In 1832, Christ Church purchased the Old Episcopal Burying Ground in front of you, at 251 East Third Street, as a burial ground for its parishioners. This small, quiet plot became painfully central during the 1833 cholera epidemic, when one-third of the congregation died. Walk slowly across the grass and you will notice the little Carpenter Gothic chapel, built around 1867 and thought to have been designed by Lexington architect John McMurtry; that same small building later served as a sexton’s cottage.
In 1976 this burying ground and former chapel were recognized on the National Register of Historic Places. Among the stones here is the solitary marked grave of a person of color in the OEBG: Rev. London Ferrill, a former enslaved man who came to Kentucky in 1811 after the death of his enslaver, and who was ordained in 1821 by the Elkhorn Baptist Association. Rev. Ferrill ministered to Lexington’s black population at the First African Church, now the First African Baptist Church, a congregation founded by Rev. Peter Durrett, known as “Uncle Peter” and “Old Captain.
Notice the solitary marked grave of Rev. London Ferrill, a formerly enslaved man ordained here in 1821.