A Timeline of Oak Hill
The Cemetery’s Story
Key moments in the life of the grounds themselves —
from founding through neglect, stewardship, and the burials that mark its history.
1871
The Beginnings
Oak Hill is Established
Founded alongside the young city of Birmingham, Oak Hill becomes the only formally established cemetery in the city for its first three decades.
1873
A Plunging Population
Cholera Epidemic & Financial Panic
A deadly cholera epidemic, compounded by a national financial panic, nearly destroys the fledgling city. Population plunges from over 4,000 to fewer than 2,500; many victims are among Oak Hill’s earliest burials. Historian Leah Rawls Atkins later wrote that although 128 people died, “the country imagined 10 times that many had perished.”
By 1878, Birmingham’s population reaches its lowest point, bottoming out at around 1,200 residents.
1882
True to Wishes
Charles Linn Laid to Rest
Birmingham’s first banker is buried in a brownstone mausoleum on Oak Hill’s high ground overlooking downtown — per his own directions.
1890s
Birmingham Expands
The City Grows Around Oak Hill
Once considered too distant from Birmingham’s business and residential center, Oak Hill is now surrounded as the booming city spreads steadily north.
1910
Slowing Down
Years of Neglect
With new cemeteries opening elsewhere in the growing city, burials at Oak Hill slow. The grounds show signs of neglect and are used as an illegal dumping ground and pasture for livestock.
1913
Preserving the Past
Memorial Association Chartered
Concerned families petition the State of Alabama, which issues a charter for the Oak Hill Memorial Association. The Association assumes management of the cemetery from the City of Birmingham — a stewardship it continues to this day.
1928
A Place to Meet
Administration Building Constructed
The Memorial Association raises funds to construct Oak Hill’s administration building.
1936
Closed, but not Forgotten
Potter’s Field Closes
Burials end in the picturesque hollow in Oak Hill’s southwestern section — the potter’s field, final resting place for more than 1,500 of the city’s impoverished and unclaimed.
Late 1800s–1930s
Familial Lots
Original African-American Section
Not far from the potter’s field, families purchase lots in Oak Hill’s original African-American section during the segregation era — among them Dr. Arthur M. Brown, Arthur Harold Parker, and Rev. William R. Pettiford.
2011
Into the 21st Century
Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth Laid to Rest
Civil Rights leader and ally of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Shuttlesworth is buried at Oak Hill, recognized as one of the greatest Americans of the 20th century.