I showed you here a baseball diamond in Daniel Hill discovered in a 1940 aerial photograph of Wilson. Within a few hundred yards of the Sallie Barbour School, just below Cemetery Street, here’s another captured the same year. Home plate appears to be at the lower right corner, and a well-worn path cuts across center and left field.
Look just above the diamond. That mottled wedge. Is that a cemetery?
Here’s another look, with an adjacent area also highlighted. Are these what was left of Oakdale Cemetery right before the city moved its graves to Rest Haven in 1941?
A contemporaneous news article refers to “dozens” of graves being moved, which always struck me as a low count for a 12-acre cemetery that had opened in 1896. However, maybe the site was not popular with families, especially once Rountree (1897 and 1906), Masonic (1900), Odd Fellows (1908), and Vick cemeteries (1913) were established. There’s also mention that the city had condemned Oakdale cemetery’s land in order to “build several roads through it.” Had the city sold off the condemned land? Certainly, it quickly filled with housing. I’ll do some sleuthing next time I’m in Wilson.
Wilson_CSP_6B_12, U.S.D.A. Photograph Collection, State Archives of North Carolina. Big thanks to R.L. for pointing out this wedge of land.