Colonial Park Cemetery

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Colonial Park Cemetery
Colonial Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia.JPG
Inside the cemetery, looking west to its boundary with Abercorn Street
Colonial Park Cemetery
Details
Established1750;274 years ago (1750)
(closed to burials in 1853;171 years ago (1853))
Location
200 Abercorn Street
Savannah, Georgia
Country United States
Coordinates 32°04′31″N81°05′25″W / 32.07522°N 81.090155°W / 32.07522; -81.090155
TypePublic municipal
Owned byCity of Savannah
Size6 acres (2.4 ha)
No. of gravesest. 9,000
Find a Grave Colonial Park Cemetery

Colonial Park Cemetery (locally and informally known as Colonial Cemetery) is a historic cemetery located in downtown Savannah, Georgia. It became a city park in 1896, [1] 43 years after burials in the cemetery ceased. [2]

Contents

The cemetery was established in 1750, when Savannah was the capital of the British Province of Georgia, last of the Thirteen Colonies. By 1789 it had expanded three times to reach its current six acres bounded by East Oglethorpe Avenue (to the north), Habersham Street (east), East Perry Lane (south) and Abercorn Street (west). Savannah's primary public cemetery throughout its 103 active years, its previous names have included the Old Cemetery, Old Brick Graveyard, South Broad Street Cemetery, and Christ Church Cemetery.

History

Originally built as the burial ground for the Christ Church Parish, in 1789 it became a cemetery for Savannahians of all denominations. [1]

The Gaston Tomb was built in Colonial Park Cemetery in 1844, but was moved to Bonaventure Cemetery in 1873. [3]

The cemetery was closed to burials in 1853, some eight years before the start of the American Civil War, so no Confederate soldiers are interred there. After Union troops occupied Savannah on December 24, 1864, the graveyard became a temporary home to "several hundred" Union soldiers. [4] Soldiers allegedly damaged or defaced some of the stone markers (including altering some dates and ages) and sheltered inside vaults, [4] including the Gaston Tomb. [3]

Notable burials

The grave of Lachlan McIntosh Lachlan-mcintosh-grave1.jpg
The grave of Lachlan McIntosh

More than 700 victims of Savannah's 1820 yellow fever epidemic are also buried here.

The remains of major general Nathanael Greene (1742–1786) reposed in the cemetery's Graham vault between 1786 and 1901, at which point they were reinterred in Johnson Square, along with the remains of his eldest son, George. His remains had shared the vault with those of John Maitland, his arch-rival in the Revolutionary War. Maitland's remains were returned to his native Scotland in 1981.

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References

  1. 1 2 Historic Colonial Park Cemetery" – VisitHistoricSavannah.com
  2. "Colonial Park Cemetery" – SavannahGA.gov
  3. 1 2 Georgia, Historical Society; Johnson, Mandi Dale; Wilson, Amie Marie; Johnson, Mandi (1998-11-01). Historic Bonaventure Cemetery: Photographs from the Collection of the Georgia Historical Society. Arcadia Publishing. p. 98. ISBN   978-0-7385-4201-0.
  4. 1 2 "VIDEO: A walk through Savannah’s Civil War: Colonial Park Cemetery" Savannah Morning News , October 16, 2011