Magnolia Cemetery is Mobile’s third oldest municipal cemetery. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

Established by a municipal ordinance in 1836 outside the city limits on thirty-six acres of land, this peaceful place of rest now lies in the heart of historic Mobile, just blocks from downtown.

Adjoining Magnolia Cemetery are a National Cemetery containing the graves of over 6,000 veterans, and the cemeteries of Mobile’s two Jewish congregations.

Resting within its 120 acres are many notables from Mobile’s past.  Among them are: Confederate General Braxton Bragg, Battle House Hotel owner James Battle, renowned physician Dr. Josia Nott, twice Governor of Alabama John Gayle, Civil War authoress Augusta Evans Wilson, Cowbellian de Rakin society founder Michael Krafft, Apache Indian Chappo Geronimo, and the founders of Bellingrath Gardens, Walter D. and Bessie Morse Bellingrath.

Restoration of Catholic Cemetery is the goal of a volunteer group that has formed under the name "Friends of Catholic Cemetery", a steering committee of 15 volunteers committed to the cause.

Perilla Wilson, chairman of the steering committee that will ultimately evolve into a formal board of directors, said she hopes Catholic and non-Catholic citizens will join the effort to restore this most historic place.

Over the years, the cemetery has fallen into disrepair due to the ravages of weather and time, family members moving away from the area and not providing for care of graves, and loss of records due to fire.

Members of the Mobile Genealogical Society are already undertaking the task of updating records, but there is a need for more volunteers to do various things.

Church Street Graveyard was acquired by the City of Mobile in 1820, and replaced the older colonial burial ground located at the site of the present Cathedral. The earliest burials in the graveyard in fact date from 1819, while negotiations for the purchase of the site were still in progress.

Many individuals important in Mobile’s early history are buried in the graveyard. Among them are Don Miguel Eslava, an early Spanish official, Dominique Louis Dolive, an early French settler and James Roper, The builder of Oakleigh. The best known burials are of course Joe Cain and Julian Lee Rayford, both important figures in the history of Mardi Gras in the city.

In the summer of 1993 the Church Street Graveyard Preservation Foundation was formed by the Historic Mobile Preservation Society.