Honoring the Past, Preserving the Future
Join the Brewer Hill Cemetery Association, its partners, and sustainability volunteers at the Wiley H. Bates Legacy Center to learn about the rich history, preservation and sustainability challenges of being a 501(c)13, its current renovation projects, and how individuals, groups, and organizations can be a part of ensuring this historic burial ground remains well taken care of for generations to come!
Date: Thursday, November 13, 2025
Location: Wiley H. Bates Legacy Center (Smithville Street, Annapolis)
Doors open: 5:45pm
Program start: 6:30pm
Location: Wiley H. Bates Legacy Center (Smithville Street, Annapolis)
Doors open: 5:45pm
Program start: 6:30pm
RSVP link: https://bit.ly/4pWyWC5
About the Brewer Hill Cemetery
Brewer Hill Cemetery is Annapolis’s oldest Black burial ground, originally a private burial site for enslaved people on Circuit Judge Nicholas Brewer’s land before the Civil War. In 1884, a group of Black men purchased the 4.5-acre parcel to create a communal cemetery for the Black community, naming it The People’s Brewer Hill Cemetery Corporation. The cemetery serves as the final resting place for over 7,000 people — the majority of whom were African American — including prominent figures, veterans, and victims of the 1900s smallpox epidemic, and continues to be a significant site for preserving African American history and culture in Annapolis.