Oxford Memorial Cemetery reaches capacity, leaving few burial plots remaining

Oxford Memorial Cemetery has reached full capacity for traditional burial plots, leaving only a handful of unassigned gravesites and forcing families to look to the cemetery’s columbarium spaces instead.

The City of Oxford says its Engineering Division handles the sale and execution of deeds for cemetery plots and columbarium spaces in Oxford Memorial Cemetery on behalf of the Environmental Services Department. The practical effect is that new burials there are now far more limited, especially for families who had counted on securing a standard plot in the city’s historic burial ground.

Oxford Memorial Cemetery is also known locally as St. Peter’s Cemetery, and the older section sits just a few blocks from the Oxford Square. It is one of the city’s most recognizable resting places, in part because William Faulkner is buried there, drawing both local families and visitors who treat the grounds as a place of memory and literary pilgrimage.

The cemetery’s pressure has been building for years. In November 2015, the Oxford Board of Aldermen approved an ordinance amendment allowing niche sales in the cemetery’s columbarium after the city said the grounds were quickly running out of room for new gravesites. Earlier, the city had approved a columbarium plan for 813 niches in a 45-foot by 55-foot area, about 9 feet high. A Timeless Columbaria case study later described the installed project as 11 cabinets with 792 niches, part of Oxford’s effort to stretch burial capacity without expanding the cemetery footprint.

The site’s remaining capacity is now so tight that a project page describes Oxford Memorial Cemetery as about 99 percent full. That leaves the city relying more heavily on columbarium inventory and on careful coordination of any remaining burial space. The city’s rules have also required funeral directors to contact officials to schedule interments and give at least 36 hours’ notice.

Oxford has also continued to spend on the cemetery as an active public space. On Sept. 18, 2024, the Board of Aldermen approved $32,280 for an 807-foot treated-pine shadowbox privacy fence along the border after a 2022 drainage-ditch project clear-cut the area. The city later planted green giant arborvitae and said the fence could eventually come down once the trees grow enough to serve as a buffer.

For Lafayette County families, the message is clear: Oxford Memorial Cemetery can no longer absorb normal demand for new graves, and burial arrangements there will depend increasingly on the city’s remaining niche space and whatever policy decisions follow.