STAUNTON, VA (Rocktown Now) — A local cemetery is among recently announced entries to the Virginia Landmarks Register (VLR).

During their quarterly public meeting last week, the Commonwealth’s Board of Historic Resources approved a cemetery in Staunton to be listed on the VLR, the official list of places of historic, architectural, archaeological, and cultural significance.

Established around 1868 by two local African American churches, the Fairview Cemetery is one of the largest historically African American cemeteries in Virginia outside of Richmond.

The site includes marked burials from the Civil War period, beginning with freedmen and the formerly enslaved in 1869 on through the Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and Civil Rights eras.