One way in which Atlanta’s evolution can be traced at Oakland is the physical arrangement of the cemetery. Threads of civic history are interwoven in Oakland’s layout: Atlanta’s small-town beginnings, slavery, war, religious sectarianism, industrialization, to name a few.
Original Six Acres
Oakland began in 1850 as a six-acre cemetery, and the visitor sees this area immediately upon entering the Main Gate. Many of Atlanta’s early settlers are buried, including Martha Lumpkin Compton, daughter of Governor Wilson Lumpkin. Before the name “Atlanta” was chosen, the town was called “Marthasville” in her honor. The North Public Grounds of this section is a shady open space frequently used for picnics. Maynard Jackson, Atlanta’s first African American mayor who held the office three terms, was interred within the North Public Grounds in June 2003.
Knit Mill
The northwest corner of Oakland took its name from a hosiery mill that operated nearby. In the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, a number of factories were built west and north of the cemetery, in proximity to the rail line that forms part of the cemetery’s northern border. From this section, the view of the Atlanta skyline is especially striking.
Bell Tower Ridge
The highest ground of Oakland, second highest naturally occurring point in the City at 1070 feet above sea level contains numerous mausolea as well as the 1899 Bell Tower. A historical marker indicates the observation point of Confederate Commander John B. Hood as the Battle of Atlanta raged to the east.
Hogpen Corner
The northern tip of Oakland reminds that the site was converted from farmland into a cemetery. With the city’s zero milepost marker less than one mile from Oakland, the small scale of Atlanta in the 1860s becomes clear. The railroad immediately to the north was in place before the cemetery was founded. Many mausolea and large monuments were brought to the cemetery by rail, and in some cases, a temporary rail spur was laid to the grave site for delivery of large momuments.
Greenhouse Valley
Oakland’s working greenhouse was located in this section. The cemetery established the first greenhouse in Atlanta in 1870, underscoring the garden heritage that has influenced Oakland throughout its existence.
Potter’s Field
7.5 acres at the east end comprise the resting place of 17,000 of the 70,000 buried in the cemetery typically reserved for the indigent. At Oakland, lots were sold out by 1884; if one’s family did not own a lot by then, burial occurred here. This is Potter’s Field, where no differences of religion and race ever mattered. A single monument commemorates them all. Potter’s Field is a favorite spot for Frisbee and other games—faithful to the Victorian intention that cemeteries should be enjoyed by the living.
African American Grounds
Despite daunting obstacles in the 19th and much of the 20th Centuries, a number of the Atlantans buried in this section made remarkable contributions in business, trades, education, social service, religion and other spheres. Here are the graves of prominent citizens such Bishop Wesley John Gaines, founder of Morris Brown College; the Reverend Frank Quarles, a key figure in establishing Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary which today is Spelman College; Carrie Steele Logan, community activitist who founded the city’s first orphanage for African American children; Antoine Graves, outstanding realtor and educator who is buried in the section’s only mausoleum.
Most who are here lived humbler lives; for many the lot is the only property they ever owned Records of pre-Civil War burials often have more information about the slave owner than the individual. An exception is the first interment on record, a 14-year old boy named John William Hearing. In 1866, remains of 860 slaves, him included, were moved from “Slave Square” in the Original Six Acres to their current resting place at the east end. Among them was a slave named Bosan, said to be 125 years old.
For today’s visitors, the African American section is an echo of a distant time. Emblematic of dramatic transformation, the most famous African American buried at Oakland, Mayor Maynard Jackson, lies not far from the Main Gate, prominently situated to face the modern international city he was instrumental in creating.
Confederate Memorial Grounds
This section is the final resting place for approximately 6,900 Confederate soldiers including 3,000 unknowns. Through much of the Civil War, Atlanta hospitals overflowed with men wounded in battles to the north. The largest cluster of wartime hospitals was within half a mile of the cemetery. As fighting moved closer to Atlanta and deaths mounted. Land adjacent to the Cemetery was secured as a Confederate burial ground. After the war, several thousand soldiers who had fallen in the Atlanta campaign were moved from battlefield graves to Oakland.
Approaching this area from the main gate, the Confederate Obelisk provides an orienting landmark. The 65-foot monument, made of Stone Mountain granite, was dedicated in 1874 as a project of the Atlanta Ladies Memorial Association. For years it was the tallest structure in the city.
Marked military graves occupy a large central rectangle south of the Obelisk. Included are the headstones of 16 Union soldiers who died in local hospitals. Another area of marked Confederate graves lies along Oakland’s southern wall. Northeast of the Obelisk, the unknowns are guarded by the “Lion of Atlanta.” Modeled after the Swiss “Lion of Lucerne.” The Lion was carved in 1894 from the largest block of marble quarried in Georgia up to that time. For the nameless soldiers, the dying lion rests on the flag they followed and “guards their dust,” in the words of a commemorative poem.
To the northwest of the obelisk, three Confederate generals are buried: John Brown Gordon; Alfred Iverson, Jr.; Clement Anselm Evans. Generals Lucius Gartrell and William Stephen Walker are buried on family plots.
An annual memorial service takes place in this section on Confederate Memorial Day, April 26th.
Jewish Sections
In 1860, Atlanta was home to approximately 50 Jewish citizens. They organized the Hebrew Benevolent Society and purchased a burial plot at Oakland within the Original Six Acres. Now known as the Old Jewish Burial Grounds, it occupies an area along the southern wall and is the second oldest Jewish burial ground in Georgia.
By 1878, the Hebrew Benevolent Society had become the synagogue known today as The Temple. The congregation acquired an additional ten lots along the southern wall, east of the Confederate section.
In 1892, The Temple acquired yet another, much larger plot and sold one fourth of it to a newly formed synagogue, Ahavath Achim. The new synagogue, which was made up mainly of recently arrived immigrants from Russia, developed what some say is the most visually compelling area of Oakland. This area is often described as “forest-like” because of tall markers tightly packed together with no walkways between. This burial style was the immigrants’ tradition and reflected the synagogue’s desire to maximize use of the plot.
Several years later, The Temple sold another small parcel to Kadish Lodge, a secular order of Russian Jews that provided free burial sites to its members.
Notable citizens buried in the Jewish sections include Morris and Emanuel Rich, founders of Rich’s Department Store; Jacob Elsas, owner of Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill; Joseph Jacobs, owner of the drug store where Coca-Cola was first served; merchant Julius Regenstein; Emil and Joseph Selig, father-in-law and mother-in-law of Leo Frank.
Roger’s Hill
The origin of this name is unknown. The section occupies the southeastern corner of Oakland and was part of a large addition that occurred in 1867 through the purchase of farmland from Lemuel P. Grant. Grant was one of the largest landowners in Atlanta at the time. A few blocks to the south of Oakland, Grant Park bears his name. Grant Park is home to the Cyclorama and Zoo Atlanta.
Symbolism
Victorian graves are richly embellished with icons. What seems at first like mere decoration actually brims with symbolic meaning. Understanding these symbols heightens the enjoyment of an Oakland tour.
