{"nrhp_refnum":"99000139","name":"Greenlawn Cemetery","other_names":["Greenlawn Memorial Park","VDHR File # 121-65"],"category":"site","location":{"address":"2700 Parish Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Newport News (Independent City)","county":"Newport News","state":"VA","lat":36.997144902500054,"lon":-76.40418987676998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1999-02-05","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Social History","Landscape Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 50-acre private cemetery at 2700 Parish Avenue in Newport News, Virginia, developed from 1888 by the Newport News Cemetery Company where Mill Dam Creek and Salters Creek meet. It is also known as Greenlawn Memorial Park.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is significant for its link to the Newport News Confederate POW camp, whose 163 dead were reinterred there in 1900 and memorialized in 1908. It is also significant as a 19th-century rural cemetery with an informal, picturesque landscape design meant to serve the living as well as the dead.","narrative":"Greenlawn Cemetery is a 50-acre burial ground in Newport News, laid out in 1888 where Mill Dam Creek and Salters Creek come together. It has operated continuously since then and holds roughly 20,000 burials in family and individual plots, marked by granite monuments, obelisks and mausoleums. Winding grass and stone drives, mature trees and informal plantings give it the look of a 19th-century rural cemetery, set apart from the city by natural watercourses. At its center stands a 25-foot obelisk marking the mass grave of 163 Confederate prisoners who died at the Newport News prisoner-of-war camp in 1865. Their remains were moved to the cemetery in 1900 when terminal expansion destroyed the camp site, and a granite ledger lists their names. The cemetery was recognized for this wartime connection and for its picturesque landscape design, which made it a gathering place for families. A 1936 caretaker's house is the only noncontributing building.","period_of_significance":"1888-1908","architect_builder":"Unknown / Stone cutters monument builders: Ennis Lawson & Hewton; O.D. Couper","architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"In continuous operation as a cemetery since 1888, with about 150 new burials per year; described as in good condition with very little alteration since its creation.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:01.049783-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/1/6821/41682101/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/99000139.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/99000139/673a198de7-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/99000139/673a198de7-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Joseph Sullivan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Greenlawn_Cemetery_-_Camp_Butler_POWs_Monument_1.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Joseph Sullivan</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Greenlawn_Cemetery_-_Camp_Butler_POWs_Monument_1.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41682101","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenlawn_Memorial_Park_(Newport_News,_Virginia)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5604264"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/newport-news/greenlawn-cemetery-99000139/"}