This is the oldest surviving Jewish cemetery in the South.
It is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The cemetery has three sections:
A. This area is the original congregational cemetery and dates from 1764; from 1754 it was the DaCosta family plot.

B. This part was developed by members of Beth Elohim who had suceded in 1841 over the installation of an organ in the synagogue and had formed orthodox Congregation Shearit Israel. When the two congregations merged after the Civil War, a dividing wall was taken down.

C. The Lopez family plot was established in the 1843 in when Shearit Israel refused burial to David Lopez's first wife who had not been converted to Judaism.
The Cemetery contains over 400 graves; many are not marked.
The oldest identifiable grave is that of Moses D. Cohen, the first religious leader of Beth Elohim, who died in 1762.
Buried here are -
-- ten members who fought in the American Revolution,

-- six soldiers of the War of 1812,

-- two soldiers in the Seminole Wars in Florida,

-- 21 Civil War participants, of whom eight died in the Confederate cause,

-- six rabbis of the congregation,

-- 18 past presidents of the congregation.
Bronze plaques placed on some tombstones in 1964 identify notable personages.
Except for a few family plots, present burials in Beth Elohim's Huguenin Avenue Cemetery, which was established in 1887.
When this site was first used as a cemetery, it was outside the then city limits at Calhoun Street.

Visitation to the Coming Street Cemetery must be made by appointment. Call 843-723-1090.

( 4 above views are of the Coming Street Cemetery, photos by Bryan Sistino )

The Huguenin Avenue Cemetery

A Brief History

K.K.B.E.'s Huguenin Avenue Cemetery is its present burial ground. It was first developed on land, which then abutted the northern limit of the City of Charleston, purchased from the Washington Light Infantry in l887. It was expanded in l991 on property bought from the Standard Oil Company in 1943.

It contains the remains of persons buried since l888, also remains and stones which were removed from three defunct graveyards: the Dacosta (l783-l939) and Harby (1799-1939) cemeteries on Hanover Street, and the Rikersville Cemetery (1857-1888), which had been established by Congregation Shearit Israel).

Directions

From Calhoun Street take East Bay St. North and pass under the Cooper River Bridges. The street name changes and becomes Morrison Drive. On the right you will pass the recycling center and a noticeably pink small building. At the next traffic light, which is Brigade Street, make a right. Cross the railroad tracks. At the end of Brigade Street, turn left onto Huguenin Avenue. The KKBE Cemetery will be on the right side of the street.

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