NoVa Tour: Oakwood Cemetery

Welcome to Oakwood Cemetery

By QB History Buff
QuailBellMagazine.com

Img: Kaminoge

Welcome to Oakwood Cemetery in Falls Church, Virginia. You're not dead, just visiting the dead. And, boy, do you have plenty of corpses who are looking forward to feeling the flush of your warm blood in their lot. It's a good thing you just missed the Winter Solstice, or else those dead folks might actually come up to make trouble for trespassing mortals. But that scary window of time passed a week ago and you're safe. So take the Orange line of the WMATA subway to East Falls Church Metro, walk about ten minutes west, and feast your eyes upon this historic resting place.

There aren't many truly quiet places in the auto-oriented Falls Church anymore. Consider Oakwood an exception. Though the cemetery was not incorporated until 1927, Oakwood's first burial occurred in 1779. In those days, a wooden Methodist chapel called Fairfax Chapel sat there. The wooden building was later replaced by a sturdier brick structure in 1819. The chapel lasted until 1862 when Union soldiers destroyed it during the Civil War. Unsurprisingly, many of Oakwood's graves date back to the Civil War.

Today Oakwood Cemetery is located at North Roosevelt Street and Roosevelt Boulevard (hey, we're not praising Falls Church for creativity with its street names.) Oakwood is still an active cemetery, now on 12 acres and welcoming to members of all faiths. It is also one of the few cemetries in the area where every burial site allows for at least two internments. 

Either before or after your trip to Oakwood, skip on over to the neighboring Eden Center, a shopping center targeted toward the area's prevalent Vietnamese-American community. Maybe lump in a little pho with your spooky trip. 

OakwoodCemetery.Co