facebook.com/friendsofUnionCemetery
Mount Holly Colored Cemetery
MOUNT HOLLY COLORED CEMETERY
FOUNDED: Oldest identified burial 1888
ADDITONAL NAMES: None
AFFILIATION(S): None
HISTORY:
The Mount Holly Colored Cemetery is on Cedar Street near Mountain Street in Mount Holly Springs, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. During and after the Civil War, people coming north from southern states stopped in Mount Holly Springs and stayed to take the jobs in the town’s paper mills, establishing the Mountain Street community. The cemetery was the burial ground for all the black residents of Mount Holly Springs since they were not permitted to be interred in the town’s municipal cemetery.
Over time the community changed. By 1970 Mount Tabor AME, a small frame church (ca 1870) across the road, was abandoned and crumbling and the cemetery neglected and overgrown. The Mount Tabor Preservation Project was formed in 2019 to repair and preserve the site. GPR scans indicate the grounds included approximately 65 burials, although only 18 headstones exist. There are seven USCT Civil War veterans who were formerly enslaved.
BCN Contact Information:
Mount Tabor Preservation Project
mttaborpreservation@gmail.com