Christ Church Cemetery

During the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1799, the death toll was so catastrophic that victims were buried in trench-style ditches in this cemetery - the only public burial ground at the time. Thousands of graves occupy this small churchyard.

Christ Church Cemetery in New Bern is one of the most haunted burial grounds in North Carolina, flowing with Spanish moss and crumbling graves that seem to emerge straight from a horror film. The cemetery originally served Christ Episcopal Church, the third-oldest church in North Carolina, founded in 1715 as Craven Parish. The first church building was constructed in 1752, and the graveyard began receiving the dead soon after. But it was the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1799 that transformed this sacred ground into something far more crowded—and far more haunted.

During that devastating epidemic, the number of deaths was so abundant that victims were buried in trench-style ditches in the only public cemetery available. The cemetery is believed to hold thousands of graves in its small area, many unmarked and forgotten. When Christ Church ran out of room, Cedar Grove Cemetery was established in 1800 to handle the overflow. In 1799, the church acquired a nearby field to accommodate more dead, and the city of New Bern took control of the cemetery in 1853.

The most famous feature of Christ Church Cemetery is the Weeping Arch, built in 1854 from shell rock—mined seashells and fossilized sea creatures locally acquired. Soon after construction, people noticed small drops of water dripping from beneath the archways. These drops seemed to occur whenever a funeral procession passed through the gateway, as if the stone itself were crying in mourning for the dead.

A dark superstition grew around the arch: if a group of people crosses beneath it, whoever gets wept upon will be the next to die. For generations, it has been a dare among New Bern children to run through the arch and see if they can avoid being struck by a falling drop. Another legend connects the weeping to Richard Dobbs Spaight, a signer of the United States Constitution who was killed in a duel in 1802. Some say the arch drips three drops, pauses, and drips three more, as if crying "Avenge Spaight's blood."

Visitors to the cemetery have witnessed flashes of light and floating orbs among the headstones. Ghost tours through New Bern feature the cemetery as a key stop, and the city is now considered the most haunted town in North Carolina, ranking high nationwide for paranormal activity. With thousands of souls buried in its small confines—many victims of epidemic disease, many in unmarked graves—Christ Church Cemetery carries the weight of centuries of death. And beneath the Weeping Arch, the stone still cries.