The Old City Cemetery is the oldest continuously active municipal cemetery in Virginia, established in 1806 on land donated by the city's founder John Lynch. It is also Lynchburg's most visited historic site, though not for the reasons you might expect: the cemetery has been developed into a sophisticated history park with four small house museums, a non-denominational chapel, an arboretum, and Virginia's largest collection of heirloom roses.
Two-thirds of the burials here are African American — this was the only burial ground available to Lynchburg's Black population for most of the 19th century. The Pest House Medical Museum recreates the isolation hospital that treated Civil War soldiers quarantined from the main hospitals. If you have any interest in Victorian-era death customs, the Mourning Museum is unexpectedly compelling.