Old Graveyard Memorial Park

The official name for this cemetery is The Old Graveyard Memorial Park located within the borders of Cemetery Street, S. Ist Street and S. 2nd Street. It was used as a burial ground from 1817 to 1883 and contains many early settler's graves. In 1967-68 it was turned into a memorial park with many of the gravestones moved and displayed at the north end of the park. An obelisk in the center provides the names of those known to be buried here and shows a map of where the actual graves are located.

The burial spot of ten former Pulaski mayors, the Old Graveyard Memorial Park was the site of Pulaski’s first designated burial ground. First in use by 1817, three years before Pulaski was chartered, this graveyard remained the primary burial ground for Pulaski citizens for several decades, before the creation of what would become Maplewood Cemetery, which opened in 1855. Burials continued at the old graveyard until 1883. Over the course of the 20th century, the graveyard fell into neglect. In 1968, concerned citizens joined together to revive the space, turning it into a park in honor of the deceased who found their final resting places here. Though the park does not follow modern best practices in cemetery preservation, it stands as a memorial to Pulaski’s earliest residents, with a marker listing the names of every known person interred here to preserve their memory in perpetuity, even as the original engravings fade.