College Burial Ground site
College Burial Ground site is a former cemetery in Washington, Washington, D.C.. Former Georgetown cemetery associated with a 1939 light-story reference. Established in 1817; last used by 1900. Graves were removed in 1953 for planned Reiss Science Building construction; archive identifies Mount Olivet in Washington,DC as receiving cemetery. Local lore holds that A 2009 campus article cites a February 1939 Hoya story of luminous witches-head globes over this former burial ground.
Now developed campus land around Reiss Science Building; no cemetery-entry route asserted.
· in your passport — stamped · open it
Is College Burial Ground site haunted?
The record holds 1 claim, 1 legend — filed as reported, not verified. The heaviest filing is classed documented legend. The archive documents the claim; it takes no position on the ghost.
The record — long form
College Burial Ground is the moved — the '1817' that's the parish's first, the '1953 exhumed' that's the campus cleared. The 'slaves buried' is the recorded — the 'upward of sixty' that's the register counted, the 'free Black' that's the Georgetown's third. The 'poor lots' is the divided — the 'paid and free' that's the sections split, the 'segregated' that's the race kept.
The 'Visitation wall' is the beside — the 'convent's slope' that's the site's edge, the 'Welsh epitaph' that's the immigrants' mark. The 'Mount Olivet' is the received — the 'transferred' that's the graves' second, the 'campus grew' that's the reason given. College Ground is the erased — the 'university's lawn' that's the burial's fate, the 'records kept' that's the names saved.
The file keeps the ground: the 60 enslaved, the '53 removal, the segregated lots, and the campus's growth.
College Burial Ground is the archive's D.C. file — the cemetery the university paved over.
Why this file matters
College Burial Ground is the archive's D.C. file — the graves Georgetown moved for lawns.
A campus keeps its dead — the file's suggestion being that the ground's hold is the displaced: the 'sixty enslaved' that's the register's count, the '1953' that's the removal's year, and the 'records' that's the memory left.
The long record
- 1817Opened
Opened to use
- 1900Closed
Ceased operation
- 1939Legend recorded
A 2009 campus article cites a February 1939 Hoya story of luminous witches-head globes ove
- 1939First reported
A 2009 campus article cites a February 1939 Hoya story of luminous witches-head globes ove
The record of claims
A 2009 campus article cites a February 1939 Hoya story of luminous witches-head globes over this former burial ground. The account has been recorded since February 1939 Hoya reference, cited secondhand. College Burial Ground site in Washington, Washington, D. C. carries the report the way old places do — as part of its identity. The account has a collector's pedigree — written down as legend, which is the most honest status it can hold. The report is preserved in sources like 'Six feet under GU'. The lights keep their own schedule; nobody has produced a better explanation.
Original 1939 issue not yet read. Proposed decomposition-gas explanation is historical speculation, not confirmed science;2022 GW article misassigns story toHoly Rood.
A 2009 campus article cites a February 1939 Hoya story of luminous witches-head globes over this former burial ground. Reports in the file date to February 1939 Hoya reference, cited secondhand. College Burial Ground site in Washington, Washington, D.C. carries the report the way old places do — as part of its identity. The story is documented as legend — recorded and retold, never verified as fact. The report is preserved in sources like 'Six feet under GU'. The legend does what legends do — it explains the place in a way the records can't.
Documented history
Established in 1817; last used by 1900. Graves were removed in 1953 for planned Reiss Science Building construction; archive identifies Mount Olivet in Washington,DC as receiving cemetery. The site's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. This belongs to the verified spine of the entry, the layer everything else is measured against. The record appears in 'College Burial Ground and Holy Rood Cemetery Collection,…'. The entry's timeline holds it; the lore holds the rest.
Verified historyGeorgetown University Archives
Sources on file
- 01College Burial Ground and Holy Rood Cemetery Collection, GTA-000144Georgetown University Archives · library archive · A1
- 02Six feet under GUThe Georgetown Voice · local journalism · A3
Field notes & open questions
Discovery or enrichment; earliest report and independent corroboration remain under research. Confidence measures source provenance, not supernatural reality.