RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — Family members are looking for help after nearby construction has left a Raleigh cemetery difficult to access. The cemetery located on Hedingham Boulevard near New Bern Avenue is next to the site of a new car wash.
The cemetery is a sacred space for Ulyssia Seawell. “This whole back area is my family,” she noted, pointing toward a group of tombstones.
This cemetery once sat behind Elevation Baptist Church on New Bern Avenue.
“My great-great-grandfather, William Button Seawell, started that church 100 years ago in 1924 and so it’s been in my family for a really, really long time,” Seawell explained.
But the land where the church stood was sold, and earlier this year, the church building was demolished, making way for a car wash. Once the construction started, Seaw