Arlington Unveils Historic Marker In Honor Of Halls Hill Residents Buried At Cemetery

ARLINGTON, VA — Arlington County placed a historic marker next to the Mount Salvation Baptist Cemetery on Culpeper Street in Arlington in late November in honor of the many prominent Black residents from the Halls Hill neighborhood buried in the cemetery.

The land on which the cemetery is located was donated by Moses Pelham in 1888. His son, Moses Pelham Jr., is buried in the cemetery.

Residents of the neighborhood around Mount Salvation Baptist Cemetery, along with the church congregation at Mount Salvation Baptist Church, pushed the county to recognize the cemetery as a historic site. In 2016, residents also successfully lobbied for a historic marker to be placed at the segregation wall a few blocks south of Mount Salvation Baptist Cemetery on Culpeper Street.

The Halls Hill area in North Arlington was settled by newly freed enslaved people shortly after the Civil War. People who grew up in the neighborhood and their children and grandchildren will always refer to the community as Halls Hill, even though Arlington County officially changed the name of the area to High View Park years ago, Wilma Jones, who grew up in Halls Hill, wrote in her book "My Halls Hill Family: More Than A Neighborhood," published in 2018.

There are two other historic African American cemeteries in Arlington that are designated as local historic districts: Lomax African Methodist Episcopal Zion Cemetery in Green Valley and Calloway United Methodist Cemetery in Hall’s Hill near the Mount Salvation Baptist Cemetery.

Scott Edwin Taylor, president of the Black Heritage Museum of Arlington told ARLnow that it is important to preserve these cemetery sites.

“The gentrification that’s going on in Arlington is moving at the speed of light,” Taylor told ARLnow. “When we have landmarks like [this], we need to cherish them because it shows the real African-American experience.”

The Mount Salvation Baptist Cemetery is the final resting spot of at least 89 people. Burials at the cemetery were recorded from 1916 to 1974.

The cemetery was designated as a local historic district in 2021 and the marker was approved by the Arlington County Historical Affairs and Landmark Review Board in April.

Among the other influential Arlingtonians buried at Mount Salvation Baptist Cemetery are Lucretia M. Lewis and Annie and Robert Spriggs.

The Nov. 20 event to celebrate the unveiling of the historic marker was planned by Mount Salvation Baptist Church committee members Linda Moody and Portia Haskins, who have both been members of the church for more than 50 years, the Arlington Sun Gazette reported.

At the event, Arlington County Board Chairman Katie Cristol noted that the cemetery has remained in place as other African American cemeteries in Northern Virginia get demolished by developers with support from local governments. She called the cemetery “a guardian, a monument and support system,” according to the Sun Gazette.