NRHP Reference # 85000161 Year built 1852 | Area 4 ha Added to NRHP 1985 | |
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Location Baton Rouge, Louisiana United States Burials Lyle Saxon, Cecil Morgan, Ellen Bryan Moore, Henry L. Fuqua, David French Boyd, Claude B. Duval, James M. Elam | ||
Magnolia Cemetery is a 10-acre (40,000 m2) cemetery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
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Description
The cemetery is located at 422 North 19th Street and is bordered on the north by Main Street and on the south by Florida Boulevard. The west and east sides are bordered by 19th Street and 22nd Street, respectively. The land for the cemetery was purchased from John Christian Buhler, Jr, in August 1852. The cemetery was the site of intense fighting during the Battle of Baton Rouge on August 5, 1862; a commemorative ceremony is held at the cemetery each August. It was turned over to the city of Baton Rouge in 1947 and is now administered by the Recreation and Park Commission for the Parish of East Baton Rouge (BREC). Magnolia Cemetery has been designated a National Historic Site.
Famous people buried
This cemetery was the main burial site for most prominent citizens of Baton Rouge, white and African-American, from 1852 to the 1950s and burials continue to the present. Among the more noteworthy persons buried here are 6th District Congressman Edward White Robertson (1823-1887) and his son Congressman Samuel Matthews Robertson (1852-1911), John Hill (1824-1910), 5th District Congressman William Brainerd Spencer (1835-1882), novelist Lyle Saxon (1891–1946), State Senator Douglas Cullum Montan (1834-1896), the Whig politician James M. Elam and his son James Essex Elam, four-time Mayor of Baton Rouge.