Landscape Architecture Students to Honor Dead at Maplewood Cemetery

EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. (May 1, 2025) – Long-deceased, long unrecognized loved ones in Greensboro’s Maplewood Cemetery will be commemorated with interpretive benches designed and built by students in North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University’s landscape architecture program.

The benches will be unveiled from 9 a.m. to noon Wednesday, May 7, at Maplewood Cemetery, 235 Bingham St.

“There are decades of Aggies buried here in Maplewood, and in most cases, nobody knows where they are or what their stories are,” said landscape architecture assistant professor Steve Rasmussen Cancian. “This project is a small step toward righting that wrong and making it a place that’s well-cared for, loved and where those stories are interpreted.”

Maplewood Cemetery was established in 1918 to provide a burial space for African American families in Greensboro after the closure of Union Cemetery. Prior to that time, African Americans were buried in a segregated section of Green Hill Cemetery.

Maplewood, which holds 13,000 graves, includes “hundreds” of deceased individuals without markers or historical records, Cancian said.

In collaboration with the office of Virginia Teachey, A&T vice chancellor for Business and Finance and chief financial officer, City of Greensboro, Friends of Green Hill Cemetery and Forge Greensboro, juniors in the landscape architecture program, housed in the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, have created eight unique, interpretive benches that accentuate the experience and the untold stories of the cemetery. 

In case of inclement weather, the event will be rescheduled for Thursday, May 8, at the same time and location.