Greenwood Cemetery

01 / The story of this place

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Greenwood Cemetery holds Birmingham's oldest burial ground, its first half-acre set aside in 1825 after the killing of settlers Polly Utter and her daughter Cynthia; the land itself had been purchased from the federal government by Dr. Ziba Swan in 1821. A group of local citizens bought the cemetery from Swan in 1842, and local women organized as the Greenwood Cemetery Association, which incorporated in 1885 to manage it. The grounds grew through three expansions between 1846 and 1904 to their present eight acres, and the City of Birmingham took over its operation in 1946. Birmingham's only Revolutionary War veteran, John Daniels, was buried here in 1832, alongside many of Oakland County's early pioneers. Sculptor Marshall Fredericks, celebrated for public works across Michigan and long a resident of the area, was buried here after his death in 1998. Greenwood remains an active, municipally run cemetery today.

1. Birmingham's oldest cemetery, first used in 1825
2. Land bought from the federal government by Dr. Ziba Swan in 1821
3. City of Birmingham has run it since 1946
4. Revolutionary War veteran John Daniels buried here in 1832
5. Sculptor Marshall Fredericks buried here in 1998