Oakwood Cemetery

Oakwood Cemetery is a 62-acre burial ground along Grand Avenue featuring thousands of monuments and gravestones distributed across rolling hills. The grounds near Trinity River include separate sections serving different communities and religious backgrounds.

John Peter Smith donated the initial 20 acres to Fort Worth in 1879 when the original Pioneers Rest Cemetery ran out of space. The grounds later expanded to accommodate multiple communities.

The grounds reflect a segregated past through three separate sections for different religious and racial communities. Walking through reveals how social divisions of that era shaped the physical layout.

The grounds are open daily for visitors to walk and explore the monuments while researching family connections. The rolling terrain requires comfortable walking shoes and time to navigate the different sections.

The grounds feature Bartenders' Row, a dedicated section for bartenders who worked in Fort Worth's historic districts during the late 1800s. This section honors workers whose labor shaped the city's social life.