Atlanta - Oakland Cemetery

This week's adventure was a guided walking tour of the historic Oakland Cemetery. It's the oldest cemetery in Atlanta and many historic figures and famous Atlanta families are buried here.

My favorite story that the guide told us was about the Egleston family (the folks who founded the children's hospital in Atlanta by the same name). He showed us their family plot and then said, "There are their tombstones, but they're not buried there anymore." Huh? According to folklore, their descendants had the bodies moved to Westview Cemetery (the second oldest cemetery in Atlanta). No one knows why they were moved. But being buried in Oakland is an incredible honor in Atlanta and since they didn't want to lose their "place," they just kept the tombstones there. Weird, eh? Talk about being snobby until the end!

The guides showed us the main pauper's field, but explained that anywhere you saw green space, people were buried. Poor people, slaves, and criminals were rarely given markers. It was interesting to see the groups that segregated themselves voluntarily (the Jews) and those that were segregated involuntarily (African Americans). You could also see obvious class differences among the tombstone markers and the mausoleums.

It was interesting to hear about the 2 businessmen who loved their work so much they had their graves facing the buildings they used to work in so they could oversee their workers even after death. Wow. Then we noticed that Mayor Jackson's grave is facing at an awkward angle. Why? Because he wanted to be facing the city he loved. So if he were to "wake up," he would be looking directly at the Atlanta skyline. It's fascinating to me how people take death so darn differently.

All in all, it was an excellent 2 hour tour. I would highly recommend it!


The gorgeous brick entrance into the cemetery.



This guy's name has completely escaped me, but his nickname was the "Mayor of Oakland." That's why he had a statue of himself built on top of his small mausoleum - he faces the gate so he can watch who comes into the cemetery.






I thought this was... um...sweet? Golfers pay homage to Bobby Jones by leaving golf balls when they visit his grave. His wife is buried next to him. I wonder if she appreciates that?


Margaret Mitchell's grave... this one's for you, Angie!


Our guide told us that during the late 19th century, folks started to make graves look more like beds so that they wouldn't be so sad that someone died. They stopped saying, "She died" and instead began saying things like, "She fell asleep" or "She passed away."


This was my favorite statue in the whole cemetery. It's of a mother and daughter. The daughter, an only child, died very early in her life and the mother was incredibly distraught. If I remember correctly, the father had this built.


This is the Orthodox Jews section of the cemetery (they voluntarily segregated themselves). See how close together the graves are? It's because they had such a small plot of land to use, they didn't want to lose any space and not have enough room to bury their dead. The fronts of the tombstones are in Hebrew. The English translation is on the back.


This is probably the most famous statue in the cemetery. A women's group got together after the Civil War and picked up the bodies left behind and buried them here at Oakland. Since they couldn't possibly know everyone they buried, they built this statue as a reminder of the fallen heroes. They felt their soldiers were brave as lions. If you look closely, the lion is lying on a broken rifle (or musket) and the Confederate battle flag. There's also a tear running down one of his cheeks.



This was the Confederate soldier section of the cemetery. Flags by a tombstone mark where a Union soldier is buried. The guide told us that Atlanta was a medical hub for all soldiers during the Civil War, so it's not surprising that the Union soldiers who died here were buried here. Transportation of dead bodies during war time would have been nearly impossible.