History and Heritage

Background and History

The United Colored American Cemetery (UCA Cemetery) is an African American burial  ground, founded in 1883. Often, it has simply been called the Colored American Cemetery. Since the 1960’s, it has been known as the United American Cemetery. It is an 11.6-acre park like cemetery on rolling terrain in the Madisonville neighborhood, eight miles northeast of  downtown Cincinnati. It includes many graves and gravestones relocated in 1883-4 from an  earlier African American cemetery, and the earliest legible tombstone is from 1832. A contributing site, the United Colored American Cemetery was laid out by noted landscape  architect Adolph Strauch, and it is a good example of the rural cemetery movement, featuring  graceful, curving roads, open meadows of irregular outline, and picturesque placement of  monuments. A stone receiving vault, built in 1883, is a contributing building to the historic  district. Two especially important grave monuments are contributing objects of large cultural  significance. The cemetery has its original boundaries, and the topography is unchanged. The  site has a high level of historic integrity.