The new VLR listings also highlight the impact of commerce on the commonwealth’s historic districts and towns:
- Located just east of the Luray Downtown Historic District in Page County, Green Hill Cemetery was established in 1877 as a commercial venture by Daniel Fagan, a local marble cutter, Civil War veteran, and former mayor of Luray. Fagan designed Green Hill as an alternative, “rural” burial ground for the town after observing issues of overcrowding in church graveyards, health concerns from diphtheria and typhoid outbreaks, and the population growth as a result of the 19th-century railroad boom. Platted in the Victorian Garden style, Green Hill is surrounded by a mortared dolomite wall along its east, north, and west boundaries. Residences border the cemetery to the south. Green Hill contains 1,555 marked graves and 800 known unmarked graves. Markers for these plots are primarily carved from marble, but some are made of granite and metal. Sales of burial plots in the cemetery ceased in 1954. Persons buried within the cemetery contributed to the founding, growth, and history of Luray and the surrounding area.
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