262 GROVE HILL CEMETERY
Background
on the Property Transactions Relating
to
the
Grove
Hill Cemetery
Durham, North Carolina
Researched
and Compiled by Milton Forsyth, 1997
Grove Hill Cemetery
is an African-American burial ground located at 2919 Fayetteville Street,
Durham, NC. It is unattended and unused, is on private property, and
only one gravestone remains to show that it at one time was a cemetery.
Portions of the cemetery have been converted to other uses. It occupies
the rear (east) portion of the lot, behind the building and away from
the street. The county tax reference for the property on which it is
located is 173 -06-016, parcel number 16274.
The cemetery was
established in 1933. On 23 Feb 1933 0. K. Ferrell sold to Charles H.
and Bessie E. McLaurin 2.21 acres on the north of the [then] Norfolk
and Southern Railroad right-of-way (Durham Co. Deed Book 107:277; see
also Plat Book 12-71). There apparently were no structures on the property,
which was at the time outside the city limits. At the time Mr. McLaurin
operated a funeral home at 1108 Fayetteville St. and resided at 1708
Fayetteville St. [Note: street numbers were revised in the area in the
late 1950s]. The first burial took place on 27 April 1933. The cemetery
was not listed in the city directory, probably because it was outside
the city.
Research by Durham-Orange
Genealogical Society member Carrie McNair shows that 349 burials were
recorded in county death records for this cemetery, and that the last
one occurred on 21 Jan 1943. Most of the burials were under the direction
of Mr. McLaurin's firm, but a few were by other undertakers - Carolina,
Mangum, and Woodward. In the 1930s the city directory shows Mr. McLaurin
was in business by himself, but by 1946 he had a business in conjunction
with a Mr. Williams as the McLaurin and Williams Funeral Home at 122
South Mangum.
Bessie McLaurin
was a school teacher. Just over a year after her husband's death on
10 February 1947 (Beechwood Cemetery records) she sold the property
containing the cemetery to William A. and Essie S. Amey (Durham Co.
DB 183:56, 30 Jun 1948). William Amey operated Amey's Funeral Home from
his residence at 401 Pine St. and later at 401 South Roxboro St.; his
wife operated a florist shop from the same addresses. Apparently Mr.
Amey did not reinitiate burials at the cemetery, and the land sat unattended
and unused for some 22 years. In 1961 William Amey sold .62 acres consisting
of a 67 foot strip on the north side of the property to the Durham Board
of Education. This is now part of the Fayetteville Street School site
at 2905 Fayetteville Street - one might conjecture that there may have
been burials in the 67 ft strip (Durham Co. DB 273:409; this deed mentions
a "monument" on the NE corner of the strip which is taken to be a surveying
monument of probably concrete or similar material, and might be found
today 67 ft northeastward of the current cemetery site's NE corner).
The transaction reduced the size of the lot on which the cemetery sat
to 1.59 acres; in 1963 another small amount was taken from the Fayetteville
Street side for street widening, leaving the present 1.409 acres (Durham
Co. DB 294:85; Plat Book 44:189).
Apparently in late
1971 or early 1972 Mr. Amey constructed a building for his business
on the cemetery property but adjacent to Fayetteville Street, as the
city directory shows his business address as 2919 S. Fayetteville Street
in 1972 (an advertisement in the directory in 1973 with this address
said: "Amey Funeral Home and Florist - 41 Years Service"). A mortgage
was taken out on the property on 15 Dec 1971, possibly for this purpose.
This was the site of his business for the next 10 years. William A.
Amey died on 11 Aug 1981 (Beechwood Cemetery records) and in December,
1981 Essie Amey sold this property, described as the "site of Amey's
Funeral Service," to Robert C. Brooks (Durham Co. DB 1073:140). Mr.
Brooks took a mortgage on the property from the Amey family (Durham
Co. DB 1073:141; Katherine R. Everett, trustee). In conjunction with
that sale, a survey of the property was made by Mr. George C. Love,
Jr., RLS, and Mr. Love has kindly made a copy of the survey available
(see atch). Noted on the survey is the one gravestone that is readily
visible on the property today.
Listings in the
city directory show that Mr. Brooks did not occupy the premises, as
the building is shown as "vacant" in the 1983 and 1984 directories (1981-82
was a combined directory and lists the funeral service). On 15 May 1984
Steele Realty, Inc. [Sandy Steele and Deborah W. Steele, wife] assumed
the loan on the property in a multiple transaction. Robert C. Brooks
had sold the property to George Tate, Jr. and Esther W. Tate by assigning
to them the Deed of Trust. They shortly thereafter resold the property
to Steele Realty, which then assumed the $123,000 mortgage (Durham Co.
DB 1161:955). This mortgage was canceled on 12 Nov 1991 (Durham Co.
DB 1690:291; but see also DB 1688:305-313). The city directory lists
two occupants for 1985: Steele Realty, Inc. and Marzella's Professional
Complex. The "Complex" still occupies the premises, possibly in an expanded
building.
In December 1997
[at the time this summary was prepared] the property on which the cemetery
is located was owned by the Kiddie Prep School, Inc., a nonprofit organization
incorporated on 2 Jul 1984 (Durham Co. Corporations Book 69, p. 838).
The incorporaters and directors were Maricoma Steele, Marzella S. Webb
and Debra [Deborah?] Steele. The property had been transferred to this
organization on 6 Apr 1993 by Sandy Steele and Deborah W. Steele [Steele
Realty, Inc.] (Durham Co. DB 1834:69). It was described as 1.409 acres/61,384
sq. ft. with reference to the Love survey previously noted.
[Added Note: During
later research by blues music fans into the history of Blind Boy Fuller
(Fulton Allen), cemetery exhumation or removal records were checked
by them at the State Archives. No record was found that any removal
of bodies or burials from the Grove Hill Cemetery had been recorded.]
Last revised 4 September 2006
