Southland Cemetery, Old

Money and care kept this ground going. Bob Motley suggested a local cemetery because the nearest ones, Watson and Fugitt, were four or five miles from the townsite, according to Grand Prairie's landmark record. A block of twelve graves first sold for eighteen dollars. A first addition bought in 1929 enlarged the plat to 591 by 212 feet. A trust fund drive began with pledges on March 1, 1972, and the cemetery association reached perpetual care status on October 15, 1974. The city later gave the cemetery a Significant Landmark medallion.

What the plaque says

Southland Cemetery, Old Founded in 1910 by Thomas H. Hall (1867 - 1965), this cemetery was the result of a need to have a burial ground closer to the community than those existing more than four miles distant. Four acres of land were dedicated for use as a cemetery, and Hall began to plot the original plan for the design of the graveyard, using lot markers made of bois d'arc wood. The oldest marked grave in the cemetery is that of Edward Z. Motley (1885 - 1910). Also buried that year was Thomas Hall's brother, George Byrd Hall (1878 - 1910). Two stones which reflect earlier death dates (Thomas E. Vernoy, 1879, and Fannie Millar Sadler and infant daughter, 1909) document reinterment here from other locations. In 1918 Emma Motley (1856 - 1946) donated funds for the erection of a stone and wrought iron arched entrance gate for the cemetery. Although a cemetery association had been formed about 1939, the cemetery was not deeded to the trustees of the Southland Cemetery Association until 1973 by the heirs of Thomas H. Hall. The Old Southland Cemetery stands as a reminder to Grand Prairie residents of their community's heritage. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Cedar Ridge Preserve — 7.1 mi
  A 633-acre Audubon Dallas preserve at the western edge of Dallas County, with about nine miles of trails through prairie, woodland and escarpment hills.
• The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza — 12 mi
  A plow-company warehouse of 1903, identified by the Warren Commission as the building Oswald fired from, now a museum on its sixth and seventh floors above Dealey Plaza.
• Dallas Museum of Art — 13 mi
  A city art museum that began as the Dallas Art Association in 1903, grew up in Fair Park, and has stood in the Arts District since 1984 under a forty-foot barrel vault.
• Dallas Heritage Village at Old City Park — 13 mi
  Dallas's first city park, laid out around Browder's Spring in 1876, now a museum of historic buildings moved here from across North Texas, among them Millermore, a cotton planter's mansion.

More markers nearby

• Avion Village — 0.9 mi
• Dr. H. V. Copeland Home — 0.9 mi
• Hensley Field — 3.0 mi
• Jordan-Bowles House — 3.1 mi