Laurelwood Cemetery Master Plan

Executive Summary: "Established in 1872, Laurelwood Cemetery is Rock Hill, South Carolina's oldest municipal cemetery. Since its establishment, the cemetery has expanded to include approximately 32 acres situated in proximity to downtown Rock Hill, Winthrop University, the historic Brookland neighborhood, and development of the City's former textile corridor. Although little space remains available in the oldest sections, Laurelwood remains an active burial ground. The City owns all property within the cemetery and sells burial rights for surveyed burial plots. Laurelwood Cemetery achieves national significance as a physical representation of broad patterns of historic related to the design and development of municipal cemeteries in the United States during the late nineteenth and early to mid-twentieth centuries. Additionally, the burial ground is significant for its association with a number of persons important to the early history and development of Rock Hill, for its funerary artwork, and for its association with nationally-acclaimed landscape architect and planner Earle S. Draper. The immediate and long-term threats to Laurelwood Cemetery include deteriorating grave markers and monuments, the availability of space in burial plots reaching capacity, and the cemetery's proximity to multi-use development. In order to turn these threats into opportunities, the City of Rock Hill actively pursues preservation, planning, and public educational activities aimed at preserving the site's historic integrity while appropriately reactivating the space for future public use that complements redevelopment. A key component to these planning efforts includes placemaking efforts associated with the Knowledge Park development as well as other local community-development planning initiatives. ...WLA Studio's involvement in the planning process began in 2019 and includes a cemetery documentation/survey-training component and development of this Master Plan. To produce this document, the firm engaged in historic background research and an extensive cultural landscape survey of Laurelwood and its surroundings. From this research and fieldwork, the firm developed an inventory of the site's historical context, existing conditions, potential threats to the site's integrity, and opportunities for site enhancement. These findings were crucial for the development of recommendations in the included educational plan component." Project funding was provided in part by a Historic Preservation Fund grant to the State Historic Preservation Office, South Carolina Department of Archives and History (grant number P18AF00032).

Laurelwood Cemetery Master Plan

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