Bonaventure Cemetery | |
---|---|
Details | |
Established | 1846 [1] |
Location | |
Coordinates | 32°2′38″N81°2′44″W / 32.04389°N 81.04556°W |
Type | Public municipal |
Owned by | City of Savannah [1] |
Size | 160-acre (647,000 m2) [1] |
Find a Grave | Bonaventure Cemetery |
Bonaventure Cemetery | |
Architect | Urban, Henry; et al. |
NRHP reference No. | 01000035 [2] |
Added to NRHP | February 2, 2001 |
Bonaventure Cemetery is a rural cemetery located on a scenic bluff of the Wilmington River, east of Savannah, Georgia. [1] The cemetery's prominence grew when it was featured in the 1994 novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt, and in the subsequent movie, directed by Clint Eastwood, based on the book. [3] It is the largest of the city's municipal cemeteries, containing nearly 160 acres (0.65 km2). [1]
The entrance to the cemetery is located at 330 Bonaventure Road. [1] Immediately inside the gates is the large and ornate Gaston Tomb, built in memory of William Gaston, a prominent merchant.
This section needs additional citations for verification .(June 2023) |
The cemetery is located on the former site of Bonaventure Plantation, originally owned by Colonel John Mullryne. On March 10, 1846, Commodore Josiah Tattnall III sold the 600-acre (2.4 km2) plantation and its private cemetery to Peter Wiltberger. [4] The first burials took place in 1850, and three years later, Peter Wiltberger himself was entombed in a family vault. [4]
Major William H. Wiltberger, the son of Peter, formed the Evergreen Cemetery Company on June 12, 1868. On July 7, 1907, the City of Savannah purchased the Evergreen Cemetery Company, making the cemetery public and changing the name to Bonaventure Cemetery. [1]
In 1867, John Muir began his Thousand Mile Walk [5] to Florida and the Gulf. In October, he sojourned for six days and nights in the cemetery, sleeping upon graves overnight, this being the safest and cheapest accommodation that he could find while he waited for money to be expressed from home. He found the cemetery breathtakingly beautiful and inspiring and wrote a lengthy chapter upon it, "Camping in the Tombs":
Part of the grounds was cultivated and planted with live-oak ( Quercus virginiana ), about a hundred years ago, by a wealthy gentleman who had his country residence here But much the greater part is undisturbed. Even those spots which are disordered by art, Nature is ever at work to reclaim, and to make them look as if the foot of man had never known them. Only a small plot of ground is occupied with graves and the old mansion is in ruins.
The most conspicuous glory of Bonaventure is its noble avenue of live-oaks. They are the most magnificent planted trees I have ever seen, about fifty feet high and perhaps three or four feet in diameter, with broad spreading leafy heads. The main branches reach out horizontally until they come together over the driveway, embowering it throughout its entire length, while each branch is adorned like a garden with ferns, flowers, grasses, and dwarf palmettos.
But of all the plants of these curious tree-gardens the most striking and characteristic is the so-called Long Moss (Tillandsia usneoides). It drapes all the branches from top to bottom, hanging in long silvery-gray skeins, reaching a length of not less than eight or ten feet, and when slowly waving in the wind they produce a solemn funereal effect singularly impressive.
There are also thousands of smaller trees and clustered bushes, covered almost from sight in the glorious brightness of their own light. The place is half surrounded by the salt marshes and islands of the river, their reeds and sedges making a delightful fringe. Many bald eagles roost among the trees along the side of the marsh. Their screams are heard every morning, joined with the noise of crows and the songs of countless warblers, hidden deep in their dwellings of leafy bowers. Large flocks of butterflies, flies, all kinds of happy insects, seem to be in a perfect fever of joy and sportive gladness. The whole place seems like a center of life. The dead do not reign there alone.
Bonaventure to me is one of the most impressive assemblages of animal and plant creatures I ever met. I was fresh from the Western prairies, the garden-like openings of Wisconsin, the beech and maple and oak woods of Indiana and Kentucky, the dark mysterious Savannah cypress forests; but never since I was allowed to walk the woods have I found so impressive a company of trees as the tillandsia-draped oaks of Bonaventure.
I gazed awe-stricken as one new-arrived from another world. Bonaventure is called a graveyard, a town of the dead, but the few graves are powerless in such a depth of life. The rippling of living waters, the song of birds, the joyous confidence of flowers, the calm, undisturbable grandeur of the oaks, mark this place of graves as one of the Lord’s most favored abodes of life and light.
– "Camping in the Tombs," from A Thousand Mile Walk
Greenwich Cemetery became an addition to Bonaventure in 1933. [6]
Citizens of Savannah and others may purchase interment rights in Bonaventure. [1]
The cemetery is open to the public daily from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. There is no admission fee. [1]
Adjacent to Bonaventure Cemetery is the privately owned and newer Forest Lawn Cemetery and Columbarium.
