Historic Quinette Cemetery

What do normal families do on vacation? Go to Disneyland? The beach?
Not mine.
As a result of my father’s general interest in history and genealogy, a trip to a graveyard always seemed to find its way into our vacations. Such trips even infiltrated my weekends. I have many childhood memories of day trips to nearby burial sites in my home state of Texas and neighboring state of Louisiana.
I now live in St. Louis, and although grave-​spotting really isn’t my idea of a good time, I thought my dad might like to see a few historic cemeteries on his first visit here.
Quinette Cemetery, established in 1866, is the oldest African-​American cemetery west of the Mississippi. It is located in Kirkwood right at the fork of Old Big Bend and Craig Drive.
An information board near the cemetery entrance indicates 100 to 200 people are buried here. The exact number of graves is unknown, but a map in the cemetery shows the locations of known and potential gravesites. Five veterans are known to have been buried here.
After the cemetery was closed to burials in the 1970s, the grounds were maintained poorly. Fortunately, a Kirkwood resident helped to restore and save the land.
According to a 2005 article written by Patricia Rice for the St. Louis Post-​Dispatch, Kirkwood’s Keith Rawlings took interest in the cemetery as a Boy Scout in the 1960s. Over a period of 35 years, he tracked down living relatives of those buried in the cemetery and ultimately saved the cemetery from land development.
Quinette Cemetery now is part of the Kirkwood park system, and improvements have been made to the grounds. A memorial was added to honor the five veterans buried here. Aesthetically, the entryway and meandering gravel walkway at the front of the cemetery look nice.
Parking:
If you visit, you’ll likely wonder where to park. The answer is:
I’m not sure.
The cemetery is located between businesses and does not appear to have a lot of its own. I parked at a dry cleaning business that appeared to be closed at the time.