Colonial Park Cemetery
Colonial Park Cemetery is a historic municipal burial ground in downtown Savannah, Georgia, established in 1750 as the city's first cemetery with marked graves and remaining the principal site for interments until its closure to new burials in 1853.[1][2] Covering 6 acres, it holds over 9,000 graves, many unmarked due to hasty epidemic burials and erosion over time.[1] The cemetery encapsulates Savannah's early history, interring victims of recurrent yellow fever outbreaks, including more than 700 from the devastating 1820 epidemic that killed a significant portion of the city's population.[3][4] It also contains graves of Revolutionary War soldiers, early settlers, and figures from the dueling era, underscoring the perils of colonial life, disease, and conflict in the port city.[5] Converted to a public park in 1896, it preserves tabby walls, wrought-iron gates, and monuments amid live oaks, serving as a tangible record of 18th- and 19th-century mortality patterns driven by tropical epidemics and limited medical knowledge.[1] As Savannah's oldest intact cemetery, its layout and inscriptions provide empirical evidence of demographic shifts, with high child mortality and immigrant influxes reflected in the burial records.[1]Historical Development
Establishment and Colonial Era Use
Colonial Park Cemetery was established in 1750 as the second cemetery in colonial Savannah and its primary public burial ground during the British colonial period.[1][6][7] It succeeded an earlier burying ground in the southwest quadrant of Wright Square, which had been used since Savannah's founding in 1733 but was relocated due to urban development needs.[7] The cemetery's creation reflected the expanding settlement's requirements for organized interments amid a population growth driven by trade and immigration in the Georgia colony.[1] From its inception, the site accommodated burials of early colonists, town officials, merchants, and victims of prevalent diseases in the region's subtropical environment, serving as a municipal facility open to the general populace rather than restricted to specific denominations or classes.[1][6] Initially modest in size, it featured simple gravemarkers such as ledger stones and tablets, many of which survive as evidence of 18th-century funerary customs. By the late colonial period, prior to the American Revolution, the cemetery had received hundreds of interments, underscoring its role in documenting the demographic and mortality patterns of British Georgia's capital. No major expansions occurred during this era, with the grounds laid out around 1753 to about 500 feet in length by the 1760s.[8]Expansion and Epidemic Burials
The cemetery, initially laid out on a plot of approximately two acres in 1750 just outside Savannah's southern defensive walls, underwent its first documented expansion on April 17, 1763, extending southward by 210 feet to Abercorn Street to accommodate growing burial needs amid the colony's population increase.[9] Further enlargements followed in 1768 and 1789, tripling the site's area to its present six acres bounded by Oglethorpe Avenue to the north, Abercorn Street to the west, Perry Lane to the south, and Habersham Street to the east, allowing burials across Christian denominations by the latter date.[10][1] These expansions proved essential during recurrent epidemics, particularly yellow fever outbreaks that ravaged Savannah's port population due to its mosquito-prone coastal environment and trade connections. In the 1820 epidemic, which claimed nearly 700 lives—about one-tenth of the city's residents—victims were interred en masse at the cemetery's northern end in unmarked communal graves, as individual plotting overwhelmed burial crews amid the crisis that also felled two local physicians attempting treatment.[3][11] Subsequent waves in 1854 and 1876 added further anonymous burials, contributing to estimates of over 10,000 total interments, many undocumented due to hasty epidemic protocols and the site's eventual closure to new graves in 1853.[12]Closure and Civil War Impacts
Colonial Park Cemetery ceased accepting new interments on July 1, 1853, primarily due to overcrowding after more than a century of use as Savannah's principal burial ground.[9][1] Although some family vaults reportedly received additional burials sporadically thereafter, the cemetery's official closure marked the shift to newer sites like Laurel Grove for ongoing needs.[9] The American Civil War, beginning in 1861, had no direct impact on burials at the site, as its prewar closure precluded interments of Confederate or Union soldiers.[13] However, following the Union Army's occupation of Savannah on December 21, 1864, during General William T. Sherman's March to the Sea, several hundred federal troops encamped within the cemetery's enclosed grounds, utilizing it as temporary barracks and a recreational area.[14] This occupation exacerbated preexisting neglect, contributing to physical deterioration of the site, including scattered and damaged gravestones later propped against perimeter walls for preservation.[11] Traditional accounts attribute specific vandalism—such as altered inscriptions on markers, purportedly changing birth or death dates for amusement—to these Union soldiers, though direct evidence remains anecdotal and contested, with much degradation likely stemming from earlier weathering, urban encroachment, or unrelated defacement predating the war.[15][16] The episode underscored the cemetery's vulnerability during military upheaval, yet Savannah's relative sparing from widespread destruction preserved the overall integrity of its colonial-era fabric compared to other Southern sites.[14]Physical Description and Features
