United States historical location Oakland Cemetery is one of the largest cemetery green areas, in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Established as Atlanta Cemetery in 1850 on 6 acres (2.4 hectares) of land southeast of the city, it was relabelled in 1872 to reflect the big number of oak and magnolia trees growing in the area.
Because then, Atlanta has actually continued to broaden so that the cemetery is now situated in the center of the city. Oakland is an excellent example of a Victorian- style cemetery, and shows the “garden cemetery” movement began and exemplified by Mount Auburn Cemetery in Massachusetts. The initial 6 acres (24,000 m2) of Oakland remains one of the oldest historic plots of land in Atlanta, most of the rest of the city having been burned in 1864.
Names of Atlanta streets, buildings, parks, subdivisions, and more can be found within the cemetery gates. An estimated 70,000 people are interred at Oakland, and while the last plots were offered in 1884, there are still regular burials today. These are mostly carried out on family-owned plots or locations owned by Atlanta (one of the most current being previous mayor Maynard Jackson, whose plot was contributed by the city).
Evictions and border walls were not put up up until 1896, the date engraved on the keystone of the gates’ highest arch. After a brief range along a brick sidewalk, Oakland’s first homeowner given that its establishment can be discovered. Dr. James Nissen was a medical physician visiting Atlanta who fell ill and passed away in 1850.
Nissen shared a common worry of the day, being buried alive. For that reason, before his death he asked that his jugular vein be cut prior to his burial to guarantee he did not awaken later under the ground. Being the oldest tomb in Oakland since its classification as a city cemetery, Nissen’s headstone is nearly entirely deteriorated by the passage of time and the aspects.
Back towards the primary gates of Oakland on a plot contributed by the City of Atlanta lies Martha Lumpkin Compton. The daughter of Governor Wilson Lumpkin, from 1843 up until 1845 Atlanta was called “Marthasville” in her honor. The first thing lots of people notice when getting in evictions of Oakland is the mausoleum of Jasper Newton Smith, on which sits a striking life-size statue of Smith himself.
The latter is an example of Neoclassical art and imagery, while the former is Oakland’s only known example of Egyptian Revival. Likewise to be discovered in the original 6 acres (24,000 m2) is a small area of land marking the old Jewish section. This area was purchased by the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation (which later on bought more land in the expanded cemetery) and is the 2nd earliest Jewish burial ground in the state of Georgia, preceded by a colonial Jewish cemetery in Savannah.
His tomb can always be discovered with golf balls and other stuff associating with the sport. The instant area surrounding Jones’ tomb is adorned by all eighteen flower-bearing plants that are the namesakes of the holes on the Augusta National course. Franklin Garrett, a man dubbed “Atlanta’s Official Historian” who thoroughly cataloged Atlanta’s history in addition to much of the tombs at Oakland and other Atlanta-area cemeteries likewise rests in the initial 6 acres (24,000 m2).
This is because of the City of Atlanta’s contribution of much of the original ironwork in Oakland to the U.S. government for usage in producing arms throughout World War I. The Confederate section of Oakland is house to an estimated 6,900 burials, of which about 3,000 are unidentified. During the Civil War, Atlanta was a major transportation and medical center for the Southern states.
Shortly after the war ended, a couple of thousand fallen soldiers from the Atlanta Campaign who were previously buried in battleground graves were relocated to the Confederate premises in Oakland. The area is marked by a big monument understood as the Confederate Obelisk. This 65 foot (20 m) tall obelisk is made from granite quarried from Stone Mountain and was committed on April 26, 1874.
For a variety of years, the Confederate Obelisk was the tallest structure in Atlanta. To the northwest, really near to the obelisk itself, are buried 4 Confederate generals, John B. Gordon, Lucius J. Gartrell, Clement A. Evans, and William Wright. To the south of the obelisk is a big area of significant military graves.
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