Mount Zion Cemetery

In 1808, the Dumbarton Street Methodist Church acquired property at Mill Road and 26th Street, NW in Georgetown. The Mount Zion United Methodist congregation lease and later purchased the eastern section of the property as a burial ground. Initially interring the remains of both black and white citizens, it was used almost exclusively by the African-American population after 1849. The Female Union Band Society acquired the western section of the property in 1842 as a place to bury the remains of free African-Americans. Abandoned in 1950, the graveyards were combined as a single cemetery and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.