Palm Grove Cemetery, Cemetery in central Monrovia, Liberia

Palm Grove Cemetery is a burial ground near downtown Monrovia, Liberia, begun in the first third of the 19th century. It covers an area of up to 300 metres in each main direction, cut into two roughly equal halves by a wide asphalt path. Each half is enclosed by a wall with some mausoleums and memorial plaques leaning against it; the graves are arranged irregularly, and few shade trees remain. There is no chapel or wake hall.

The cemetery was founded in the 1820s and long served as Liberia's primary national burial site for founding figures and leaders. During the 1980 military coup, tragic events unfolded here, including the burial of an executed president, linking the site to complex historical moments in the nation's past.

Decoration Day became the cemetery's central public ritual under President William Tolbert, and it continued to be observed after he was murdered in the 1980 coup and his body was dumped here. Families still gather on that day to honour their dead at the graves.

The cemetery lies near downtown Monrovia at its original Center Street site, split into two walled halves by a wide asphalt road. Graves are laid out without order, and there is no chapel or mortuary hall on the grounds. Some mausoleums and memorial plaques lean against the enclosure walls.

In June 1982 Monrovia's municipal authorities asked the People's Redemption Council to close the cemetery, noting it was being used as a waste dump and was so full that new burials were unsafe. They proposed moving it from its Center Street site, but it remains in Monrovia.