| Greenwood Cemetery is significant as Jackson's oldest historic site, representing and commemorating many of Jackson's and Mississippi's political, social, religious and commercial leaders. Greenwood Cemetery is also significant as the city's finest collective example of the elaborate funeral design which dominated America's cemeteries during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Located just beyond the original northwest corner, High and West Street, the City Cemetery, re-named Greenwood Cemetery in 1899, became Jackson's first public cemetery and its oldest historic site. In 1837, fifteen years after the cemetery's creation, the state ceded the burial ground to the City of Jackson. In turn, the city sold individual lots to individual citizens and also provided for the interment of paupers and convicts. The cemetery was designated a Mississippi Landmark on 1 August 1984, and it was listed on the National Register on 20 December 1984. It is included in "Jackson Landmarks" (1982) (p. 74) and "Chimneyville: Likenesses’ of Early Days in Jackson, Mississippi" (2007) (pp. 104-105). |