The main office of the City of Savannah's Department of Cemeteries is located on the Bonaventure Cemetery grounds in the Bonaventure Administrative Building at the entrance. [7]
The cemetery became the subject of a non-profit group, the Bonaventure Historical Society, in May 1997. [8] [9] [10] The group has compiled an index of the burials at the cemetery. [11]
The cover photograph for the best-selling book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil , taken by Jack Leigh, featured an evocative sculpture of a young girl, the so-called Bird Girl , that had been in the cemetery, essentially unnoticed, for over 50 years. After the publication of the book, the sculpture was relocated from the cemetery in 1997 for display in Telfair Museums in Savannah. In late 2014, the statue was moved to a dedicated space in the Telfair Museums' Jepson Center for the Arts on West York Street, in Savannah. [12]
Bird Girl is a sculpture made in 1936 by Sylvia Shaw Judson in Lake Forest, Illinois. It was sculpted at Ragdale, her family's summer home, and achieved fame when it was featured on the cover of the 1994 non-fiction novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Originally exhibited as Girl with Bowls at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1938, it was also exhibited as Fountain Figure, Standing Figure, and Peasant Girl. A 1967 book by Judson first referred to it as Bird Girl.
Edward Telfair was a Scottish-born American Founding Father, politician and slave trader who served as the governor of Georgia from 1786 to 1787 and again from 1790 to 1793. He was a member of the Continental Congress and one of the signers of the Articles of Confederation.
Commodore Josiah Tattnall was a United States Navy officer during the War of 1812, the Second Barbary War and the Mexican–American War. He later served in the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War.
Josiah Tattnall was an American planter, soldier and politician from Savannah, Georgia. He represented Georgia in the U.S. Senate from 1796 to 1799, and was the 25th Governor of Georgia in 1801 and 1802. Born near Savannah, Georgia, at Bonaventure Plantation in the early 1760s to Mary Mullryne and Josiah Tattnall, he studied at Eton School before joining Anthony Wayne's troops at Ebenezer during the American Revolutionary War. After the war, he was elected brigadier general of the 1st Regiment in the Georgia Militia. He helped to rescind the Yazoo land fraud of 1795. He died in Nassau, New Providence.
Thomas Telfair was a United States representative from Georgia. Born in Savannah, the third of four sons of Governor Edward Telfair, he graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1805. He went on to study law in Connecticut, was admitted to the bar, and commenced practice in Savannah.
Edward Fenwick Tattnall was an American politician, soldier and lawyer.
Josiah Tattnall was a British emigrant to colonial America who became notable for his acts in support of the Crown during his time in Savannah in the Province of Georgia.
John Walz was a German-American sculptor most famous for his works created in Savannah, Georgia, United States.
Colonial Park Cemetery is a historic cemetery located in downtown Savannah, Georgia. It became a city park in 1896, 43 years after burials in the cemetery ceased.
Bonaventure Plantation was a plantation founded in colonial Savannah, Province of Georgia, on land now occupied by Greenwich and Bonaventure cemeteries. The site was 600 acres (2.4 km2), including a plantation house and private cemetery, located on the Wilmington River, about 3.5 miles east of the Savannah colony.
Greenwich Cemetery is a rural cemetery located on a scenic bluff of the Wilmington River, east of Savannah, Georgia. It stands on the site of the former Greenwich Plantation and became an addition to Bonaventure Cemetery in 1933, and it is the newest of the city's four municipal cemeteries.
Greenwich Plantation was a plantation founded in colonial Savannah, Province of Georgia, in 1765, on land now occupied by Greenwich Cemetery. The 100-acre (0.40 km2) site included a plantation house and private cemetery, and was located on the Wilmington River, about 3.5 miles east of the Savannah colony. It was located immediately to the north of Bonaventure Plantation, which existed until 1868 on land now occupied by Bonaventure Cemetery. Its mile-long driveway still exists to the left of Bonaventure's main gates.
Edward Nathaniel Packard Padelford was an American businessman, prominent in Savannah, Georgia. He was one of the city's longest-serving merchants and most respected citizens, and was a board member of a large number of companies. At the time of his death, he was among the wealthiest of merchants in the American South.
W. B. Hodgson Hall is a historic building in Savannah, Georgia, United States, built in 1876. Designed by the American Institute of Architects' founder Detlef Lienau, it is now the home of Georgia Historical Society's Research Center.
Mary Telfair was an art collector, philanthropist and prominent citizen of Savannah, Georgia, United States. She bequeathed the foundation of the city's Telfair Museums, the first art museum of the American South, which has been in operation since 1886. It is housed in her former Regency-style home in Savannah's Telfair Square.
John Stoddard was an American businessman based in Savannah, Georgia, where he was a cotton merchant and planter. He was also president of the Georgia Historical Society from 1867 to 1868, having been its first vice-president between 1864 and 1867.
John B. Howard was an American civil engineer and architect prominent in Savannah, Georgia, United States. He designed two of the city's churches.
John Mullryne was a British Army colonel who established Bonaventure Plantation in Savannah, Province of Georgia, in 1761. A supporter of the Crown, he later drew the ire of the colonists after aiding the escape of James Wright, the British royal governor of the Province of Georgia, through his property during the American Revolutionary War.
Placentia Plantation was a plantation founded in the 18th century near colonial Savannah, Province of Georgia, around 3.5 miles (5.6 km) southeast of the city and a short distance west of the Wilmington River. Until emancipation, the plantation was worked by black slaves.
George Tiedeman was an American politician who served three terms as mayor of Savannah, Georgia (1907–1913).