Olivewood Cemetery served Houston’s early African-American community for approximately 100 years. The Olivewood Cemetery Association incorporated in 1875 and that year purchased 5.5 acres of the property from Elizabeth Morin Slocomb, then bought two adjacent acres in 1917. Also known in its early years as olive wood, hollow wood, and hollywood, it is one of the oldest known platted cemeteries in the city. Its original 444 family plots, comprising over 5,000 burial spaces, were laid out along an elliptical drive. The burial ground contains several hundred marked graves and an unknown number of unmarked graves. Those interred here include pivotal leaders of Houston’s post-emancipation African-American community, including Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church pastor the Rev. Elias Dibble, businessman James B. Bell, alderman and landowner Richard Brock, attorney J. Vance Lewis, educator James D. Ryan, physician Russell F. Ferrill, and dentist Milton A. Baker, as well as ex-slaves, laborers, members of sororal and fraternal organizations, and military veterans. The cemetery features obelisks, statuary, curbing, and interior fencing, and it also preserves examples of preemancipation burial practices, including upright pipes symbolizing the path between the worlds of the living and the dead, ocean shells as grave ornaments, and text with upside down or backward letters used in some West African cultures to signify death. Today, Olivewood Cemetery remains a key historical site in Houston and a testament to the foresight and perseverance of its founders.