Union Hill Cemetery

Union Hill Cemetery, sometimes known as Canterbury Cemetery, is located along the north side of the 300 block of Hollywood Boulevard, which is in the Birmingham city limits, adjacent to U.S. Highway 280. The cemetery is known to be the resting place of a number of Confederate soldiers, a few World War I and II soldiers, and at least one veteran from the Spanish-American War.

The cemetery established in the 1870s and was adjacent to the former Union Hill Methodist Episcopal Church which moved to Shades Valley in 1873. The church was remodeled in 1928 and the name changed to Canterbury Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1946, burials from the Daniel Watkins Cemetery were moved to Union Hill. As a result of this move, some headstones in the cemetery now date back to the 1850s. The church building was demolished in the 1960s to make way for the rerouting of U. S. Highway 280.

In 1988, the Families and Friends of Union Hill Cemetery was established as a non-profit corporation organized to care for and maintain the cemetery. In the 1990s, the adjacent property north of the cemetery was developed as offices, necessitating the addition of Union Hill Drive on the cemetery's east side for access to the property. A few graves were covered by the road, but the markers in that area were moved to other parts of the cemetery. Additional burials were moved to Union Hill from the Enoch Anderson Watkins Cemetery in 2004. In 2008, the cemetery was added to the Alabama Historic Cemetery Register.

References

• Ancestors and Descendants of Thomas McClure Rice and Elizabeth Wilson Rice - Person Page 11. Accessed 22 September 2006.
• "Four Jefferson County Cemeteries Listed to Alabama Historic Cemetery Register." (August 5, 2008). Alabama Historical Commission. Accessed April 16, 2010.

External links

• Union Hill Cemetery website, includes list of burials.
• Union Hill Cemetery at the Birmingham Genealogical Society website
• Remembrance - Union Hill Cemetery at Birmingham, Alabama Daily Photo