The General Protestant Cemetery is an historic cemetery located in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. It is located on the side of the shallow Waterford River valley and is bounded on the upper (north) side by Old Topsail Road and on the lower side by Waterford Bridge Road. History Located between Waterford Bridge Road and Old Topsail Road in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, the General Protestant Cemetery officially opened May 25, 1849. Burials within the St. John's city limits were forbidden by 1849 due to the passing of "An Act to Prohibit Interments within the Town of St. John's", making the General Protestant Cemetery, then on the outskirts of town, a desirable area for burials. It was once referred to as the River Head Cemetery. The cemetery is designed as a Victorian garden cemetery with many of the oldest trees in the city. The earliest marker in the cemetery is for John Butt who died May 15, 1842. It appears that this person had likely been buried in another cemetery and then later moved to the General Protestant Cemetery after it opened. The opening of the cemetery coincided with the establishment of the first commercial headstone and memorial companies on the island, and the cemetery contains stones carved by early professional makers such as Alexander Smith, Charles Muir, and Frederick George Chislett. Possibly the earliest signed headstone in the province is in the cemetery, carved by maker James Grey for someone who died in 1836 (another possible reburial). While the cemetery is primarily used and intended for Protestant burials, it also contains plots for those of other faiths. These include plots for members of the Salvation Army, Judaism, Buddhism, and Taoism. Circa 1988, 50 plots on the southwest corner of the cemetery were given to the local Muslim community; by 2013 there were only 3 or 4 open Muslim plots remaining. By the 1940s, plots were becoming scarce, and the main cemetery for those of Protestant faith became the Mount Pleasant Cemetery on Hamilton Avenue. The cemetery is still in limited use today, though the majority of the plots that remain are family-owned. Burials Chinese There are twenty seven Chinese graves in the General Protestant Cemetery marking the burial sites of early Chinese immigrants to St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. Newfoundland and Labrador did not have a large Chinese presence until the late 19th century, and they predominately worked