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Sweet Briar Cemeteries

There are several cemeteries on the Sweet Briar campus. Scroll below for a tour of the graveyards.

Monument Hill Graveyard

Today, this cemetery is often referred to as the Fletcher Cemetery. But in the 19th Century, Elijah Fletcher called this graveyard "Monument Hill." Earlier, in the late19th century, this area was called Woodruff's mound (named after the then landowner). Woodruff and his immediate family are buried here as are the subsequent owners, the Fletchers. Today, members of the Sweet Briar community can be buried on the hill in a Cinerarium.

Woodruff Family Plot (Judith's stone is in the center)	Judith Woodruff's Grave with a Weeping Willow Design
Monument Hill, c. 1910s (Elijah and Daisy's monuments are visible and surrounded by a wall)

Oak Tree Pasture Cemetery

We are not yet certain who is buried in the informal burial ground, but it is most likely a cemetery for enslaved field-hands dating to the Fletcher Era.

Setting for the Cemetery.	Three graves in alignment. The orange squares indicate the stone locations.

Slave Cemetery During the ante-bellum period, enslaved African Americans were often buried on plantations, commemorated by un-inscribed locally available fieldstones. The largest slave cemetery at Sweet Briar, the Sweet Briar Plantation Burial Ground, contains over 50 gravestones. These stones mark the final resting place of several dozen individuals. Efforts are on-going to preserve and protect this sacred site.

Newly dedicated memorial at the cemetery.	Memorial inscription
	"Sacred Resting Place of Unknown Founders Who Labored to Build What Has Become Sweet Briar College We are in their debt."

Virtual Tour of the Cemetery

Click on the Clusters of stones below for a virtual tour of the Slave Cemetery.