GREENVILLE, N.C. (WNCT) — If you’ve ever been to Greenville Mall, then you’ve wondered about the small cemetery behind the building of the former Carolina Ale House. Whose graves are they exactly?
It all started in the late 1700s. Richard Evans was allowed by the NC General Assembly to form a town on his 100-acre plantation. The town was initially called Martinsborough, named after the royal governor Josiah Martin before the U.S. was founded. The Evans family, original founders of Greenville, are the ones buried in the mall parking lot. Evans Street near the mall is also named after the family.
The oldest marked plot in the cemetery is John Proctor Evans’, who was born in 1785 and died in 1838. His wife’s grave is right next to his, Nancy Proctor Evans. She was born in 1782 and died in 1877. North Carolina was established as a state in 1789, just a few years after both of them were born.
The youngest grave belongs to Anne Maude Sermons Evans, who was born in 1855 and died in 1946. There are many generations of Evans buried in the cemetery.
Before the mall was built, there was a strip mall. The Pitt Plaza was built in 1966, around 20 years after the last Evans was buried. The graves used to be visible back then, surrounded by grass.
The graveyard is now encompassed by a brick wall and covered in concrete. You may not even notice it if it’s the first time you’ve been to the mall.
Does this mean that the Greenville Mall is haunted by the family who founded the original town?
Information was used from Strange Carolinas and WRAL.