Layout and Boundaries
Colonial Park Cemetery encompasses approximately 6 acres within Savannah's Historic District, situated at 200 Abercorn Street.[1] The site's boundaries are defined by Oglethorpe Avenue to the south, Perry Street to the north, Abercorn Street to the east, and Bull Street to the west, forming an irregular rectangular area integrated into the city's grid layout.[17] Internal streets and paths, including Hull Street, McDonough Street, and sections of Perry Street, subdivide the grounds, facilitating pedestrian navigation through the burial areas.[18] The cemetery's layout is organized into designated sections labeled A through K, each containing numbered plots for graves and monuments, as detailed in official city mapping from 2005.[18] These sections reflect historical expansions and usage patterns, with walkways meandering amid oak and magnolia trees that provide shade and contribute to the park-like atmosphere. The overall design emphasizes accessibility, with the main entrance at the intersection of Abercorn Street and Oglethorpe Avenue, featuring a granite arch erected by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1913.[6] No vehicular access is permitted within the boundaries, preserving the site's integrity as a pedestrian-only historic space open daily from dawn until dusk.[1]Gravestones, Monuments, and Architectural Elements
The gravestones of Colonial Park Cemetery encompass a range of materials and designs spanning the 18th and 19th centuries, including slate for early markers and later marble for more ornate examples. The oldest surviving gravestone marks the burial of William Bower Williamson, who died in February 1762, and is crafted from slate with basic inscription.[9] Later stones exhibit a variety of forms such as headstones, table stones, and elevated tables, often displaced from original positions due to historical disturbances.[9] Artistic motifs on these gravestones include weeping willows, urns, and cherubs, symbolizing grief and mortality in line with period funerary customs; the willow and urn appear on Augusta Marta's 1820 marker, exemplifying neoclassical influences.[19] [20] Inscriptions frequently record specific causes of death, as in the case of James Wilde's 1815 stone, which details his fatal duel at age 22.[9] Notable monuments feature historical plaques and markers for key figures, including the 1964 granite obelisk commemorating Button Gwinnett, signer of the Declaration of Independence whose original grave lacks a marker.[9] [21] Family vaults number 46 intact examples, primarily brick structures with uniform transverse arches supporting stacked coffins, as seen in the Habersham, Thiot, Jones, and Graham-Mossman vaults; the latter once held Revolutionary War general Nathanael Greene's remains before relocation.[9] Barrel-vaulted brick mausoleums further characterize above-ground burials adapted to the site's high water table.[22] Architectural elements include the cemetery's original brick perimeter walls, partially demolished in 1896 for park conversion and supplemented by wrought-iron fencing installed in 1955.[9] [23] The southeastern rear wall embeds dozens of broken headstones, salvaged from widespread damage inflicted during the 1864–1865 Union occupation when soldiers camped on the grounds, defaced markers, and used them for makeshift alterations like falsifying ages on inscriptions.[15] [24] [25] Tabby concrete sidewalks, laid in 1896–1897, line paths amid these features.[9]Burials and Demographics
Notable Individuals
Button Gwinnett (1735–1777), one of Georgia's delegates to the Continental Congress and a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, died from wounds sustained in a duel with Lachlan McIntosh on May 16, 1777, and was buried in Colonial Park Cemetery, though the exact site of his grave is unknown.[26][27]Lachlan McIntosh (1725–1806), a Scottish-born brigadier general in the Continental Army who rose to major general and participated in key Revolutionary War campaigns including the defense of Savannah, lies buried here alongside family members; he fatally wounded Gwinnett in their duel stemming from political disputes over military appointments.[28][6] Samuel Elbert (c. 1740–1788), a Continental Army brigadier general who commanded Georgia troops during the Revolutionary War and served as governor of Georgia from 1785 to 1786, had his remains exhumed and reinterred in the cemetery on March 24, 1924, with military honors.[29][30] Other burials include Edward Green Malbone (1777–1807), an acclaimed American portrait painter known for miniature works, who died in Savannah and was interred onsite.[31]